Texas Governor Abbott is asking the government to reimburse $11 billion spent on border security
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is demanding that the federal government reimburse his state for more than $11.1 billion in taxpayer money spent on securing the southern border during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Abbott, who sent letters to members of the US Congress on Thursday, said the “refusal of the Biden administration to do its job over the last four years” has resulted in a crisis at the southern border that has spread to the rest of the country.
“President Biden’s policies have left Texas and the rest of America defenseless against the unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, known terrorists and other hostile foreign actors, such as the dangerous Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang,” the governor wrote.
REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE INTRODUCES BILL TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR BILLIONS SPENT ON BORDER SECURITY
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the federal government to reimburse his state for more than $11 billion in taxpayer money spent on border security over the past four years. (REUTERS/Callaghan O’Hare)
In response to the federal government’s inaction on the border, Abbott took matters into his own hands and launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, which deployed the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to the US-Mexico border.
Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration to Texas by 87% over the past four years, proving “the effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures,” according to Abbott, who added that his efforts have focused national attention on the crisis.
The governor noted that the operation also resulted in the arrest of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopped more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the US, carried out more than 50,000 criminal arrests, seized more than half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl, built more than 240 miles of border barriers and established the only National Guard base along the Texas-Mexico border.
“In short, Texas has stepped up where the federal government has refused to protect all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote.
REPUBLICANS RENEW PRESSURE TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR ‘OPERATION LONE STAR’ BORDER SECURITY
While proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success came at a high price of more than $11.1 billion, paid and continuing to be paid by Texas taxpayers when it “should have been the responsibility of the federal government.”
In a document breaking down the costs, Abbott said that before the Biden administration, the state of Texas spent roughly $800 million every two years to supplement federal efforts at the border.
Illegal immigrants walk through coils of razor wire as they cross the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in March 2024. The wire was installed by troops as part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” to deter migrants from crossing into Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“The burden our state has endured is a direct result of the federal government’s refusal to do its job,” Abbott wrote. “The work Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire country.”
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House Republicans have in the past proposed legislation seeking to reimburse Texas for the billions it spent on border security, but the law was never passed.
