Bill seeks refund of Texas tab at border

WASHINGTON — Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Sherman, wants the Pentagon to help pick up the tab for Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration-and-drugs dragnet at the southern border.

Fallon said he was introducing a bill that would require the Defense Department to reimburse the state of Texas for more than $1.4 billion in costs stemming from what has been dubbed Operation Lone Star.

The legislation cites thousands of migrants turned back at the border as evidence the initiative has stopped mass migrations into the United States.

“It is the sense of Congress that Operation Lone Star has been a tremendous help to stem the tide of illegal immigration and its members should be recognized for their efforts,” according to the bill offered by Fallon and co-sponsored by 11 Texas Republicans.

With Democrats in control of Congress, the legislation is certainly not going anywhere this year, but that could change if Republicans are successful in flipping the House or Senate.

And it’s likely to serve as a reference point as GOP candidates continue hammering the administration over its handling of illegal immigration. In particular, Republicans think instability at the border could help them turn several South Texas districts from blue to red.

Operation Lone Star launched last year in response to what Republicans have criticized as the Biden administration’s failures and inaction on border security.

Abbott has looked to immigration and border issues as a way to boost his re-election effort, including stepped-up vehicle inspections that he later abandoned in the face of intense business community backlash and arranging buses to transport migrants to Washington,

“... Texas is disproportionally impacted by illegal immigration.” Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Sherman

D.C.

Abbott has touted thousands of arrests from Operation Lone Star, even as it turns out those figures include some individuals busted for low-level drug offenses unrelated to the border.

State policymakers have at times scrambled to pay for the operation’s higher-than-budgeted costs, looking to federal coronavirus pandemic relief funds to help plug gaps.

“As a border state, Texas is disproportionally impacted by illegal immigration, but we shouldn’t be forced to bear the entire financial burden when it comes to securing the entire country,” Fallon said in a statement.

The money for the reimbursement would come from the current defense budget, but the bill makes no mention of which areas the Pentagon should cut in order to free up that funding.

President Joe Biden joined other Western Hemisphere leaders at the recent Summit of the Americas, where they announced a new blueprint for handling migrants in a more cooperative fashion.

Biden touted additional humanitarian assistance money and initiatives for accepting guest workers and refugees into the United States.

He also pointed to a Department of Homeland Security campaign to disrupt human smuggling.

The United States and its partners had made 1,800 arrests in the first two months of that campaign, he said.

Biden extolled the economic benefits of orderly, legal immigration while also condemning illegal immigration.

“Unlawful migration is not acceptable, and we’ll secure our borders, including through innovative, coordinated actions with our regional partners,” Biden said.