AUSTIN (KXAN) — More than 400 soldiers from the Texas Tactical Border Force will head to the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday to “collaborate with” Border Patrol agents in the wake of President Trump’s declaration of a border emergency last week, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Abbott on Monday directed the Texas Military Department to deploy the Texas Tactical Border Force to the Rio Grande Valley to “coordinate with U.S. Border Patrol under the Trump Administration to secure the border,” a press release from Abbott’s office stated.
More than 400 soldiers from the force, as well as C-130s and Chinook helicopters, will deploy from bases in Fort Worth and Houston to the border where they will join “thousands” of Texas National Guard soldiers to collaborate with U.S. Border Patrol agents, the release said.
“Texas has a partner in the White House we can work with to secure the Texas-Mexico border,” Abbott said in the release. “To support that mission, today, I deployed the Texas Tactical Border Force, comprised of hundreds of troops, to work side-by-side with U.S. Border Patrol agents to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country and to enforce immigration laws.”
This comes as thous ands of people have been arrested during Trump’s first week back in the White House, as his administration has carried out nationwide Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, raids and operations, according to reporting from News Nation.
DEA sources confirmed that a series of ICE “enhanced targeted operations” were conducted in Austin on Sunday.
Trump on his first day back in office declared a national emergency at the southern border and took other actions to restrict immigration, according to The Hill. He directed the Department of Defense to assist the Department of Homeland Security to obtain “full operational control of the southern border.”
The Pentagon announced last week it is sending 1,500 U.S. soldiers to the southwest border, a 60% increase in active-duty forces in the region.
Gov. Abbott’s directive comes less than a week after he sent a letter to federal lawmakers asking for full reimbursement of the costs associated with Operation Lone Star. Over the past four years, the Governor said it cost the state $11 billion for things like constructing the border wall, installing wire and buoys along the Rio Grande, and sending 10,000 National Guard troops and Department of Public Safety troopers to the southern border.
“Last week he said, ‘I want reimbursement for the $11 billion because we were doing the fed’s job.’ And this week he’s saying, ‘We want to keep doing the fed’s job.’ So which is it?” State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, asked.
She sits on the Senate Committee on Border Security and said she wants to see an audit of the $11 billion spent in the past four years.
“It’s not enough to look good, you have to actually do good. We don’t know, yet, what good we’ve done with the expenditures we’ve made so far, and we also don’t know what kind of damage we’ve done,” she said.
Our station asked the Governor’s office if he thinks the state should be sending additional resources to the border before getting any reimbursement, and a spokesperson with the office referred us to his statement on Monday.
The Governor said in his statement, “Finally, we have a federal government working to end this crisis. I thank President Donald Trump for his decisive leadership on the southern border and look forward to working with him and his Administration to secure the border and make America safe again.”
The Texas Tactical Border Force was created by Abbott in May 2023 ahead of the expiration of Title 42.
