Texas Gov. Greg Abbott asked Congress on Thursday to give the state $11 billion in taxpayer money to reimburse it for what it’s spent in recent years plugging gaps in the border left by the Biden administration.

Abbott said the state erected more than 100 miles of its own border wall, placed 200 miles of razor wire, and has kept National Guard and state troopers deployed for years.

They helped with arrests of more than 500,000 illegal immigrants, including 50,000 criminal arrests, and seized more than a half-billion doses of fentanyl.

“In short, Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott said in a letter asking for repayment.

Sen. John Cornyn, Texas’s senior Republican senator, said he backed the governor’s request and will fight to get a rebate for the state. Read Full Story

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House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Congress should place conditions on disaster assistance for California in the wake of the state’s destructive wildfires.

Johnson did not say what kind of conditions he would like to see on the disaster relief, but said it appears “state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects.” 

It also remains unclear when Congress will begin the process of considering disaster aid, since the fires are still ablaze and the price tag for such a package is unknown. Read Full Story

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President-elect Donald Trump said on day 1 of his administration the border will be closed and criminals deported, calling it “common sense,” The Washington Times reports.

“It’s going to be closed very strongly. It’s going to be closed and we’re going to have to take people out that are criminals,” Trump told reporters Wednesday evening. 

“We have people from jails from all over the world and from mental institutions, and as you know, they’re going to have to be removed,” he explained. “We’re going to get a country back again and we’re going to be really governed by common sense.” Read Full Story

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