After annoying the re -return of border security, Texas is stuck in a deeper – Crossroads today

“After annoying the return of border security, Texas is struck in Deeper,” was first published by Texas Tribun, Non -Party, Medical Media Organization that informs the Texas – and committed to them – for public policy, politics, government and state issues S

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Days after President Donald Trump was elected back to the White House, the Republican Leaders of Texas sailed the idea that the state could reduce its budget for border security, which reached $ 11 billion in the last four years during the Biden administration.

A few weeks in Trump’s second term, far from all this.

Leading legislature budget writers have suggested that another $ 6.5 billion be spent on border security over the next two years for what is currently currently offered. And GOP leaders are moving to support the Trump Administration Immigration Policy, including the efforts for mass deportation, far more aggressive than before – even illegal border crossings to remain low.

Over the last four years, the top Texas Republicans have accused the “open border policy” of then -President Joe Biden to force the state to spend billions of state taxpayers to secure the limit it shares with Mexico. With Trump’s return to office, some of the same leaders are ready to continue spending – now, to strengthen the promised repression of the Trump administration on illegal immigration.

“After four years of unsuccessful policies, Texas finally has a partner in President Trump,” Governor Greg Abatt said last week while referring to state police to help federal immigration agents find and arrest immigrants who have arrest warrants. “We will end this crisis together and do America again safe.”

Since Trump took office last month, Abbott also sent additional state troops to the border, ordered state agencies to work with federal border users and sign an agreement with the Trump administration authorizing the Soldiers of the National Guard of Texas to carry out immigration arrests.

The Texas Land Commissioner Down Buckingham on a state -acquired ranch in the city of Rio Grande on November 26, 2024. Buckingham promised that Texas would provide the Trump administration more land for the placement of mass deportations. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/Texas Tribune

Lieutenant Dan Patrick – who runs the Senate of the State – announced last week that one of his best legislative priorities will require local law enforcement authorities to “support the federal government’s efforts.” Abbot supported the idea during his state speech on Sunday, the same day, Prosecutor General Ken Paxon announced that he had signed an agreement promised to “cooperate and facilitate” the mass deportation of Trump by undocumented immigrants.

Down Buckingham Commissioner also suggested that Trump be a 1400 acres ranch in the Rio Grande Valley for the same purpose.

Abbot and Patrick have suggested possible cuts of border security costs. Patrick did not respond to a request for comment.

“Texas has held the line against Biden-Haris’s border crisis in the last four years,” said governor spokesman Andrew Mahaleris. “The government is looking forward to continuing to work closely with President Trump and his administration to protect our country and the nation. “

Meanwhile, state legislators have filed or planned to file bills to further cement the role of the state in the implementation of immigration – which federal legislation and repeated court decisions establish as federal liability.

“Texas made a big investment to protect our border,” said State Senator Pete Flores, a Republican in Pleston, who serves the Senate Financing Committee. “We will take a more active political position in maintaining what we have won and holding our position and maintaining our border, while the President and the Federal Government return to their full capacity to do their jobs, protecting our border.”

To be sure, GOP leaders are also looking for ways to limit the borderline expenses of Texas. Abbot has asked the federal government to reinstate the state for $ 11 billion spent border security on Biden. American Senator John Cornin supports AST and Abbott plans to meet the Senate US House and Leadership this month to discuss money refund, according to governor’s head Robert Black.

Among the largest cost of state border security are $ 2.3 billion allocated to the Texas Military Department, which runs the National Guard and its thousands of members located on the ABBOTT Operation Lone Star. State Senator Joan Huffman, a Republican of Houston, who chaired the Senate Financing Committee, noted at a budget hearing last week that if the Trump administration ordered the National Guard to the border, not in Abet, the state would no longer be on the hook for the hook for the hook hook hook for hook hook hook hooks for hook hook hooks for hook hook hook hook for hook for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook for hook for hook for hook for hook for hook for hook for hook hook Hook for hook for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook hooks for hook for hook for hook for hook hook for hook for the hook for the hook by paying your salaries. This change alone will save Texas $ 200 million a month, Huffman said.

