Gov. Abbott found way to make Texas border wall plan worse: begging public to donate

Editor's note: Updated Wednesday afternoon to reflect the governor's announcement.

Gov. Greg Abbott wants you to know he’s serious about Texas building its own border wall.

Forget that he didn’t mention it while the Legislature was in session for five months. Don’t dwell on the cost or the logistical and legal obstacles. Pay no attention to the fact that Abbott’s proposal came only after his potential Republican primary rival, former state Sen. Don Huffines, made it central to his campaign.

No, the governor is so super-intent on doing this thing that on Wednesday, he appeared with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan in Austin to discuss the idea. And he’ll soon take Donald Trump on a tour of the “decimated” border, according to the former president.

For the moment, let’s take Abbott at his word and examine the idea on its merits.

It’s not up to Texas to police the border. It’s clearly a federal job, and even if you think Washington has botched it, it’s a mistake to direct more state tax money and personnel to it. Conservatives rightly celebrate the Constitution’s clear delineation of duties and powers. Abbott announced Tuesday that he had signed a resolution supporting the 10th Amendment’s reservation of power not explicitly granted to the federal government to states and the people. Yet, here he’s trying to take on a federal task.

Abbott has come up with a workaround for what he called a “tidal wave of illegal immigrants.” By erecting barriers, he said Wednesday, Texas can arrest them on charges of trespassing. It’s a dangerous extension of state law enforcement into federal immigration law, bound to create legal hurdles and complications.

He and legislative leaders are kicking off the project with a budgetary shell game, moving $250 million by declaring an emergency. And yet, he all but admitted that the project is too expensive for the state by asking the public to donate to the cause. How embarrassing. Do Texans really want government by GoFundMe?

Trump’s effort to construct or repair about 450 miles of barrier cost about $15 billion (and no, he never made good on his promise to extract payment from Mexico). Texas’ share of the border is more than 1,200 miles.

Attempting a wall will mire the state in all kinds of lawsuits, and not just from interest groups determined to stop it. Think of the property owners who would have to be squashed with eminent domain, the government power to take land for a public project. The process takes years.

The entire push is puzzling. Abbott has held statewide office for decades, and he’s never had to break a sweat in either a Republican primary or a general election. Of course, he’s accomplished that by never letting anyone occupy much space to his right. Dissatisfaction with the governor’s emergency handling of the coronavirus pandemic has led to louder criticism in his own party than in years past, but few think Huffines (or another potential candidate, departing Texas GOP chairman Allen West) pose much threat to the incumbent.

And it’s not as if alarm over the border situation is new. Texas Republicans have railed about it for years, and particularly in the first few months of the Biden administration, as huge numbers of migrants and asylum seekers have again swamped the immigration system.

Indeed, Republicans in the Legislature eagerly deploy state resources to make the point. For years, they’ve poured money into the Department of Public Safety to support border-security operations. The next two-year budget, awaiting Abbott’s signature, allocates more than $1 billion to the task.

If lawmakers had wanted to debate a state-funded border wall, they had every chance to do so in the session they just finished. Abbott, who isn’t shy about using his power to declare a legislative emergency to highlight his policy priorities, did not do so with border security, even as the spike in migrants arriving was clear.

But it wasn’t quite campaign season, so Abbott clearly chose to hold on to the issue.

There was never going to be a complete federal border wall. And there won’t be one built by Texas, either. Some additional barriers might be erected, and in certain areas, those can be effective.

Securing the border will take a smart mix of policies, and the governor could highlight and support those. Instead, like the ex-president coming to Texas in a couple weeks, he’s going for the shiny political distraction.