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After the expiration of a deadline to appeal a court ruling, the Biden administration must continue building a border wall using roughly $1.4 billion Congress allocated for a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border that the administration had tried to redirect, the Texas Attorney General’s office said Thursday.
Congress allocated the money during former President Donald Trump’s term.
Six months after Biden took office in 2021, Texas sued to stop the reallocation of the money by arguing that the move violated federal laws surrounding appropriations.
In May, U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee, agreed with Texas and issued a final injunction after previously granting the state a temporary injunction. The 60-day window for the federal government to appeal that order passed on Monday, according to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which said the federal government has to resume spending the money for its intended use.
Tipton laid out the terms of his order during a March hearing. A transcript of the hearing was not available on Thursday. Paxton’s office, which issued a news release about the suit on Thursday, did not respond to a request for a copy of the transcript.
The U.S. Justice Department through a spokesperson declined to comment.
“This is a final victory against Biden’s attempt to defund the border wall,” Paxton said in a statement about the passing of the deadline. “I sued and won to stop their unlawful scheme. Now, the administration has thrown in the towel by declining to appeal their defeat and will be legally required to build the wall.”
Biden issued an executive order on his Inauguration Day to stop construction of the wall that Trump had made his signature project and redirect the money allotted to the project.
Biden later acknowledged — while the suit continued in the courts — that his administration was required by law to continue certain wall construction projects because congressional funds had already been appropriated.
“I tried to get … them to reappropriate it, to redirect that money,” Biden said last year. “They didn’t. They wouldn’t. And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated. I can’t stop that.”
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