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Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
McCaul touts money in Trump tax bill to pay Texas back for fighting Biden border policies
There's a provision tucked into President Donald Trump's broadly ranging "big, beautiful bill" that could see Texas get billions of dollars in funds that it spent on the state's border security under the Biden administration. The legislation earmarked $12 billion for a grant program allowing states to be reimbursed for costs they incurred trying to stem the flow of illegal immigration during the Democratic administration. The measure was added to the bill hours before the final vote – but Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the former chairman of the House Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees, told Fox News Digital it was a product of months of negotiation. "Early on, [Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., and I were discussing reconciliation going through the Homeland Security Committee. And, you know, there was about $70 billion for the border," McCaul said. "Texas bore the brunt of the federal mission the last four years and deserves to be reimbursed. And so he agreed, had a conversation with Governor Abbott, and he agreed." House Gop Targets Another Dem Official Accused Of Blocking Ice Amid Delaney Hall Fallout While the text does not name Texas specifically, Fox News Digital was told that the measure's inclusion was primarily sought by the Lone Star state's congressional delegation. Read On The Fox News App The state of Texas, Fox News Digital was told, had incurred just over $11 billion in costs from Gov. Greg Abbott's efforts to keep the border in his state secure. "The fact of the matter is, when you look at the costs that were borne, Texas had the lion's share of [the burden] carrying out the federal mission when the Biden administration completely failed to deliver on border security," McCaul said. "My state built the border wall and built detention facilities. We bore a lot of costs." Operation Lone Star alone cost Texas $11.1 billion, according to The Texas Tribune. Rather than add it to the initial text of the bill, McCaul said, leaders opted to include it in a "managers amendment" that was added on Wednesday night along with several other issues that lawmakers needed more time to negotiate. "The legislative process, it's something I've gotten to know over my 20 years and how to get things done up here. And I thought, you know, the way we worked it was strategically very smart," McCaul said. "It's going to the Senate now. And Senator Cornyn is going to take it up, be the champion in the Senate." The Texas Republican first met with Abbott and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on the matter in early February, Fox News Digital was told. McCaul said he also worked closely on the push with Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, who told Fox News Digital that "no state" carried more financial burden from the border crisis than Texas. "Texas spent $11.1 billion on border security, including $5.87 billion on personnel costs and $4.75 billion on border wall and barriers. When the federal government failed to secure our border and protect our communities, Texans stepped up," Pfluger said. Johnson, for his part, thanked McCaul for his efforts in a public written statement. "Thanks to Rep. McCaul, states that stepped up to protect Americans in the face of Biden's border catastrophe will be reimbursed for doing the work the Biden Administration refused to do," the speaker said. "Had those patriotic governors not taken action and used the resources of their state, the devastation from Biden's wide-open border would have been significantly worse." Meet The Trump-picked Lawmakers Giving Speaker Johnson A Full House Gop Conference Green said of the need for the measure, "In the absence of help from the Biden-Harris administration, states were forced to take extraordinary measures to mitigate the crisis and protect their communities by building barrier systems and increasing law enforcement activity." And while McCaul and his colleagues' efforts in the House do not guarantee that Texas will ultimately see those funds, it puts them one step closer to success. The measure is one aspect in a multi-trillion-dollar bill that Republicans are working to pass via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, reconciliation enables the party in power to pass certain fiscal legislation while completely sidelining the minority – in this case, Democrats. Trump directed Republicans to use reconciliation to advance his policies on taxes, immigration, energy, defense, and the national debt. The Senate and House must pass identical versions of the bill before it gets to Trump's desk. McCaul told Fox News Digital that he was confident the measure would stay in the Senate bill after conversations with the Trump administration on the matter. "I anticipate it will go forward," McCaul said. "I'm, just proud that we were able to get this done. I'm very proud of what my state did to stop the flow of illegals and dangerous actors coming into the country." When reached for comment, Abbott told Fox News Digital, "This is a national issue that Texas was proud to address, and we are grateful for the allocation that reduces the financial burden that Texas incurred."Original article source: McCaul touts money in Trump tax bill to pay Texas back for fighting Biden border policies