Asked by Huffman if there is any “hope” to make this change, Black said he heard “hot hearing” that Pete Heget, the newly confirmed secretary of defense, will soon come to Texas to discuss the issue with the military department leader , Major General Thomas Suelzer. Heget visited El Passo on Tuesday, his first border stop as a secretary.

“The governor would be glad to go back to [border security spending] We were [at] With President Bush and President Obama and even President Trump for the first time – the range of four to 800 million, “Black said during the hearing of the Finance Committee, citing $ 800 million legislators placed on border security every two years , before Biden took office.

If legislators continue at $ 6.5 billion, it will push their six-year budget for border security-from August 2021 to August 2027-up to nearly $ 18 billion.

In contrast, the legislature has provided about $ 3.4 billion for border security in the 14-year 2007 period-when legislators began to regularly devote state funds for border operations-by 2021 when the cost jump began S

“These introductory numbers in the original budget bills open Salvos in position negotiations,” says Jim Hanson, director of the Texas Political Project at UT Austin. “Whether these numbers remain the same or reduced will depend on how the relationship with the Trump administration develops.”

In its proposed budget, Abbott recommended the legislature “to continue its borderline funding as the Federal Government takes on operational control to keep the texas safe and to cope with this crisis once and for all.”

Regardless of the costs, Republican MPs have already laid the foundations for a permanent state role in the implementation of immigration through a 2023 law, which allows the Texas police to arrest people for illegal crossing the border between Mexico. The law, known as the Senate Bill 4, was paused against the background of a legal challenge.

In addition, Texas has a way to continue on a project headed by Abbot to build a wall in much of the Texas-Mexico border. Legislators have approved about $ 3 billion for the efforts that have so far gave dozens of fragmented sections scattered in six counties. State performers built 50 miles of wall until November, or 6% of 805 miles, which the state has identified for construction.

Parts of the border wall along the border of Texas-Mexiko, where the state wall was largely built in remote areas. Credit: Ben Lowie for the Texas Tribune

The legislature also passed a law in 2023, which increased the minimum sentence from two years to 10 years for people convicted of smuggling immigrants or operating houses for a hiding place. The Republicans also tried to create a new state border police department, intended as a way of alleviating the tensions of the National Guard, but the measure failed.

State representative David Spiel, a Republican from Jaxboro, who transferred SB 4 to the House, said he intends to submit a bill to the lower house that will require police to help federal immigration authorities – and refuse government funds for a year from each Law enforcement that is not obliged.

Spieller said he was also working on a bill that would require police officers to ask about a person’s immigration status when they are detained. According to the current police legislation, it is allowed to ask, but Speller said many of them do not.

“We should not have to spend so much money,” Spieller said about the role of the state on the border. “But we will still have to deal with the diseases and mistakes of Biden’s administration.”

Perhaps no community has felt every effort of the state to control the border more than the passage of Eagle, where the Texas employees take a municipal park that is yet to come back, launched a barrier for washers in Rio Grande and built a military base to shelter The Soldiers of the National Guard located in the area.

The area of ​​Eddie Morales state representative extends nine counties along the US and Mexico border from El Paso to Eagle Pas where he grew up. The third Democrat sees a loss of money in some of the state’s borderline initiatives. He pointed out videos of migrants touring the state’s floating barrier – which affected Rio Grande’s water flow in the area.

“I am open to these discussions about how best to use the money that will be distributed by the state,” Morales said. “I also think we should be focused on the laser to make sure we get the most explosion for the dollar with the use of these dollars of Taxpayers of Texas.”

A member of the National Guard of Texas passes along a line of buoys, which the state has set as a floating barrier in Rio Grande at the Passage of Eagle. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/Texas Tribune

This article originally appeared in the Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/05/texas-border-Security-imigration-spring-Pring-star/.

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