MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — Over 400 Texas National Guard troops and equipment began arriving in the Rio Grande Valley on Monday evening to assist with border security.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced that he had deployed the troops from bases in Fort Worth and Houston to work on the ground assisting U.S. Border Patrol agents in South Texas.
He also was sending aircraft, like military transport C-130s and Chinook helicopters.
By Monday evening, some troops had arrived at the McAllen International Airport, according to KVEO.
Several were loaded into buses and accompanied by Border Patrol.
“Texas has a partner in the White House we can work with to secure the Texas-Mexico border,” Abbott said in a statement. “To support that mission, today, I deployed the Texas Tactical Border Force, comprised of hundreds of troops, to work side-by-side with U.S. Border Patrol agents to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country and to enforce immigration laws.”
Abbott started the Texas Tactical Border Force in 2023. The specially trained soldiers have been deployed to hot spots throughout the Texas-Mexico border.
Abbott says they are needed in the Rio Grande Valley.
The Texas Tactical Border Force is part of the state’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative.
Abbott has asked President Trump for reimbursement by the federal government for the over $11 billion that the State of Texas has spent on border security through Operation Lone Star since 2021.
For the past four years, Texas held the line against the Biden administration’s border crisis and their refusal to protect Americans. Finally, we have a federal government working to end this crisis. I thank President Donald Trump for his decisive leadership on the southern border and look forward to working with him and his Administration to secure the border and make America safe again,” Abbott said.
NewsNation is reporting that a total of 1,600 Army and Marine personnel have been deployed along the Southwest border since Trump took office. That includes 500 Marines sent to California; 300 Army personnel in El Paso.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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