Texas Gov. Abbott asks government to reimburse state for $11B spent to secure southern border

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Abbott touts sharp drop in border apprehensions in Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News Digital that Texas' efforts have led to a drop in encounters at the border, despite Biden administration policy.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is requesting that the federal government reimburse his state more than $11.1 billion for taxpayer money spent on securing the southern border during former President Joe Biden's administration.

Abbott, who sent letters to U.S. Congressional members on Thursday, said the Biden administration's "refusal to do its job the last four years" resulted in the crisis at the southern border that has spilled into the rest of the country.

"President Biden’s policies left Texas and the rest of America defenseless against an unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors, like the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua," the governor wrote.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the federal government to reimburse his state for the more than $11 billion of taxpayer money it has spent on border security over the past four years. (REUTERS/Callaghan O'hare)

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

Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 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 shone a national spotlight on the crisis.

The governor outlined that the operation has also resulted in the apprehension of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopped more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the US, made more than 50,000 criminal arrests, seized more than half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl, built more than 240 miles of border barriers and established the only National Guard base along the Texas-Mexico border.

"In short, Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies," Abbott wrote.

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Though he is proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success came with a high price tag of more than $11.1 billion, which has been, and continues to be, paid by Texas taxpayers when it "should have been the federal government's responsibility."

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

Illegal immigrants pass through coils of razor wire while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in March 2024. The wire was placed by the troops as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's "Operation Lone Star" to deter migrants from crossing into Texas. (?John Moore/Getty Images)

"The burden that our State has borne is a direct result of a refusal by the federal government to do its job," Abbott wrote. "The work that 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 requesting Texas be reimbursed for the billions spent on border security, but legislation has never been passed.