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Fully KeptBorder security / immigration

Committed to pressing legislation to compel the Department of Defense to use existing border-wall materials and finish construction of a wall along the U.S. southern border.

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Fully KeptFact-checker reviewConfidence: 82%

The promise was to press legislation compelling the Department of Defense to use existing border-wall materials and finish the wall. Cruz verifiably did this: he co-introduced the FINISH IT Act with Sens. Wicker and Ernst in May 2023 and issued his own dedicated advocacy press release, and he kept pressing the issue by publicly calling the Biden administration's December 2024 auction of the stored panels "sabotage." Both primary sources are reachable and their headlines and quotes were confirmed verbatim: the Cruz release ("Sen. Cruz Introduces Legislation Mandating Use of Border Wall Materials"; "We are paying extra to not build a wall on our southern border.") and the Wicker release ("Wicker, Cruz, Ernst Introduce FINISH IT Act"; the DoD-forcing sentence). FULL rather than CHAMPIONED is correct: the Wicker release lists Wicker first as lead sponsor (his Armed Services committee ran the underlying investigation), so Cruz acted as an active co-sponsor/advocate, not the singular driver — insufficient for the leadership bar CHAMPIONED requires. The bill died in the 118th Congress and the wall was not finished, but the promise was to press such legislation, which he did.

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