Texas has formally submitted its request to the federal government for reimbursement of billions spent on Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday.
According to Abbott, the state has provided the Department of Homeland Security with the documentation required to seek repayment for border-security costs Texas incurred during the Biden administration.
“In March 2021, I launched Operation Lone Star to fill in the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” Abbott said in a statement. “For four years under Biden, Texas spent more than $10 billion of taxpayer money to secure the border. I have formally submitted Texas’ application to the Department of Homeland Security for reimbursement of costs Texas had to incur because President Biden refused to do his job.”
Last year, Congress included $13.5 billion in funding in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” to reimburse states for border-security costs incurred during the Biden years.
Abbott had previously asked the federal government to repay Texas for roughly $11 billion spent on Operation Lone Star, the state’s border-security mission that deployed Texas National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers to the southern border while also funding barriers, surveillance, and other enforcement measures.
Abbott’s office said Texas has borne the largest share of those costs and that the DHS submission puts the state in position to recover taxpayer funds.
The governor’s office also said Texas plans to submit a separate reimbursement request to the U.S. Department of Justice in the “near future.”
