Texas Governor Abbott asked the government to return $11 billion in border security spending

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is asking the federal government to return to the state more than $11.1 billion in taxpayer money spent to secure the southern border during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

In a letter to members of the U.S. Congress on Thursday, Abbott said the Biden administration’s “reluctance to do its job over the past four years” has led to the crisis on the southern border that is affecting the rest of the country.

“President Biden’s policies have left Texas and the rest of the United States with an unprecedented level of defense against violent criminals, known terrorists and other hostile foreign actors like the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tran de Aragua,” the governor wrote.

House Republicans have introduced a bill to pay back Texas to secure the border

In response to the federal government’s lack of action on the border, Abbott took matters into his own hands in 2011. In March 2021, he launched Operation Lone Star, which deployed the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to the US-Mexico border.

Abbott said Operation Lone Star has proven “the effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures” by reducing illegal immigration to Texas by 87 percent over the past four years, and that their efforts have brought national attention to the crisis.

The governor has arrested more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopped more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the U.S., made more than 50,000 felony arrests, seized more than half a billion dollars worth of fentanyl, built more than 240 miles of border barriers, and in Texas- Mexico established the only National Guard station on the border.

“In short, Texas has increased the federal government’s refusal and, in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote.

House Republicans renew push for Texas to back border security push for ‘Operation Lone Star’

Although Abbott was proud of the action, he noted that the success came at a high cost of more than $11.1 billion, which was paid for by Texas taxpayers and still “should be the responsibility of the federal government.”

In a document breaking down spending, Abbott said that prior to the Biden administration, the state of Texas spent nearly $800 million every two years on federal efforts at the border.

In the year Illegal immigrants walk through razor wire as they cross the US-Mexico border in March 2024 in El Paso, Texas. The wire was put up by the military as part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” to stop migrants from crossing. to Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“The burden our state is carrying is a direct result of the federal government refusing to do its job,” Abbott wrote. “The work Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire nation.”

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House Republicans have in the past introduced bills to reimburse Texas for the billions it spent on border security, but it never became law.