Texas Senate leaders signal intent to spend big on border security

Texas lawmakers signaled a willingness to keep up considerable spending in the state budget for immigration enforcement efforts on the state’s southern border. (Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas for ProPublica/The Texas Tribune)

Faulting the federal government for lax border enforcement, leaders in the Texas Senate signaled they would continue to spend significant portions of the state budget on efforts to curb immigration.

The state allocated more than $4 billion on the issue in the last two years, including $40 million in ongoing efforts to bus migrants from Texas border towns to Democrat-led cities across the country and $163 million on a state-funded border wall. Lawmakers appear eager to re-up that kind of funding.