Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott formally submitted documentation to the Department of Homeland Security to obtain reimbursement for over $10 billion in border security expenses incurred by Texas taxpayers during the Biden administration.
“In March 2021, I launched Operation Lone Star to fill in the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” said Governor Abbott. “For four years under Biden, Texas spent more than $10 billion of taxpayer money to secure the border. I have formally submitted Texas’ application to the Department of Homeland Security for reimbursement of costs Texas had to incur because President Biden refused to do his job.”
Federal funding for reimbursement was made possible by the work of Senator John Cornyn, who secured a provision in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” last year to create a State Border Security Reinforcement Fund to reimburse states, including Texas, for border security expenses. The fund, administered by the Department of Homeland Security, opened earlier this month.
“For four years, President Biden’s disastrous open-border policies wreaked havoc on our nation, and no state did more to fill in the gaps to protect and defend the southern border than Texas,” said Senator Cornyn. “I’m glad the Department of Homeland Security has followed through on my reimbursement provision by opening the application process for the State Border Security Reinforcement Fund to reimburse states like Texas for the billions of dollars spent to try and secure the border after Joe Biden’s dereliction of this federal responsibility.”
Obtaining federal reimbursement for Operation Lone Star has long been a priority for Governor Abbott and other Texas Republican leaders.
In January, 2025, Abbott wrote to Federal leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, requesting reimbursement of $11.1 billion that Texas spent on border security.
“The burden that our State has borne is a direct result of a refusal by the federal government to do its job. The work that Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire country,” wrote Abbott.
In November 2025, Senator Cornyn, Senator Ted Cruz, and the entire Texas Republican delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, asking that Texas be prioritized in disbursing border security reimbursements authorized in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“Texas’s actions through Operation Lone Star were absolutely vital to ensuring the safety and security of Americans across our great country. However, our State should not have had to bear alone the costs of securing the border when former President Biden intentionally failed to do so. We therefore respectfully ask that, as the Departments prepare to disburse the funds set aside in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the State of Texas be fully reimbursed for the costs incurred to protect Americans from illegal immigration and drug trafficking under former President Biden’s disastrous leadership,” said the Texas Republicans in their letter.
