Texas governor demands border security cost reimbursement

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent letters to Congressional leaders and the Texas Congressional Delegation, Report informs via Fox4.

He called for the federal government to pay back $11.1 billion that was spent on Operation Lone Star, Texas' border security effort.

In the letters, the governor says it is the federal government's duty to secure the nation's borders and that Texas stepped up when the Biden Administration refused to do so.

Costs cited by Abbott included $58 million for concertina wire and border fencing and almost $3 billion for the construction of over 100 miles of border wall and the deployment of buoys.

"The burden that our State has borne is a direct result of a refusal by the federal government to do its job. The work that Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire country," Gov. Abbott wrote.

Governor Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in 2021.

The program deployed state resources, including more than 10,000 members of the state National Guard and troopers from the Department of Public Safety, to the southern border.

Gov. Abbott claims that Operation Lone Star has led to more than 50,000 criminal arrests and repelled more than 140,000 illegal entries into the state.

The governor says that in the past four years, Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 87 percent.