Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he will use $250 million from the state prison budget to construct a border wall in South Texas. The governor has also hinted at using some of the billions in federal COVID-19 relief money to continue the project started by former President Donald Trump.
, Washington bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, told Texas Standard that Abbott has not denied the possibility that the $15.8 billion in federal money could be used for the wall 鈥� an amount he said could 鈥済o a long way鈥� toward its construction.
Texas Democrats have responded to that possibility with a plea to the U.S. Treasury Department, that COVID relief money cannot go toward the wall. Right now, the only restrictions are that states cannot use it for pensions or to cover budget gaps after a tax cut.
鈥溾�榃e鈥檙e telling you it wasn鈥檛 the intent of Congress to build a wall, which, as you鈥檒l recall, Congress kept refusing to allocate money for when Trump was president and demanding that money,'鈥� Gillman said of the Democrats鈥� argument.
Abbott visits the South Texas border on Wednesday, where he鈥檒l tour a portion of existing wall. Gillman says the wall segments that were constructed under the Trump administration cost between $20 million and $46 million per mile. About were built during Trump鈥檚 term.
If Abbott doesn鈥檛 end up tapping federal funds, Gillman says the $250 million in state money he promised to spend would only cover about 10 miles of new wall construction. Still, that could be enough to show some Texans that he鈥檚 serious about restricting immigration.
鈥淭hat may be sufficient for Abbott鈥檚 political purposes. It may be sufficient for him to get the signal across that Texas is taking it more seriously than the Biden administration, or he may really be looking at it as a down payment and billions more get pumped into it.鈥� Gillman said.
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