Texas has decided to halt new border wall initiatives while ensuring the completion of ongoing projects, aiming to secure federal reimbursement for its border security expenditures.
In a recent meeting held in Austin on Wednesday, the Texas Facilities Commission, responsible for managing contracts and construction of the state-built border wall, revealed that it is nearing its funding and border miles limit.
“Two-point-five billion dollars is our wall. That’s the cap that we can spend,” TFC Executive Director Mike Novak told commissioners Wednesday.
Funding that has already received the green light from the Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott’s office is set to be exhausted once the construction of 83 miles of border barrier is completed, which is anticipated to occur around next summer.
Some of these choices are influenced by Texas’s appeals to the Trump administration for federal funds to cover expenses incurred from the Operation Lone Star border security initiative.
Proposed reimbursement funds are included in President Trump’s budget bill currently awaiting action in Congress. Texas stands alongside several other states poised to receive funding, pending approval.
Since 2021, Texas has allocated more than $11 billion to Operation Lone Star, which encompasses the construction of a border wall along the state’s extensive 1,200-mile border with Mexico.
The state has successfully constructed 66.4 miles of border wall to date, with Novak reporting “significant construction efforts taking place concurrently at 15 distinct sites across 6 border counties: Cameron, Starr, Zapata, Webb, Maverick, and Val Verde.”
A state official informed Border Report that construction on existing wall contracts is ongoing; however, there will be no initiation of new projects at this time.
The vice chair of the Senate Finance Committee, state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, shared with Border Report that while this past legislative session did not allocate new funds for the border wall, there are still available resources from earlier budgets to finish certain segments of the wall.
In a significant move before the close of the legislative session, lawmakers greenlit an additional $3 billion for border security, providing the state with the flexibility to allocate these funds as necessary for enhanced border protection, he stated.
TFC Chairman Brian Bailey addressed the commissioners, stating, “A lot is on the horizon in the next six months as we finalize the wall that we’ve been contracted to finish.”
The segments of the wall constructed by the state remain unlinked, with some instances showing gaps of hundreds of miles between them. The border barrier mirrors the design of the federal government’s wall pattern, with the State of Texas having acquired border bollards from the federal government during the Biden administration.
Abbott has stated that the state’s wall aims to address the deficiencies of the federal border wall.
In the course of Trump’s initial term, his administration erected approximately 450 miles of new border wall along the Southwest border, particularly in Texas.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made headlines by announcing her decision to waive environmental regulations, paving the way for the construction of 17 miles of new border wall in the Rio Grande Valley. She has now signed her fifth waiver to accelerate the construction of the border wall.
The Department of Homeland Security has revealed that a contract has been awarded for the construction of approximately 27 miles of new border wall in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, near Tucson.
A $309.4 million contract has been granted to Fisher Sand & Gravel Company, the same firm responsible for building a private border wall in Mission, Texas, back in 2019. This company also holds the record for the highest-paying border wall contract to date, surpassing $1 billion for a section in the West.
