Over the weekend, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott demanded that the federal government reimburse the state for $11.1 billion for all expenses incurred in defending the southern border during the Biden administration.
Abbott, who has sent letters to members of the U.S. Congress, said that the Biden administration’s “refusal to do its job the last four years” was the main cause of the crisis that occurred at the border area in question, which then spread to the rest of the country.
The GOP governor declared: “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”.
In the absence of federal responses capable of resolving or ameliorating the issue at the southern border, Abbot has taken a number of initiatives in recent years that, in one way or another, have led to controversy. These include Operation Lone Star, launched in March 2021, whereby the Texas National Guard has been deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border territories. Among other measures taken to stop migrant caravans at the border was the placement of some 20 miles of barbed wire along the Rio Grande near the town of Eagle Pass. Equally contested was the decision to place floating barriers in the same river, so as to block the crossing of the river course.
In his claim, he pointed out that the operation led to the arrest of more than half a million illegal immigrants, blocked more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the United States, 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 border with Mexico.
The initiative also reduced immigration into Texas by 87 percent, according to the governor. Abbott pointed out that achieving this has come at a high cost of more than $11.1 billion from his state’s taxpayers. “In short, Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott added.
