Florida Launches Probe Into Group Behind Private Border Wall
Consumer complaints have prompted the state of Florida to open an investigation into the nonprofit group that raised over $20 million to build a private border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“In response to consumer complaints, including those referred by the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has opened an investigation into this charity,” Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman Franco Ripple told WLRN on Wednesday.
It’s unclear the exact nature of the complaints that led to the state’s investigation of the Florida-based group, We Build The Wall, or the date the probe was launched.
The Florida Department of Agriculture didn’t return The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for additional comment.
The group was launched in January by triple amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage after he shifted the goalposts of his viral GoFundMe campaign from funding the federal government’s border wall to building one of his own.
Kolfage told The New York Times in January that We Build The Wall hoped to break ground on its piecemeal border wall “within weeks,” but the group kept mostly quiet about its construction efforts until Monday, when it revealed it began construction on a $6 to $8 million half-mile barrier in Sunland Park, New Mexico, near El Paso, Texas.
Some of Kolfage’s donors grew uneasy during the long period of silence and started questioning in early May what was being done with their money.
Kolfage and his team insisted they had to remain silent in the leadup to breaking ground in order to avoid lawsuits from groups like the ACLU.
“Remember powerful people want to stop our progress, so to not tip anyone off we are radio silent!!” Kolfage wrote in a Facebook post in May.
Former White House chief strategist and We Build The Wall director Steve Bannon told Yahoo News on Monday that the group hastily “purchased the rights” to the private land their wall was built over Memorial Day weekend.
“We had to catch them by surprise,” Bannon said, adding that local residents are “gonna freak out” when they see the hastily constructed wall.
Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea was also caught by surprise. He announced Tuesday issued a cease and desist order to the private landowner where We Build The Wall’s barrier was built, alleging a permit wasn’t obtained prior to construction and that the structure was built in violation of a city ordinance.
Kolfage said his organization received the “green light to build” prior to breaking ground and said the city’s cease and desist was “bullshit.”
Kolfage announced Thursday morning that Sunland Park rescinded its order and authorized his group to resume construction.
https://twitter.com/BrianKolfage/status/1134061388975017984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
We Build The Wall will be holding a rally at the site of its private border wall Thursday afternoon to celebrate its completion.
We Build The Wall did not return a request for comment.
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