The Texas Legislature dismissed the allocation of over $3 billion in funding to its border wall for the state’s current budget. The Trump administration’s current immigration initiatives were cited as the reason behind defunding the wall’s construction.
In 2021, amid the immigration crisis at the outset of the Biden presidency, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced the state would be the first to have its own border wall and established a plan for its building. This is a provision in the governor’s ongoing “Operation Lone Star” initiative.
Yet, after nearly four years of construction, the wall is far from being halfway built. About 65 miles of wall have been built across the span of a border that stretches over 1,200 miles. The initial plan was for the wall to cover 805 miles of this border.
According to the assessment of the Texas Tribune, “the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur.”
Texas lawmakers claim the Trump administration’s efforts toward immigration have allowed it to focus on other border security matters. Most of the funding that would’ve gone to the border wall instead will be directed toward the Texas Department of Public Safety and the National Guard. A spokesman for Governor Abbott told The Associated Press:
“Thanks to President Trump’s bold leadership, the federal government is finally fulfilling its obligation to secure the southern border and deport criminal illegal immigrants,” the spokesman said. “Because of these renewed federal assets in Texas, our state can now adjust aspects of state-funded border security efforts.”
The Texas Tribune also reports that “state leaders” have suggested the possibility of the federal government building the wall.
