Abbott Sending 400 More Soldiers to Border

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday said he is sending 400 soldiers to the Rio Grande Valley to meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers “to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country and to enforce immigration laws.”

The soldiers deployed from military bases near Fort Worth and Houston on Monday morning, along with Lockheed C-130 military transport planes and Boeing CH-47 Chinook military transport helicopters, according to the announcement. They are part of the Texas Tactical Border Force, a separate initiative from Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which spent more than $11 billion over the past four years on personnel and construction costs aimed to curb migration over the border.

Abbott last week asked Congress to reimburse Texas for the money it spent on the program over the past four years.

The new military force will join “thousands” of Texas National Guard soldiers already deployed at the border, in order to work with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents “under the Trump administration,” per the release.

In his press release, Abbott praised Trump as a “partner” of Texas for pledging to deport undocumented migrants from the U.S. on a massive scale. Trump lavished praise on Abbott for several minutes during his remarks on inauguration day a week ago.

“Finally, we have a federal government working to end this crisis,” said Abbott in a prepared statement. “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.”