Gov. Abbot Announces $250 Million "Down Payment" For Texas Border Wall
Ahead of former President Trump's visit to Texas' southern border with Gov. Greg Abbott on June 30, Abbott announced Wednesday his administration would provide $250 million in state funds as a "down payment" to construct the wall in the state, according to The Texas Tribune.
During Trump's first term, his administration pledged to construct a wall along the southern border, but only 450 miles of the new wall was completed by the end of his term.
On the other hand, the Biden administration terminated the national emergency on the border and returned $2 billion of Department of Defense funds that were intended for border projects.
"Texas will build a border wall in our state to help secure our border," Abbott said during a press conference Wednesday. However, the governor gave no specifics on where the wall would be built, how long it would be, or the project's total cost. Instead, he said a program manager would determine those decisions.
Abbott also expects Texans and others to donate money and volunteer their land for the barrier.
"My belief based upon conversations that I've already had is that the combination of state land, as well as volunteer land, will yield hundreds of miles to build a border wall in Texas," he said.
Texas' $250 million will serve as a "down payment" and come from the state budget.
Trump, who recently accepted the invitation to tour the border wall with Abbott, said:
"The Biden Administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in U.S history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in U.S history. It's an unmitigated disaster zone," Trump said in a statement.
Abbott appears to be taking the border building into his own hands after 180,000 encounters between migrants and immigration officers were recorded last month acriss the southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. This was the most encounters in two decades.
President Biden's disastrous immigration policies have resulted in a surge in migrants and a crisis that continues today. Months ago, Biden finally admitted there was an issue on the border after months of downplaying the chaos. Maybe it's time for the federal government to finish what Trump started...
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