Texas Governor, Greg Abbott The federal government requests its state to repay more than $ 11.1 billion for tax money spent on securing the southern border during the government of former President Joe Biden.
Abbott, who sent letters to members of the American congress on Thursday, said that “refusing the Biden government to do its work in the last four years” resulted in the crisis on the southern border that spread to the rest of the country .
“The policy of President Biden ensured that Texas and the rest of America were defenseless against an unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, well -known terrorists and other hostile foreign actors, such as the dangerous Venezuelan gang of the Aragua,” the governor wrote.
House Republican introduces Bill to repay Texas for billions spent on protection of the border
The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has asked the federal government to repay its state for the more than 11 billion dollars in tax money that it has spent on border security in the last four years. (Reuters/Callaghan O’Hare)
In response to the lack of action by the federal government on the border, Abbott took matters into his own hands and launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, with the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to the border between the US and Mexico were sent.
Operation Lone Star has Reduced illegal immigration In Texas with 87% in the past four years, what the ‘effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures’ proves, according to Abbott, who added that his efforts put the crisis in the national spotlights.
The Governor outlined that the operation also resulted in the arrest of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopping more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the US, performing more than 50,000 criminal arrests, taking up More than half a billion people. deadly doses of fentanyl, built more than 400 kilometers on border barriers and established the only base of the National Guard along the border between Texas and Mexico.
“In short, Texas performed where the federal government refused and thus protected all Americans against the dangerous policy of President Biden,” wrote Abbott.
House republicans renew pressure to repay Texas for ‘Operation Lone Star Star’ Border Security Spush
Although he is proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success was accompanied by a high price tag of more than $ 11.1 billion, which was paid and is still being paid by the taxpayers in Texas, while this’ the responsibility of The federal government should have been ‘.
In a document in which the costs were listed, Abbott said that the State of Texas spent around $ 800 million every two years before the Bides government to supplement the federal efforts at the border.
Illegal immigrants go through flushing wire while crossing the border between the US and Mexico in El Paso, Texas in March 2024. The wire was placed by the troops as part of the “Operation Lone Star” of the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to prevent migrants from crossing the border. To Texel. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“The burden that our state has worn is a direct consequence of the refusal of the federal government to do its work,” wrote Abbott. “The work that Texas did through Operation Lone Star has protected the entire country and will still benefit from it.”
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Republicans in the House of Representatives have submitted legislative proposals in the past, requesting to repay the billions issued to Texas in the field of border security, But legislation has never been adopted.
