Austin, Texas — President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the border wall has cost Texas billions of dollars in humanitarian and border security measures, the state’s top land agency said. Washington Examiner.

“The Biden administration has created an unprecedented border crisis that is hurting the state of Texas and the nation,” said Texas General Land Authority Commissioner Dawn Buckingham. “With the federal government’s cancellation of border wall construction, Texas has been forced to pay the financial burden of strengthening its southern border to protect Texans.”

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Arizona and Texas are spending their own money to deal with the unprecedented fight against illegal immigration that accompanied the Biden administration’s campaign promise to stop building a wall on the southern border.

In the two and a half years since President Joe Biden canceled the 300-mile border wall that had not yet been erected before former President Donald Trump left office, states have seen hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Thousands of immigrants are pouring in.

Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and former Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey have taken the federal responsibility of border security into their own hands.

These harder-hit states bombed their borders with tons of tank-like vehicles, shipping container walls, and thousands of soldiers.

In Texas, Mr. Biden’s cancellation of wall plans has forced the state to build its own barrier in Starr County to deal with the flood of illegal traffic, according to the Buckingham state office.

“As Texas law enforcement officials work to quell the influx of illegal immigrants across the border, Biden’s self-inflicted southern border chaos is costing Texas and other border states billions of dollars. It cost us a valuable national resource,” said Rep. August Flueger (R-Texas) in a statement. Washington Examiner. “Border security should not fall on the shoulders of Texans, and our local communities should be rewarded.”

With no walls to prevent anyone from entering, each state must act as a defense and strengthen its own borders. Both states have made great strides in cracking down on drugs and illegal immigration, but have yet to succeed in closing their borders completely.

Both states will launch bus initiatives in 2022 to ease demand for public and private transportation, shelters, planes and other resources in border areas. 25,000+ Have taken a bus from both states in the past year.

texas

President Joe Biden takes office in January 2021, funded by a multi-billion dollar border wall project funded by Congress during the Trump presidency, and money diverted by the White House from the coffers of the Defense and Treasury Departments. Other projects were immediately discontinued.

By March, the number of illegal immigrants arrested at the southern border surged and continued to rise through the spring. Texas accounted for the majority of illegal immigration arrests.

Mr. Abbott sent more than 10,000 National Guard and State Police officers to the border under an operation called “Operation Lone Star.” Police stopped suspected smuggled packages in the streets, while soldiers rounded up those who crossed the border and effectively surrendered. The American Civil Liberties Union later called Mr. Abbott’s “racist and unconstitutional program … in direct harm to asylum seekers, humanitarian volunteers, and border communities.” sued.

The state has encountered more than 387,000 illegal immigrants, and 421 million cans of fentanyl, a potentially lethal dose, have been seized in the operation.

Abbott announced plans to build his own wall in June 2021 as he launched his third term.

Texas-Mexico border stretches 1,241 milesBut only 145 of those miles have some kind of substantial fence or wall. Abbott wants to build a wall for the remaining 1,100 miles. His average cost is $20 million per mile, which is high even for the state of Texas.

The 700-plus-mile wall the Trump administration planned to build would have cost about $15 billion. This suggests that Texas taxpayers could potentially end up paying $22 billion if costs follow the federal trajectory.

The state invested $4 billion in Operation Lone Star. This year, the state contributed $5 billion over the next two years, but construction has virtually nonexistent to date.

Most recently, Abbott unveiled a 1,000-foot seawall consisting of connected buoys intended to stop people from swimming or walking across the Rio Grande.

Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Arizona

Arizona had the second-highest number of illegal immigrants arrested at the border after a wall plan was canceled in early 2021.

(Elliott Spaggut/Associated Press)

Frustrated by the daily arrests of 1,000 illegal immigrants in Yuma, Mr. Ducey installed a shipping container in a crack in the border wall in August 2022.

“When there are areas like Ms. Yuma that are protected at 150% of capacity, governors can no longer wait for the federal government to act,” Ducey general counsel Annie Foster said in August. He spoke on the phone with reporters. 2022.

Randy Hooft/Associated Press

A double-decker row of shipping containers was laid out along 3,820 feet from the border. Ducey’s office suspects criminal elements, not high winds, are responsible for the overturning of two giant shipping containers installed last summer.

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The Biden administration sued Arizona, and Ducey agreed to stop the placement of any more shipping containers in December 2022. A spokesman for the Arizona Department of Administration said Ducey had them removed from the border.

Ducey’s successor, Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat of Arizona, recently offered to sell 2,200 containers to the public, but if they don’t sell, they could be sent to scrapyards. Container prices range from $500 to $2,000 per he. The installation of the container cost taxpayers a total of $100 million.