By Anna Giaritelli, Homeland Security Reporter. Media: Washington Examiner.
AUSTIN, Texas — President Joe Biden’s cancellation of border wall construction imposed billions of dollars of costs on Texas in humanitarian and border security measures, the state’s top land official told the Washington Examiner.
“The Biden administration has ushered in an unprecedented border crisis that has negatively impacted Texas and the entire nation,” Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said. “The federal government’s cancellation of the border wall construction has forced Texas to bear the financial burden of fortifying our southern border in order to protect Texans.”
Arizona and Texas are reaching into their own pockets responding to unprecedented illegal immigration that followed the Biden administration’s campaign promise to stop installing a wall at the southern border.
In the 2 1/2 years since President Joe Biden halted 300 miles of border wall that had not yet been installed before former President Donald Trump left office, states are being inundated with millions of immigrants who illegally enter from Mexico.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and former Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey have taken border security, which is a federal responsibility, into their own hands.
These heavier-hit states have blitzed the border with a plethora of tank-like vehicles, shipping container walls, thousands of soldiers, and more.
In Texas, Biden’s cancellation of wall projects meant the state had to construct its own barrier in Starr County to respond to high levels of illegal traffic, according to Buckingham’s office.
“Biden’s self-induced chaos at the southern border has cost Texans and other border states billions of dollars and precious state resources as Texas law enforcement officials work to quell the influx of illegal migration across our border,” Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The border security should not fall on the shoulders of Texans, and our local communities deserve to be paid back.”
Without a wall to impede someone from entering, the states have been left to play defense and fortify their own borders. While both states have made major achievements in intercepting drugs and illegal immigrants, neither state has achieved success in fully locking down the borders.
Both states launched busing initiatives in 2022 to help ease the demand for public and private transportation, shelter, flights, and other resources in border communities. More than 25,000 people have boarded buses departing both states over the past year.
Texas
President Joe Biden entered office in January 2021 and immediately canceled billions of dollars of border wall projects funded by Congress during the Trump administration and others that were funded with money that the White House diverted from defense and treasury coffers.
By March, the number of illegal immigrants being apprehended at the southern border had spiked and continued to increase through the spring. Texas sustained the majority of all illegal immigrant arrests.
Abbott activated more than 10,000 National Guard soldiers and state police to the border under an initiative dubbed Operation Lone Star. Police would pull over suspected smuggling loads on the road while soldiers rounded up people who had come over the border and essentially surrendered. The American Civil Liberties Union later sued Abbott because his “racist and unconstitutional plan … would cause direct harm to people seeking asylum, humanitarian volunteers, and border communities.”
More than 387,000 illegal immigrants have been encountered by the state, and 421 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl have been seized under the operation.
Thanks to the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety. They are the only officials in America holding the line against an onrush of illegal immigrants. pic.twitter.com/OpLGEp3tXK
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 11, 2023
Abbott announced plans to build his own wall in June 2021 as he launched his campaign for a third term.
The Texas-Mexico boundary stretches 1,241 miles, but just 145 miles of it has any sort of substantive fence or wall. Abbott wants to put up a wall on the remaining 1,100 miles. At an average cost of $20 million per mile, it is a tall order — even for Texas.
The total of more than 700 miles of wall that the Trump administration had planned to install came in at approximately $15 billion, an indication that Texas taxpayers could be on the hook for potentially $22 billion if costs follow that federal trajectory.
Biden says he will deploy 1,500 troops to the border — primarily to do paperwork. And only for 90 days.
This does nothing to stop illegal immigration.
I deployed up to 10,000 Texas National Guard to the border to fill the gaps created by Biden's reckless open border policies. pic.twitter.com/WkQMGf779e
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 2, 2023
The state put $4 billion toward Operation Lone Star. This year, the state doled out $5 billion for the next two years, but construction to date has been virtually nonexistent.
Most recently, Abbott announced a 1,000-foot maritime barrier consisting of connected buoys that were meant to block people from swimming or wading across the Rio Grande.
Abbott’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Texas will deploy new marine floating barriers to deter illegal border crossings between ports of entry.
We continue to hold the line in Biden’s absence. pic.twitter.com/22kAarVBaY
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 9, 2023
Arizona
Arizona has seen the second-highest number of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border after wall projects were halted in early 2021.
(Elliot Spagat/AP)
Frustrated by as many as 1,000 illegal immigrant arrests daily in Yuma, Ducey in August 2022 installed shipping containers in gaps in the border wall.
“The governor can no longer wait for the federal government to take action when we have a community like Yuma, who is being sheltered at 150% of capacity,” said Anni Foster, the general counsel to Ducey, during a call with reporters in August 2022.
Randy Hoeft/AP
Double-decker rows of shipping containers were placed along 3,820 feet of the border. Ducey’s office suspects criminal elements, not windy weather, were to blame for the toppling of two massive shipping containers that were installed last summer.
The Biden administration sued Arizona, and Ducey agreed in December 2022 to halt the placement of any more shipping containers. Ducey cleared them from the border, according to an Arizona Department of Administration spokeswoman.
Ducey’s successor, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ), recently offered the 2,200 containers for sale to the public, but if they do not sell, they could be headed for the scrap yard. The containers range from $500 to $2,000 apiece. In total, the installment of the containers came with a $100 million cost to taxpayers.
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