Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is requesting that the federal authorities reimburse his state greater than $11.1 billion for taxpayer cash spent on securing the southern border throughout former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Abbott, who despatched letters to U.S. Congressional members on Thursday, mentioned the Biden administration’s “refusal to do its job the final 4 years” resulted within the disaster on the southern border that has spilled into the remainder of the nation.
“President Biden’s insurance policies left Texas and the remainder of America defenseless towards an unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, recognized terrorists, and different hostile overseas actors, like the harmful Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua,” the governor wrote.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN INTRODUCES BILL TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR BILLIONS SPENT TO SECURE BORDER
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has requested the federal authorities to reimburse his state for the greater than $11 billion of taxpayer cash it has spent on border safety over the previous 4 years. (REUTERS/Callaghan O’hare)
In response to the federal authorities’s lack of motion on the border, Abbott took issues into his personal palms and launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, which deployed the Texas Nationwide Guard and Texas Division of Public Security to the US-Mexico border.
Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 87% over the previous 4 years, proving the “effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures,” in response to Abbott, who added that his efforts have shone a nationwide highlight on the disaster.
The governor outlined that the operation has additionally resulted within the apprehension of greater than half 1,000,000 unlawful immigrants, stopped greater than 140,000 unlawful makes an attempt to enter the US, made greater than 50,000 prison arrests, seized greater than half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl, constructed greater than 240 miles of border obstacles and established the one Nationwide Guard base alongside the Texas-Mexico border.
“In brief, Texas stepped up the place the federal authorities refused and in doing so, protected all People from President Biden’s harmful insurance policies,” Abbott wrote.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS RENEW PUSH TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR ‘OPERATION LONE STAR’ BORDER SECURITY PUSH
Although he’s pleased with the operation, Abbott famous that its success got here with a excessive price ticket of greater than $11.1 billion, which has been, and continues to be, paid by Texas taxpayers when it “ought to have been the federal authorities’s duty.”
In a doc breaking down the prices, Abbott mentioned that previous to the Biden administration, the state of Texas spent roughly $800 million each two years to complement federal efforts on the border.
Unlawful immigrants move via coils of razor wire whereas crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in March 2024. The wire was positioned by the troops as a part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” to discourage migrants from crossing into Texas. ( John Moore/Getty Photos)
“The burden that our State has borne is a direct results of a refusal by the federal authorities to do its job,” Abbott wrote. “The work that Texas has executed via Operation Lone Star has protected and can proceed to profit your complete nation.”
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Home Republicans have launched payments previously requesting Texas be reimbursed for the billions spent on border security, however laws has by no means been handed.
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