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
$12 billion added to congressional spending bill to reimburse states like Texas for border spending
Billion of dollars of funding to reimburse Texas and other states for border security spending has been added to the Republican spending megabill. House members on Wednesday set aside $12 billion to reimburse states for efforts to enforce immigration laws since the day of former President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021. Texas has spent an estimated $11.1 billion on Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star program, which used state funds to militarize the southern border. The Texas governor had criticized the Biden administration for not enforcing immigration laws and issued a disaster declaration at the border in 2021. Abbott and Texas Republicans in Congress have been ramping up requests for reimbursement of the state in recent months. The governor discussed his request with President Donald Trump in February. If passed by the House and Senate, the bill would require the Homeland Security Secretary to develop a grant application process for the states to get reimbursed. Texas has the largest claim of any state to such reimbursements. The megabill includes reforms to Medicaid, cuts to SNAP benefits, extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts and other key Republican policy efforts. The House is expected to vote on the bill within the next day, according to Republican leadership. The border funding addition in the budget reconciliation bill was a last minute addition to the package. Multiple Texas Republicans — including Reps. Chip Roy of Austin and Keith Self McKinney— have been critical of the megabill and have not formally announced that they will vote to support the legislation. Roy and Self have said that they want to see more spending cuts and changes in the bill before they are willing to pass. It is unclear so far if the 42 pages worth of changes to the bill released late Wednesday will be enough to push the members, and other holdouts, to support the bill. Members who spoke to the Tribune, including Roy, about their push for reimbursement said they didn't think refunding Texas goes against their party's push for lower government spending. 'We already spent it when it was the federal government's job,' Roy said in an interview with The Texas Tribune in late April. 'We should get paid back.' Sen. John Cornyn told The Texas Tribune earlier this month that he was not willing to vote for a budget reconciliation bill without Operation Lone Star reimbursement. The senator said anything less than full compensation, in his opinion $11.1 billion, was unacceptable. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More Charges Related to Crossing Military Zones at Border Tossed by Court in Texas
Another judge in a border state is dismissing charges against people accused of trespassing into the Trump administration's newly created military zones between the U.S. and Mexico, marking the latest legal setback for the immigration crackdown strategy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel Torres last week began throwing out some charges in the cases before the U.S. District Court of West Texas related to violating defense property security and unlawful entry onto a Department of Defense installation. The judge deemed there was not probable cause to continue with those charges, according to federal court dockets reviewed by The dropping of charges in El Paso mirrors similar court decisions on charges related to the military zones in New Mexico. A federal judge there dismissed charges related to trespassing on defense property in nearly 100 cases last week. Read Next: Request for 20,000 Guardsmen to Help with Immigration Crackdown Under Review, Guard Chief Says In Texas, El Paso Matters, a nonprofit local newsroom, reported that 16 of the military zone cases had been dismissed as of last week. President Donald Trump ordered that narrow areas of federal land along the border in multiple states be transferred to the military in an effort to snare migrants crossing illegally into the U.S. The military designation has elevated the role of troops in his nationwide immigration crackdown and also enabled harsher penalties against migrants, who can now be charged with crimes related to trespassing on a military installation and face higher fines and more jail time. The recent court decisions have delivered an early legal setback to the Trump administration's immigration strategy. But there have been some successful charges alleging individuals trespassed onto the new national defense area in Texas, where federal land was turned into a 63-mile, noncontigious extension of Fort Bliss. