Austin Bureau Correspondent
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott asked Congress to reimburse the state for billions of dollars in Texas taxpayer money spent on border security during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
In letters Thursday to congressional leaders and the state delegation, Abbott requested more than $11 billion from Washington.
Abbott’s letters said the Biden administration refused to enforce federal immigration law while pursuing open-border policies that invited a record surge of illegal immigration, effectively forcing the governor to launch Operation Lone Star to combat the “infiltration” of violent criminals, terrorists, weapons and drugs at the southern border.
“Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote, touting the program’s apprehensions of undocumented immigrants, lethal doses of fentanyl seized and miles of border barriers built.
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“This success came at a cost, which fell squarely on the shoulders of Texas taxpayers but should have been the federal government’s responsibility,” Abbott said, detailing the state’s expenditures on the program and attaching a copy of its $11.1 billion in funding since March 2021.
The governor’s office said the letters followed Abbott’s meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., last week, when Abbott was in Washington for President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Abbott and Johnson discussed “the ongoing border crisis,” according to Abbott’s office.
A 2022 bill by Texas Republicans in Congress would have required the Defense Department to reimburse Texas for Operation Lone Star costs, but Democrats were in the majority and the legislation went nowhere. This time, Republicans are in control of both chambers of Congress and the White House.
In the Texas Legislature, state Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, on Thursday filed House Concurrent Resolution 51 asking Congress to reimburse “the $11 billion in costs incurred in securing the southern border.”
Nolan covers Texas politics. Before relocating to Austin in June 2024, he spent nearly a decade in Washington, D.C., reporting on national politics, including the White House, Congress and presidential campaigns. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University.
