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Tag: Abbott

  • Trump holding Oval Office meeting with Texas Gov. Abbott over ‘securing the southern border’

    Trump holding Oval Office meeting with Texas Gov. Abbott over ‘securing the southern border’

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    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott meets at the White House on Wednesday with President Donald Trump to discuss their efforts to beef up security along America’s southern border with Mexico.

    “Governor Abbott is meeting with President Trump to discuss their continued partnership in securing the southern border and keeping Americans safe,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris told Fox News Digital when asked about the Oval Office get-together. 

    Ahead of his meeting with Trump, the three-term conservative Lone Star State governor met with Tom Homan, the president’s border czar.

    TEXAS’ ABBOTT MAKES MAJOR MOVE IN BORDER SECURITY BATTLE 

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump attend a briefing with state officials and law enforcement at the Weslaco Department of Public Safety, before touring the U.S.-Mexico border wall on June 30, 2021, in Weslaco, Texas. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

    “Looking forward to meeting with President Trump today. Earlier this morning, I spoke with Tom Homan about immigration enforcement strategies. Today, and the coming days, should be great for Texas,” Abbott wrote in a social media post.

    It would be hard to find another governor who has done more to support, and help implement and endorse, Trump’s hardline border security and immigration agenda.

    Texas, under Abbott’s leadership, has spent billions of dollars on border security the past couple of years under Operation Lone Star. And now the GOP-dominated legislature is proposing allocating an additional $6.5 million to implement Trump’s border and immigration agenda.

    Greg Abbott and Donald Trump

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott listens to former President Trump during a visit to an unfinished section of border wall, in Pharr, Texas, June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

    And this week, Abbott, in an unprecedented move, gave Texas National Guard soldiers the power to arrest undocumented immigrants in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    Trump, speaking to an overflow crowd of supporters gathered at the U.S. Capitol for his inauguration last month, praised Abbott.

    “He’s doing a great job. He’s doing a phenomenal job, but now you’re going to have a partner that’s going to work with you,” Trump said.

    Texas Gov. Abbott at the southern Border

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Twitter/Greg Abbott)

    And Abbott returned the compliment this past weekend, as he delivered his State of the State address.

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    “We have a president who will partner with Texas to deny illegal entry,” Abbott said. “To support that mission, I have ordered Texas state agencies to assist the Trump administration with arresting, jailing and deporting illegal immigrants.”

  • Texas Gov. Abbott asks government to reimburse B spent on border security

    Texas Gov. Abbott asks government to reimburse $11B spent on border security

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is requesting that the federal government reimburse his state more than $11.1 billion for taxpayer money spent on securing the southern border during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

    Abbott, who sent letters to U.S. Congressional members on Thursday, said the Biden administration’s “refusal to do its job the last four years” resulted in the crisis at the southern border that has spilled into the rest of the country.

    “President Biden’s policies left Texas and the rest of America defenseless against an unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors, like the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua,” the governor wrote.

    HOUSE REPUBLICAN INTRODUCES BILL TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR BILLIONS SPENT TO SECURE BORDER

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the federal government to reimburse his state for the more than $11 billion of taxpayer money it has spent on border security over the past four years. (REUTERS/Callaghan O’hare)

    In response to the federal government’s lack of action at the border, Abbott took matters into his own hands and launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, which deployed the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to the US-Mexico border.

    Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 87% over the past four years, proving the “effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures,” according to Abbott, who added that his efforts have shone a national spotlight on the crisis.

    The governor outlined that the operation has also resulted in the apprehension of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopped more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the US, made more than 50,000 criminal arrests, seized more than half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl, built more than 240 miles of border barriers and established the only National Guard base along the Texas-Mexico border.

    “In short, Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote.

    HOUSE REPUBLICANS RENEW PUSH TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR ‘OPERATION LONE STAR’ BORDER SECURITY PUSH

    Though he is proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success came with a high price tag of more than $11.1 billion, which has been, and continues to be, paid by Texas taxpayers when it “should have been the federal government’s responsibility.”

    In a document breaking down the costs, Abbott said that prior to the Biden administration, the state of Texas spent approximately $800 million every two years to supplement federal efforts at the border.

    Illegal immigrants crossing US-Mexico border

    Illegal immigrants pass through coils of razor wire while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, in March 2024. The wire was placed by the troops as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” to deter migrants from crossing into Texas. ( John Moore/Getty Images)

    “The burden that our State has borne is a direct result of a refusal by the federal government to do its job,” Abbott wrote. “The work that Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire country.”

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    House Republicans have introduced bills in the past requesting Texas be reimbursed for the billions spent on border security, but legislation has never been passed.