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said in a news release Tuesday that 60 defendants had pleaded guilty and were convicted of charges related to trespassing onto the military-controlled land. "These convictions are a positive step in the judicial process of deterring illegal immigration, and I am very grateful to our El Paso Division staff and to our federal law enforcement and military partners for their diligent work in securing our borders," Margaret Leachman, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in the news release. Texas immigration advocates told that the creation of the new zone in the Lone Star State marks the latest crafted effort to hit migrants with more legal troubles. Danny Woodward, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said Operation Lone Star -- the Texas National Guard's long-standing mission at the border -- saw a massive push in pursuing private property trespassing charges against migrants in recent years. He sees the latest creation of the military zone as a similar effort. "I think that they're grasping at straws a little bit, trying to figure out ways to add charges to people," Woodward said. "It's something that we've seen here in Texas, and it's been a real struggle." Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, a spokesman for Joint Task Force-Southern Border, said a total of 190 individuals had been detected in the New Mexico and Texas National Defense areas as of Tuesday. Under the current arrangement, the military is spotting border crossers, who are then typically detained by other federal authorities. Carmichael declined to specifically comment on the charges being dropped, but added that the military is still staying dedicated to its border enforcement mission. "Joint Task Force-Southern Border continues to stay laser-focused on its mission, whether it's warning sign installation in the most rugged and challenging areas along the border, joint patrols alongside U.S. Border Patrol to detect trespassers, or bringing to bear any of the other unique military capabilities we offer in order to achieve 100% operation control of the southern border," Carmichael said. The signs posted along the military border zone in Texas were, in part, at the heart of some of those charge dismissals last week, El Paso Matters reported. The judge questioned their placement as well as if they could be read before entering the defense land. "Conspicuous matters. Where signs are matters. What they look like matters," Torres said in court, El Paso Matters reported, adding, "If you have to be right up on the sign to see it, you've already committed the offense." El Paso Matters reported during last week's hearing that some Border Patrol agents said they had not actually seen the signs themselves but claimed they had been placed every hundred feet or so. At one point, a defense attorney reportedly lifted up a copy of the 12-by-18-inch sign and asked a Border Patrol agent whether he could read it from less than 20 feet away. The officer couldn't read it from that distance, El Paso Matters reported. "Given our experience here in Texas, I would be surprised if they're able to make it stick for a long period of time in courts," Woodward said. "But I don't think that's going to stop them from trying new and novel things like this." Related: Judge Throws Out Cases of Migrants Charged with Crossing Military Zone at Border
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas lawmakers seek to get federal reimbursement for Biden-era border control expenses
Two U.S. Texas senators and a prominent conservative congressman are pushing the federal government to reimburse the state for billions spent securing the southern border under the Biden administration. The State Border Security Assistance Act would create Justice Department and Homeland Security Department funding sources to reimburse states for actions taken on the border security front after Jan. 20, 2021 – the day of former President Joe Biden's inauguration. Those funds would then reimburse costs for border wall construction, state law enforcement surveillance, apprehension, detention and prosecution of illegal immigrants. Texas would be ensured to be fully reimbursed if the law passes, and any funds left over by the time the Trump administration leaves office would be returned to the Treasury and applied to the national debt. 'Pattern Of Disregard': Red States Seek Court Action Against Biden Admin's 'Shameful' Border Wall Disposal The bill was drafted by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and co-sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz, with companion legislation being crafted by Rep. Chip Roy. Read On The Fox News App Operation Lone Star, Texas' border security endeavor during the Biden years, had to be launched and self-funded from Austin due to the "dereliction of duty" by the feds at the time, according to the Texans. "Texas was on the front lines of the Biden administration's open border crisis, and Texans were on their own dealing with the consequences," Cruz said in a statement. "I am proud to stand with Governor Abbott and Senator Cornyn to ensure the Lone Star State is reimbursed, and I urge my colleagues to pass this bill expeditiously." Appeals Court Rules Texas Has Right To Build Razor Wire Border Wall To Deter Illegal Immigration: 'Huge Win' Cornyn echoed Cruz, saying they and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott – along with state taxpayers – were forced to do what the previous administration would not. "Today, I am proud to introduce my legislation to reimburse Texas for its historic efforts to secure the southern border. My bill will ensure the Lone Star State is repaid for stepping up to protect and defend our nation's southern border while the Biden-Harris administration abdicated its