Harlingen, Texas (border report) – The state of Texas takes a break for new border wall projects, but will conclude those who have already started because it hopes for the reimbursement of the Federal Government for Border Safety costs.
During a meeting on Wednesday in Austin, the Texas Facilities commission, the contracts and the construction of the state -built border wall, stated that it approached an upper limit for financing and border miles.
“Two-point 5 billion dollars is our wall. That is the upper limit that we can spend,” TFC Executive Director Mike Novak told commissioners on Wednesday.
This is money that was previously approved by the Texas legislator and the Governor Greg Abbott's office, and that should go out as soon as they expand 83 miles border barriers, probably at some point next summer.
“The mileage of wall over the 83 miles depends on pending political decisions,” said Novak.
Some of these decisions are about inquiries from Texas to the Trump administration for the reimbursement of the federal government that the state has spent on the Lone Star Border Security Initiative Operation.
Design funds were proposed as part of the household law pending in the congress. Texas is listed among other countries that would receive money when approved.
Texas has spent more than $ 11 billion for Operation Lone Star since 2021, including the construction of the border wall along the 1,200 miles long border of the state in Mexico.
So far, the state has built 66.4 miles of border wall, and Novak says there are “large construction activities that occur at 15 different locations in 6 border districts: Cameron, rigid, Zapata, Webb, Maverick and Val Verde.”
Border Report asked Abbott's office whether Texas would continue to build a border wall. In an explanation, the spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said: “Thanks to President Trump's bold leadership, the Federal Government finally fulfills its obligation to secure the southern border and to deport criminal illegal immigrants. Due to this renewed federal wealth values of the federal government in Texas, our state military department department can in the Texas department, in Texas department in Texas, the aspects of the suspicious, which in Texas in the Texas department now adapt the suspicion in the Texas department.
A state official informed the border report that the construction of the wall building for all active contracts will continue, but at that time no new projects will begin.
The deputy chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, informed the border report that there was no new money for the border wall in this former legislative meeting, he said that there are still existing funds from previous budgets to complete the wall segments.
Before the legislative period ended, the legislators approved more than 3 billion US dollars for border security that the state can need for border security, he said.
Brian Bailey, chairman of TFC, told the commissioners: “In the next six months, many things will happen when we finish the wall for which we were paid for.”
The wall segments that the state built are not connected and in some cases separated by hundreds of miles. The border barrier is based on the same design as the federal government's wall pattern, and the state of Texas even bought the federal government during the bidges administration.
Abbott said that the state's wall should help fill the gaps in the federal border wall.
During Trump's first term, his administration built around 450 miles new border wall across the southwestern border, including Texas.
On Wednesday, the secretary of home protection, Kristi Noem, announced that she had dispensed with environmental regulations so that her agency built 17 miles in the Rio Grande Valley. This is the fifth waiver that she signed to accelerate the border wall construction.
DHS also announced that they would have awarded a contract for the construction of around 27 miles new border wall in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, outside of Tucson.
The contract for $ 309.4 million was awarded to the Fisher Sand & Gravel Company, the same building contractor, who built a private border wall in Mission, Texas in 2019 and also has the previously paid border wall contract over $ 1 billion for one segment.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at ssanchez@borderreport.com.