Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the state has officially started the construction of its own border wall.

Abbott made the announcement on Friday as he quote-tweeted Fox News reporter Bill Melugin's tweet that said the first wall panels have gone up in Starr County in Rio Grande Valley. Melugin added that the wall is the result of "state land, state money," KVUE reported.

The Lone Star State's governor also said that President Joe Biden allows open border policies and laws while refusing to enforce laws passed by Congress to secure the border. The Republican governor noted that Texas is stepping up to the federal government's job.

In a separate tweet, Melugin noted that the federal government would not sell Texas the steel already bought and paid for former President Donald Trump's wall. The Fox News reporter said the metal continues to sit around and go to waste, The Daily Wire reported.

The Texas Military Department (TMD) and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) held a briefing on Thursday to update the state's residents on Operation Lone Star.

During the briefing, DPS Director Steven McCraw said anyone trying to enter Texas illegally by crossing the fences would be arrested for criminal trespassing.

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Texas Border Wall

Texas has been using the same contractor used by Donald Trump before Joe Biden scrapped his plans. Texas lawmakers approved the $2 billion program, with Greg Abbott claiming that the high number of migrants crossing the border into the U.S. poses a security threat.

Civil rights groups have criticized the operation, claiming that it is discriminatory and is promoting anti-migrant sentiment, Independent reported.

Laura Peña, legal director of the Racial and Economic Justice Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said that kind of rhetoric has "deadly consequences."

Texas lawmakers allotted around $1.1 billion in taxpayer funds to border security over the next two years during the past legislative session, an increase of $200 million over the previous two-year plan.

Abbott said $250 million of that budget would be allocated to starting the wall project, El Paso Times reported. The state has also set up a website for individuals to make donations for the wall's construction.

In September, Abbott signed a $1.8 billion border security bill. Other parts of the budget funding would be used to hire more Texas DPS troopers.

Texas National Guard to be Deployed to the Border

Meanwhile, supporting members of the Texas National Guard will be deployed to the border. The contract for constructing the border wall was awarded to Huitt-Zollar and Michael Baker International Inc., worth up to $11 million.

Huitt-Zollar said it had designed the Border Patrol stations and ports of entry, while Michael Baker International Inc. said it built hundreds of miles of the border wall under Trump.

Wall construction during Trump's presidency mainly focused on federally owned land in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Trump administration has secured around $16.3 billion for border wall construction from the military and U.S. taxpayers.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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