federal duty," Cornyn went on. "Thanks to the strong leadership of President [Donald] Trump, Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Czar Tom Homan, and Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, our country is finally back to enforcing the immigration laws that have been on the books for years, and I will continue to work with the Trump administration to ensure Texas never again has to endure an open-border disaster like we saw under Joe Biden." Roy added in a statement that Biden and former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' behavior led to an "invasion of lawlessness, crime, danger, and drugs, putting Texans, and every American in harms way." States like Texas "stood on the front lines to defend our nation when the federal government would not [and] deserve to be reimbursed by the very federal government that should have done its job in the first place." Abbott recently released a rundown of expenditures he would like to see in any reimbursement, including $58 million alone for concertina wire and border fencing – as well as $77 million in court costs for prosecutions and nearly $20 million for costs associated with investigating vehicle thefts in border towns, according to FOX-4. Fox News Digital reached out to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – who is vying for Cornyn's seat – as well as DHS, for article source: Texas lawmakers seek to get federal reimbursement for Biden-era border control expenses
Fox News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Texas lawmakers seek to get federal reimbursement for Biden-era border control expenses
Print Close By Charles Creitz Published May 20, 2025 Two U.S. Texas senators and a prominent conservative congressman are pushing the federal government to reimburse the state for billions spent securing the southern border under the Biden administration. The State Border Security Assistance Act would create Justice Department and Homeland Security Department funding sources to reimburse states for actions taken on the border security front after Jan. 20, 2021 – the day of former President Joe Biden's inauguration. Those funds would then reimburse costs for border wall construction, state law enforcement surveillance, apprehension, detention and prosecution of illegal immigrants. Texas would be ensured to be fully reimbursed if the law passes, and any funds left over by the time the Trump administration leaves office would be returned to the Treasury and applied to the national debt. 'PATTERN OF DISREGARD': RED STATES SEEK COURT ACTION AGAINST BIDEN ADMIN'S 'SHAMEFUL' BORDER WALL DISPOSAL The bill was drafted by Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, with companion legislation being crafted by Rep. Chip Roy. Operation Lone Star, Texas' border security endeavor during the Biden years, had to be launched and self-funded from Austin due to the "dereliction of duty" by the feds at the time, according to the Texans. "Texas was on the front lines of the Biden administration's open border crisis, and Texans were on their own dealing with the consequences," Cruz said in a statement. "I am proud to stand with Governor Abbott and Senator Cornyn to ensure the Lone Star State is reimbursed, and I urge my colleagues to pass this bill expeditiously." APPEALS COURT RULES TEXAS HAS RIGHT TO BUILD RAZOR WIRE BORDER WALL TO DETER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: 'HUGE WIN' Cornyn echoed Cruz, saying they and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott – along with state taxpayers – were forced to do what the previous administration would not. "Today, I am proud to introduce my legislation to reimburse Texas for its historic efforts to secure the southern border. My bill will ensure the Lone Star State is repaid for stepping up to protect and defend our nation's southern border while the Biden-Harris administration abdicated its federal duty," Cornyn went on. "Thanks to the strong leadership of President [Donald] Trump, Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Czar Tom Homan, and Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, our country is finally back to enforcing the immigration laws that have been on the books for years, and I will continue to work with the Trump administration to ensure Texas never again has to endure an open-border disaster like we saw under Joe Biden." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Roy added in a statement that Biden and former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' behavior led to an "invasion of lawlessness, crime, danger, and drugs, putting Texans, and every American in harms way." States like Texas "stood on the front lines to defend our nation when the federal government would not [and] deserve to be reimbursed by the very federal government that should have done its job in the first place." Abbott recently released a rundown of expenditures he would like to see in any reimbursement, including $58 million alone for concertina wire and border fencing – as well as $77 million in court costs for prosecutions and nearly $20 million for costs associated with investigating vehicle thefts in border towns, according to FOX-4. Fox News Digital reached out to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – who is vying for Cornyn's seat – as well as DHS, for comment. Print Close URL
