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Texas Receives $7.5B for Border Security Efforts
Confirmed
In Short: Texas Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the federal reimbursement of $7.5 billion for border security efforts through Operation Lone Star, which was launched in March 2021.
The Department of Homeland Security will reimburse Texas some $11 billion, part of President Donald Trump's budget reconciliation package that includes roughly $13 billion to reimburse states for border security spending during Joe Biden's presidency.
Abbott's signature initiative, Operation Lone Star, includes a wide range of costs associated with border security, such as the placement of concertina wire and buoys in the Rio Grande to deter potential crossings and the deployment of resources from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard.
Abbott claimed these actions were necessary because Biden’s handling of the border had led to a surge in illegal border crossings and a consequent threat to the security of Texans.
Operation Lone Star also included creating new brush teams, canine and equestrian units, and a range of interdiction efforts through targeted traffic enforcement.
The first reimbursement comes 20 months after Abbott asked Congress to reimburse Texas for more than $11.1 billion spent on border security efforts.
Although illegal crossings at the southwest border have dropped by more than 95% under the second Trump administration, crime is ongoing and cartel networks are embedded throughout Texas and nationwide.
OLS Task Force members argue it’s imperative that the state legislature keep funding border security efforts, including for investigations, prosecutions, transportation, and jails for the record number of people arrested through OLS.
The reimbursement is seen as a significant victory for Texas, which has long argued that federal border security efforts under the Biden administration were inadequate.
"In a sense, it’s kind of a slush fund for the administration to try to get their objectives done in terms of border security," said a Houston Public Media analyst, noting that it’s still not clear what Texas will use the money for if it's fully reimbursed.
"The way the bill is written, where it starts on January 20 of Biden’s term, and then goes through January 20 of 2029, I think they’ll probably keep some back so they can kind of reward people throughout the next four years,” said another analyst.
The reimbursement is part of a broader federal effort to address border security issues that have been a contentious political issue for years.
The reimbursement amount is more than multiple state fiscal year budgets and more than what the Trump administration allocated to federal border security efforts in Texas.
Background
Texas Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the federal reimbursement of $7.5 billion for border security efforts through Operation Lone Star, which was launched in March 2021.
What's confirmed
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reimburse Texas some $11 billion.
What's still developing
- He retired after also helping bring down illegal border crossings to historic lows, The Center Square reported.
- OLS officers worked day and night for four years to ensure “that Texas would be made safe and secure from Joe Biden's open border policies,” Abbott said at a press conference in Austin.
- “People cannot forget the reckless endangerment posed not just to Texas but to the United States of America by Joe Biden's open border policies” that allowed thousands of people to illegally enter the country a day who were “unvetted, not knowing how many of them would turn into murderers, rapists and other criminals,” he said.
- “Texas taxpayers shouldn’t have had to cover the costs of the Biden administration’s border crisis, and I am proud to have worked alongside Congressman Pfluger and my colleagues in the Texas delegation to ensure that the State would rightfully be repaid,” Cornyn said.
- It’s now in its fifth year, with OLS efforts focusing on terrorist threats.
- "My take is that the provision in the bill was pretty much written for Texas," Diamond said.
- "There may be some excess that other states can ask for, but I think there’s a good chance that Texas gets a pretty big chunk of that $11 billion."
- He also said OLS officers helped “do everything we could in an unprecedented fashion” that no state had done before.