DHS Sends Texas $7.5 Billion to Repay Biden-Era Border Costs

Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed the Department of Homeland Security will send Texas $7.5 billion to repay border-security costs the state carried during the Biden administration.

The money comes from the State Border Security Reinforcement Fund created in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Abbott’s office submitted the application in June. Texas is expected to receive three-quarters of the $10 billion DHS pot. The governor’s office said the funds could reach the comptroller within days.

“Texas held the line when Washington would not,” Abbott said. “Texas taxpayers spent billions to stop illegal crossings, catch criminals, and seize deadly drugs. This reimbursement is a victory for those taxpayers. I thank President Trump and Secretary Mullin for this action.”

Operation Lone Star began in March 2021. Texas deployed National Guard soldiers and Department of Public Safety troopers, built state barriers and concertina wire, and used marine barriers and surveillance technology along the Rio Grande. Abbott has said illegal crossings fell more than 80 percent under the state operation even before the second Trump term tightened federal enforcement.

State figures cited with the reimbursement cover March 2021 through February 2026: 538,141 illegal foreign nationals apprehended or referred to Border Patrol, and 157,112 illegal entries deterred. The application listed wire barriers around Eagle Pass, more than 530,000 apprehensions, nearly 54,000 criminal arrests, and the movement of nearly 120,000 migrants whom federal officers had processed and released.

Texas has spent well above the $7.5 billion check. Legislative allocations for border security during the Biden years exceeded $11 billion. Abbott said the state is separately applying to the Justice Department for a share of an additional $3 billion “to fully reimburse Texas for costs incurred due to the Biden Administration’s refusal to enforce federal immigration law.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, helped write the reinforcement fund into last year’s reconciliation package. Release of the money comes 14 months after Congress authorized the program and after Abbott made repayment an early request of the new administration.

Local officials say the check does not close the file. Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe has argued that even as crossing numbers collapsed, counties still need jail space and transport money for cases already in the system. Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith said prosecutions, not arrest totals, are what create deterrence.

Crossings at the southwest border have dropped sharply since President Trump returned to office. ICE reported 49,571 arrests in July, the highest monthly total of the second term. Texas and Florida accounted for a large share of those arrests through 287(g) agreements that put state and local officers into immigration work.

The $7.5 billion award is the first reimbursement of its kind for Texas. It does not repeal state spending still authorized for Lone Star operations, which lawmakers funded again last year at $3.4 billion even after federal enforcement resumed.

Abbott framed the transfer as repayment, not a new grant program. The underlying claim in Austin has been consistent since 2021: the federal government failed a duty that the Constitution assigns to Washington, Texas paid to fill the gap, and the taxpayers who wrote those checks are owed the money back.