Texas state lawmakers aren’t precisely shy about their anti-immigration efforts. GOP legislators pushed invoice after invoice centered on border safety in the course of the 2025 legislative session, and Gov. Greg Abbott has by no means missed a chance to beat his chest in regards to the risks of immigration and the way a lot it prices the state. However in terms of slicing border funding, it seems to be like Texas likes to maintain that on the down low.
The Lone Star State had been out and proud about constructing the wall, monitoring the progress by way of breathless updates on the state’s Services Fee web site. Abbott continues to insist that border crossings pose such a critical risk that he renewed his 2021 catastrophe declaration simply final month. So if every part is so scary on the border, why spend much less cash on safety efforts and slash $2.7 billion to maintain constructing the wall?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott
One chance is that Texas’ plan to construct 805 miles of wall was proving to be comically costly, with state taxpayers on the hook for over $3 billion for about 64 miles of development so far. Final yr, the Texas Tribune estimated that constructing all 805 miles would price $20 billion. It might additionally take 30 years on the state’s blistering charge of one-half mile per week.
The wall additionally form of sucked, as a result of it’s a patchwork barrier that might solely be constructed the place landowners agreed to offer the state an easement for a strip of land. Some chunks of development are subsequently miles aside, so this isn’t precisely the Berlin Wall. However no less than Texas managed to construct 64 miles of wall in the identical time it took Donald Trump’s administration to assemble solely 21 miles of the federal wall.
There is likely to be a really sound purpose for Texas deciding to not spend state taxpayer {dollars} on its wall, which is that the purple state would possibly get a windfall of federal {dollars} as an alternative. Just some days earlier than Texas determined to get rid of billions in border development funding, Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz launched a invoice that might require the federal authorities to reimburse Texas for $11 billion the state spent throughout President Joe Biden’s administration. Their argument is that Biden was derelict in his obligation to guard Texas they usually in any other case wouldn’t have wanted to spend that cash. That nonsense is now included within the massively unpopular Large Stunning Invoice.
It’s arduous to not say that this seems to be like Texas defunded its personal wall efforts as a result of the remainder of the nation is now going to soak up the associated fee. Federal taxpayers will get to pay the state $11 billion for previous state expenditures. Or possibly Texas will promote a few of its wall to the federal authorities—no, actually—and federal taxpayers could be on the hook that method.
Associated | Texas Republicans attempt getting in on the money seize with pointless border invoice
As a substitute of spending cash on the wall, Abbott is planning on shifting that $2.7 billion to state businesses, together with the Division of Public Security and Texas Navy Division. On condition that Abbott needs to recreate Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown on the state stage, this transfer is smart. Why spend cash on a silly deterrent wall when you’ll be able to as an alternative spend cash terrorizing immigrants in your state, which is what you’ve needed to do all alongside?
It’s additionally arduous to not speculate that there could already be a behind-the-scenes promise from Trump toadies to ensure Texas has a steady provide of federal border safety {dollars}. The state and the federal authorities already colluded to eliminate a state legislation requiring in-state tuition for undocumented residents, with the Division of Justice performatively suing and the state instantly settling by agreeing that the legislation was unconstitutional.
For each Texas and the Trump administration, border safety is an ever-shifting goal. When the wall was the one factor that might cease the alleged migrant invasion, each the state and federal governments threw billions on the wall. Now, Trump has proven that he far prefers to illegally and violently deploy navy forces to cease the alleged migrant invasion. By shifting cash from development to elevated legislation enforcement, Texas is simply following his lead.
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