Texas Governor Greg Abbott He 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 US Congress members on Thursday, said the Biden administration's “refusal to do its job over the past four years” led to the crisis on 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 unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors, like the dangerous Venezuelan cartel Tren de Aragua,” the governor wrote.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the federal government to reimburse his state for more than $11 billion in taxpayer money it spent on border security over the past four years. (Reuters/Callahan O'Hare)
In response to the federal government's lack of action 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 U.S.-Mexico border.
Operation Lone Star was completed Reducing illegal immigration Texas has entered 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 highlighted the crisis on a national level.
The governor explained that the operation also resulted in the arrest of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopping more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the United States, making more than 50,000 criminal arrests, and confiscating more than half a billion dollars. Lethal doses of fentanyl It constructed more than 240 miles of border barriers and established the only National Guard base along the Texas-Mexico border.
“In short, Texas has advanced where the federal government has refused, thereby protecting all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote.
Although he is proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success came at a steep cost of more than $11.1 billion, which was paid, and continues to be, by Texas taxpayers when it “should have been the responsibility of the federal government.”
In a document detailing the costs, Abbott said that before the Biden administration, Texas was spending nearly $800 million every two years to supplement federal efforts at the border.
Illegal immigrants walk through coils of razor wire while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in March 2024. Troops placed the wire as part of “Operation Lone Star” launched by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to deter migrants from crossing. To Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“The burden our state has borne 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 introduced bills in the past calling for Texas to be reimbursed for the billions it has spent regarding border security, But the legislation was never passed.
