Gov. Abbott asks federal government for $11 billion border security reimbursementon January 24, 2025 at 7:50 pm

The governor said that Texas incurred costs for border walls, military support and transportation that should have been covered by the U.S.

AUSTIN, Texas — The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, asked the United States Congress to reimburse Texas billions of dollars for Operation Lone Star. He said the money would cover the costs of stepping up border security, apprehending undocumented immigrants, staffing the border, and transporting migrants to their countries of origin.

Abbott is requesting $11.1 billion for efforts from 2022 to 2025. He blamed former President Joe Biden’s policies for leaving “Texas and the rest of America defenseless” against immigrants.

The top-billed items, according to Abbott, included:

Texas paid for hundreds of miles of the border wall, wire border barriers, and floating buoy barriers costing $4.75 billion.
The National Guard was sent to build the barriers, patrol the border, and apprehend people who entered illegally. This cost was invoiced at $3.62 billion for the term from 2022 to 2025.
Texas state troopers were also deployed to make arrests. This cost $2.25 billion.

Other expenditures included “anti-gang intelligence,” court processing costs, health and safety costs at processing centers, and more.

Abbott said these efforts prevented violent crime, drug sales, and human trafficking in the press release sent Thursday.

Abbott said he met with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday to discuss the border crisis. It was not immediately known how likely a reimbursement would be, and Abbott did not share how the reimbursed funds would be spent.

Below is the letter Abbott sent to Congressional leaders and a breakdown of the costs.