Governor Greg Abbott has an audacious plan to recoup the $11 billion that he has spent on his Operation Lone Star border scheme: sell the land to the federal government.
Since March 2021, Abbott has essentially waged a state-sponsored and often legally dicey war against undocumented migration on the southern border. Citing large numbers of migrants in the state following the end of the COVID pandemic, Abbott deployed the Texas National Guard to arrest suspected migrants on mostly minor charges like trespassing, build barriers in the Rio Grande that violated international treaties, and racially profile U.S. nationals.
It has also been an expensive operation. Over the years, Abbott has shuffled money from various funds, including those dedicated to COVID relief, to keep Operation Lone Star going. With Texas schools experiencing withering budget scrunches across the state, it’s left Abbott with a very big hole in the state’s finances with little to show for it besides a great many incarcerated people.
Abbott was in Washington last week to pitch the idea of selling some of the borderlands to the federal government, specifically the parts where Texas has built fence or plans to. The state has constructed around 50 miles of fence, and is also offering facilities to the feds to house border agents and detain up to 4,000 migrants.
“This is not really a reimbursement,” said Abbott during a 10-minute interview with the Texas Tribune at his Washington hotel. “This is a payment for real estate assets and improvements provided by the state of Texas as payment for services rendered by the state of Texas that benefits everybody in the United States of America.”
His plan is likely to find a receptive audience in the president. Extreme anti-migrant activity is one of the few places where Trump’s approval rating is above water, though it often depends on how the questions are asked. The administration has promised to only round up and deport criminals, though in practice this has often meant people merely accused of crimes, not convicted, as well as continued racial profiling against citizens and legal residents, including Native Americans with tribal papers.
Trump has also shown himself amenable to deals when it comes to his border policy. He instructed his Justice Department to drop federal charges of corruption against New York Mayor Eric Adams despite Adams being a Democrat. In a letter, the Department of Justice argued that the corruption indictment was interfering with Adam’s ability to help Trump target migrants in the nation’s largest city. Adams expressed support for Trump’s immigration policies shortly after the president sought to dismiss the charges.
Abbott has much to offer Trump. Texas has the largest single Republican delegation to Congress, including national figures like Sen. Ted Cruz and long-time leader Sen. John Cornyn. Purchasing the borderlands would put bullions back in the Texas coffers and influence Texas Representatives to support Trump’s agenda while the GOP has a razor thin majority in Congress. Assuming that congress approves the spending, it’s a win-win for the anti-immigration forces.
