GOVERNOR ABBOTT'S BORDER WALL PROJECT: FACT AND FICTION

 

Governor Greg Abbott

Governor Abbott took a look at the calendar, noticing fewer than 500 days until the Texas gubernatorial election, and took a page out his mentor's playbook, announcing that Texas would build its own border wall :

"Texas is doing more than any state has ever done to protect the border, but it is clear that more is needed. In the Biden Administration's absence, Texas is stepping up to get the job done by building the border wall. Through this comprehensive public safety effort, we will secure the border, slow the influx of unlawful immigrants, and restore order in our border communities."

Completing a wall along the Texas-Mexico border is a tall order, but let's start with a few facts.

The entire U.S.-Mexico border runs 1,954 miles.  Before Trump took office 654 miles of fence had already been built.

You will hear various claims, but, during four years of the Trump administration, 452 miles of wall were built, but that was mostly repairing old wall.

80 miles of new wall were built, but 33 of those miles were secondary wall behind the primary one, leaving 47 miles of actual wall length built during Trump's four year term.

At that rate it would take 104 more years to complete the wall.

Trump eventually spent $15 billion on the border wall, much of diverted for the Department of Defense.

Of the 1,954 miles of southern border, the line between Texas and Mexico accounts for 1,254 of those miles.

Governor Abbott has already seen $250 million appropriated for the wall, but that's considered a mear "down payment."

Abbott has his eyes on $1.1 billion already allocated in the Texas budget for border security, possibly diverting those funds to his wall project.

Even so, Abbott may be at least $10 billion short of what it will take to build the wall.

Abbott's wall project hit a snap recently when 11 counties, 4 in the Rio Grande Valley, opted out the Border Crisis Disaster Declaration necessary to qualify for wall construction in their county.

Building a wall is part of that project, but so is jailing anyone entering the country illegally.

The four RGV County Judges conferred via zoom, all agreeing to disagree with Abbott's border policy, calling it a "PR move."

We will monitor the progress of Governor Abbott's border wall, but, with the project not having the participation of the Rio Grande Valley and being about $10 billion short on funds, the prospect of a completion soon doesn't seem likely.