Texas stops providing new funding for border wall construction

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas has stopped putting new money toward building a U.S.-Mexico border wall, shifting course after installing only a fraction of the hundreds of miles of potential barrier that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott set out to construct four years ago.

State lawmakers this month approved a new Texas budget that does not include continued funding for the wall, which had been a multibillion-dollar priority for Abbott as part of a sprawling immigration crackdown. He even took the unusual step of soliciting private donations for construction, saying in 2021 that many Americans wanted to help.

On Tuesday, Abbott's office said President Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to curb immigration allowed the state to adjust.

The halt in funding was first reported by The Texas Tribune.

''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," Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said. ''Because of these renewed federal assets in Texas, our state can now adjust aspects of state-funded border security efforts.''

The state has completed 65 miles (104 kilometers) of border wall since construction began. The Texas border with Mexico is roughly 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers).

The wall has gone up at a slow pace as the state has navigated the drawn-out process of buying private land and confronting local opposition in some places. Abbott announced plans for the wall at a time when large numbers of migrants were showing up at the border, saying in 2021 that he believed a combination of state-owned land and volunteered private property would "yield hundreds of miles to build a border wall.'

The number of migrant crossings has fallen dramatically this year.

''There was no need for it in the first place,'' said Scott Nicol, a board member for Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a habitat preservation group in the Rio Grande Valley. He has criticized the wall as ineffective.

"The only thing that's changed is the political dynamic,'' he said.

The new budget approved by Texas lawmakers allocates about $3.4 billion for border security for two years. That amount will not be used to build out new projects for the wall and instead go to the Texas Department of Safety and the Texas National Guard, the main agencies responsible for Operation Lone Star, Abbott's key immigration program launched in 2021 during the Biden administration.

The money allocated for border security is nearly half the $6.5 billion that was dedicated to immigration efforts the last time lawmakers earmarked the state budget two years ago.

Funds previously allocated for the wall will allow work on it to continue through 2026 and ''will set the federal government up for success,'' said Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, the lead budget writer in the state Senate.

The agency responsible for constructing the wall has about $2.5 billion remaining in funding to cover up to 85 additional miles (135 additional kilometers) of the wall by 2026, according to a statement made in April by Texas Facilities Commission executive director Mike Novak, whose agency is overseeing construction of the project.

''This wall should have never been built, it's useless,'' said Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network. "It divides our community.''

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Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.