Texas Gov. Abbott Wants $11 Billion Border Security Reimbursement: Protecting 'The Rest Of America' Was Expensive

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wants Congress to reimburse his state for more than $11 billion spent on border security since the start of the Biden administration.

Abbott submitted a detailed invoice outlining the costs incurred by Operation Lone Star, which Texas undertook to “protect the rest of America” against Joe Biden’s “reckless open-border policies that invited record-breaking illegal immigration,” Abbott wrote in a letter to congressional leaders on Thursday.

He accused the former president of having stopped construction of the border wall and rewarding criminals who illegally entered the U.S. Biden halted construction of the border wall in 2021.

Building The Wall Is Back On

On the day of his inauguration, President Donald Trump pledged to get back to building the wall. “I wanted that sucker to go up 50, 60 feet, nice Y-shape. Beautiful. I love construction,” he said.

Trump, who vowed to make immigration and border security a priority, spent a large part of his first week in office doing just that. On Thursday, the Defense Dept. announced that some of the 1,500 Army and Marines assigned to the border had arrived. On Friday, two cargo planes with people who migrated from Guatemala were sent out of the country, reported NBC News. Throughout the week, immigration officers launched raids in several cities.

Read Also: Trump’s Immigration Raids Could Disrupt Key Sectors Of Chicago’s Economy: Pritzker Says To Focus On Criminals, Not Law-Abiding Workers

Texas Protected Rest Of The Country: Time To Pay Up

Abbot said Biden's policies left Texas and the “rest of America defenseless against an unprecedented infiltration by violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors" who smuggled weapons and drugs like fentanyl into the country.

But, he noted, while Operation Lone Star was combating these threats to all Americans, "this success came at a cost, which fell squarely on the shoulders of Texas taxpayers but should have been the federal government's responsibility." And Abbott would like Congress to pay up.

Proposed Law To Facilitate Construction

Meanwhile, a new bill recently filed in the Texas Senate would make it easier for new border wall segments to be built. Filed by state Sen. Brandon Creighton (R), the bill would allow Texas to use eminent domain authority to build a wall along the parts of the 2,000-mile southern border, reported CBS News.

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