Update:
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Texas House panel advances bill for more border wall funding requested by Gov. Greg Abbott
The bill, which would provide $1.5 billion on top of $5.2 billion approved in the regular session, will probably be debated by the full House this week.
By Aarón Torres
AUSTIN — House lawmakers on Monday advanced a bill that would provide an additional $1.5 billion in funding for dozens of miles of state border wall — on top of the over $5 billion the Legislature approved earlier this year for border security operations.
Gov. Greg Abbott tasked the Legislature with sending him such a bill, along with other border security proposals, earlier this month.
House Appropriations Committee members on Monday debated whether to provide the money and voted the bill out of the committee on a 14-9 vote. The full House is likely to debate the bills on the floor later this week.
The Legislature is in its third special session of the year, and Abbott wants a school choice bill and a variety of immigration bills sent to his desk.
During the regular session, lawmakers appropriated $5.2 billion for Operation Lone Star, Abbott’s border security operation, for the two-year cycle that began last month. The recent funding was an increase from the $4.6 billion lawmakers approved in 2021.
Abbott tasked lawmakers with providing more funding for a state barrier in his call for the current 30-day session.
But the additional $1.5 billion — an almost 29% increase from what was approved a few months ago — has divided lawmakers on the appropriations panel. The bill, which is being carried by Rep. Jacey Jetton, R-Richmond, says the money will be used for the “construction, operation, and maintenance” of border barrier infrastructure.
Republicans argue the funding is essential to curb the flow of migrants entering the country illegally.
“We need to deploy every tool that we have in the toolbox, and the border wall is one that has been deemed effective,” Jetton said. “We have to make sure that we’re protecting our borders.”
Democrats, however, believe the additional spending wouldn’t prevent illegal crossings and would waste taxpayer money.
“What’s the purpose of the state stepping in to spend $1.5 billion of our money when it could be used for public schools, it could be used for teacher pay, it could be used for mental health treatment?” Democratic Rep. Evelina Ortega of El Paso said.
The cost of Operation Lone Star, which deploys Texas National Guard troops and Texas Department of Public Safety officers for border security, has ballooned in the more than two years since it began. Abbott has made border security a major focus in recent years as hard-right lawmakers and activists have criticized him for not doing enough.
The Texas-Mexico border is more than 1,200 miles long. Jetton said the money would be set aside for about 50 miles of border wall construction.
He also pointed a finger at the Biden administration in justifying the spending.
“This is because of the failure from the federal government” to enforce federal immigration laws, Jetton said.
Last month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the construction of 20 miles of border wall while waiving dozens of federal laws in order to speed up the process. The decision to resume the project — which Congress appropriated in 2019 — led some Democrats to criticize Biden after he promised in his presidential campaign he wouldn’t continue the project.
Biden told reporters he doesn’t believe walls work.
Dallas Democratic Rep. Toni Rose pushed back against Jetton’s argument, pointing to the Biden administration’s plans to build more of the border wall.
“You are aware that the federal government is doing something, right?” Rose asked.
Jetton said it’s not clear the Biden’s administration will continue to invest in building a barrier.
“It’s going to take a lot more than what they’ve appropriated so far,” he said.
Abbott has consistently lashed out at the Biden administration, saying it has failed to secure the border and describing the surges in migrant crossings as an invasion.
Over the summer, the state installed a 1,000-foot-long string of buoys on the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass. The U.S. Justice Department sued the state, accusing Texas of violating a 19th-century law that forbids construction on navigable waterways. A federal judge ordered the state to remove the buoys by September, but the barriers are still there because Texas appealed the ruling to a federal appeals court.
And earlier this month, Texas National Guard members began installing razor wire along the state’s border with New Mexico under orders from Abbott.
