Map Shows Where Greg Abbott Is Adding Border Wall in Texas

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is touting continued construction of border wall along the state’s border with Mexico, saying that local border security continues to be enforced despite inaction by the Biden administration.

Abbott recently posted videos of border wall being built in Cameron and Maverick counties, home to the county seats Brownsville and Eagle Pass, respectively. On February 29, President Joe Biden visited Brownsville to discuss immigration on the same day that former President Donald Trump visited Eagle Pass—both clinging to their own messaging on what has become a nationally divisive issue.

The Texas and federal governments have sparred in the past over floating barriers placed in the Rio Grande, in addition to razor wire, to divert illegal migrants to points of entry. Recent lawsuits have allowed federal Border Patrol agents to remove such wire but do not stop the Texas National Guard from continuing to erect it.

“Texas continues border wall construction in Maverick County,” Abbott wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. “Until President Biden steps up and does his job as Commander-in-Chief, Texas will build border barriers to keep our country safe.”

Maverick County, in the state’s southwest, has a population of 57,887, according to the 2020 Census.

Newsweek reached out to Abbott’s office via email for comment.

Abbott expressed a similar message a week earlier about Cameron County, saying that Texas “will use every tool and strategy to secure our border” until Biden enforces federal immigration laws.

Cameron County is the southernmost county in Texas, with a population of 421,017.

Starr, Val Verde and Webb counties have also had wall erected in their communities, according to the Houston Chronicle, with all five counties being worked on by five firms for the approximate contract amounts:

• BFBC of Texas LLC ($290 million)
• Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. ($254 million)
• Posillico Civil Inc. ($347 million)
• Southwest Valley Constructors Co. ($249 million)
• SLSCO Ltd. ($137.3 million).

The five contracts cost an approximate total of $1.28 billion, with contracts awarded by the Texas Facilities Commission (TFC). TFC official John Raff said in September that about 12 miles of wall had been built, at an approximate rate of $25 million to $30 million per mile.

Texas is the only U.S. state building its own border wall, spending billions of dollars as part of Operation Lone Star, a program that began in March 2021 allowing Texas National Guard soldiers and state troopers to arrest illegal immigrants.

In January 2023, Abbott announced that retired Border Patrol agent Mike Banks would serve as the state’s first “border czar.” On February 2, Banks celebrated his one-year anniversary on the job.

During the press conference last year announcing Banks’ role, conducted at a construction site in San Benito, the new czar said: “I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult” to make Texas the least desirable state for illegal immigration, according to The Texas Tribune.

Although migrant encounters fell in January 2024, to 68,260 illegal crossings in comparison to 149,806 migrants one month earlier, the numbers remain higher than average. Abbott said that efforts including the floating barriers, razor wire and the newly announced 80-acre military base camp along the southern border should continue to remedy the problem.

Over the weekend, the governor announced that National Guard soldiers are undergoing training to “effectively operate and maintain airboats” as part of Operation Lone Star.

Statewide and federal disagreements have heightened in recent weeks, notably due to a judge blocking the Texas Legislature’s attempt to essentially enforce its own deportation laws.

Just ahead of the Biden and Trump visits and Senate Bill 4 going into effect on March 5, Judge David Ezra ruled on behalf of the Department of Justice and civil rights groups who sued Abbott and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw last year for laws that would have permitted local and state law enforcement to arrest, detain and remove people suspected of entering the state illegally from other countries.

Ezra argued that the precedent in allowing a state to enforce its own immigration policy, which traditionally falls under the umbrella of the federal government, could have a nefarious trickle-down effect and implore other states to also take measures into their own hands.

Abbott has vowed to appeal the ruling, which could potentially involve the U.S. Supreme Court making a decision on whether the state legislation is constitutional.