McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced Thursday he is asking Congress to reimburse Texas $11.1 billion for border security costs.
On a call with reporters Thursday, Cornyn called it “a dramatic and historic effort to get reimbursement for the State of Texas for Operation Lone Star.”
He said the legislation will be part of the reconciliation budget package for Fiscal Year 2026 that is currently being debated in Congress.
He blamed the Biden administration and said Texas incurred these costs because it was necessary to secure the border under the previous administration.
“President Biden’s border policies, his open border policies, have been a disaster for the country and for Texas in particular. And Texas did what it could, using the resources that it could to fill the gap, while the federal government, whose responsibility it is to secure the border, did virtually nothing,” Cornyn said.
Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 created Operation Lone Star, which has deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers to the Texas-Mexico border, built miles of border wall and dispatched state troopers along border highways as part of a state-funded border security initiative.
The state has spent over $11 billion to date, and taken in over $56.2 million in donations for border transportation, border wall construction and border security, according to the governor’s office.
However, since President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports a drop of over 90% in border encounter numbers of those trying to illegally cross into the United States.
CBP on Monday reported that during April, encounters on the Southwest border totaled 8,383, down from 128,895 in April 2024.
“Now that the border is in much better shape, it’s no longer necessary for Texas and Texas taxpayers to shoulder that burden alone, and so now it’s rightly returned to the federal government, through the Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Justice to provide that security. So Texas and Texas taxpayers no longer have to bear that burden by themselves,” he said.
Cornyn says the measure will be included in the House bill, which could be voted on as early as next week.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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