Based on current trends and estimates, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says President Joe Biden’s border crisis, spurred by the administration’s lax immigration policies that have triggered a massive wave of illegal immigration, will end up costing the state of Texas $1 billion this year alone.
The Republican governor says that while the state is usually on the hook to help pay for the border security, health care, housing and education costs for illegal aliens allowed into the country by the federal government, this year that price tag could easily top $1 billion given the record number of illegal aliens who’ve been crossing into the U.S. in droves since Biden’s inauguration in January.
“Our state legislature, they allocated about $800 million every two years for the state to pay for this,” the Republican governor said. “This year, because of the extended time that we will have the National Guard on the border, it likely will clearly exceed a billion dollars for the state to have to secure the United States of America.”
Abbott also said that roughly 2,000 illegal aliens are streaming across the border into Texas – just one of several border states – every day.
“The first 100 days of the Biden administration, they’ve been great for the cartels, for the gangs, for the human traffickers who have been exploiting the borders,” he added.
Still unwilling to declare the border catastrophe a “crisis,” President Biden over a month ago tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to deal with the problem. Harris has yet to visit the border or any of the dozen-plus temporary overflow facilities the administration has set up to temporarily house the more than 22,500 illegal alien children currently being cared for by Health and Human Services, an effort that's costing the Biden administration roughly $60 million per week.
Earlier this year, immigration officials estimated that more than 1 million illegal aliens, including some 184,000 unaccompanied children and teens, will cross the border unlawfully this year alone. Border agents added that in addition to those who are apprehended, another 1,000 are likely entering each day unpursued as agents are busy dealing with the influx of families and children.