Texas Guard's border mission needs an additional $531 million to continue past this month

Texas Guard’s border mission needs an additional $531 million to continue past this month, top general says


Texas Military Department leaders told the state Senate Border Security Committee they need more than half a billion dollars in state funds to continue Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial border mission through the end of the fiscal year.

The cost for Operation Lone Star, which has deployed 10,000 service members, has ballooned to more than $2 billion a year. That is well beyond the $412 million the Legislature budgeted for the military department’s participation in Operation Lone Star, and state officials have already transferred another $480 million to the agency to keep the lights on through the spring.

The military department’s assessment that it will need another $531 million to fully fund the mission beyond May 1 drew a sharp rebuke from Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa of McAllen, the only Democrat on the three-member committee.

“I think, quite frankly, you can do the same job, border security, with a lot less troops,” Hinojosa told TMD officials. “I really don’t understand the number of having to use 10,000 National Guard troops for border security.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/05/texas-border-mission-budget/