EAGLE PASS, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled a new border security strategy on Thursday to deter migrants from crossing the border illegally into Texas.
Abbott discussed the plans at a ranch outside of Eagle Pass.
The $100,000 campaign includes billboards displaying alarming messages throughout Central America and Mexico. The billboards feature messages like “How much did you pay to have your daughter raped?,” “Many girls who try to migrate to Texas are kidnapped” and “Your wife and daughter will pay for their trip with their bodies.”
“We are trying to provide reality facts for immigrants thinking about coming here to save their lives, to save them from sexual assault, save them from being arrested, and let them know there are consequences if they take any further steps to come to the state of Texas,” Abbott said.
Closer to the U.S.-Mexico border, the signs warn, “If you cross the border illegally into Texas, you will be jailed” and “Don’t come to Texas illegally. You will be arrested.”
The billboards are in several languages, including Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic.
“It is not only to discourage them from coming but to help them understand the consequences when they come,” Abbott said. “Our goal is to stop people in their tracks where they are right now and have them stop making any further track toward Texas or the United States of America.”
Abbott and state leaders spoke on the ranch of Kimberly and Martin Wall. They stood next to a burned-down tree that the landowners said was the site of a sexual assault. Wall burned down the tree after finding articles of clothing from women and children she said were raped there.
“This is tough medicine,” Abbott said. “We want no more rape trees in Texas. Do not make the dangerous trek to Texas.”
The action comes just weeks before a new legislative session starts and President-Elect Donald Trump takes office.
Abbott unveiled Operation Lone Star, a state-funded border security initiative , in March 2021 because of frustration with President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Abbott has accused the White House of dereliction of duty and said the state military operation was a necessary response to the sharp increase in immigrants crossing from Mexico illegally or seeking asylum.
Texas has spent more than $11 billion on the border security program since 2021. The operation has included the deployment of thousands of Texas Department of Public Safety officers and Texas National Guard troops to patrol the Southern Border to deter migrant crossings, a state-funded border wall and shipping busloads of migrants to Democratic-run cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C. and New York.
“Texas has and we will continue to do whatever it takes to make sure that we gain control of the illegal immigration that’s taking place in the state of Texas,” Abbott said. “That means working hand in hand with the Trump administration to assist them in making sure that we close the border, secure the border, and aid them in the deportation process.”
Abbott and leaders at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) have credited the state military operation with disrupting drug and human trafficking crimes. In the last year, apprehensions have dropped by 86%. And while Abbott and state leaders have pointed to that as evidence of the success of Operation Lone Star, it is worth noting that the numbers are also down by similar amounts in other border states.
Abbott has said he is willing to use state law enforcement or the Texas National Guard to help with Trump’s mass deportation plan.
Trump has said he wants to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants from the United States, something the federal government doesn’t have the resources to do alone. Gov. Abbott is not the only governor willing to help. 25 other Republican governors have also pledged to send people to help with deportations when they start.
On Thursday, Abbott said he expects the deportations to start on day one and will initially focus on those who have committed a crime or pose a national security concern.
The state recently bought a 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County and is offering the land to the incoming Trump administration to build a detention facility and carry out the deportations. A border wall is also being constructed on the property, which is located roughly 100 miles southeast of Laredo.
The Texas Tribune released an investigation on Thursday, looking at the 50 miles of wall that has been built across six counties along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Tribune found that it is not one long continuous barrier but dozens of pieces of wall spread across six counties, in some cases 70 miles apart.
Part of the reason for that is that the state is having trouble getting landowners to sell their land and participate in the border wall program.
Texas Tribune Reporter Zach Despart, one of the reporters who wrote the story, said about a third of landowners have told the state they are not interested. Most of the land they have acquired is in rural areas.
“The largest pieces built so far are on ranches that are very far from cities,” Despart said. “These are in areas that the border security experts that we interviewed in the story said are not the highest priority for the wall because this is not where the high crossing areas are. The priority, they said, should be in cities, in populous areas where it is easiest for people to cross, get into waiting cars or to sneak away into cities or populous streets.”
State Sen. Brandon Creighton has filed a bill this legislative session to allow the state to use eminent domain to get land to build the border wall, which is not currently allowed.
The state wants to build a wall on 805 miles of the border, but according to the Tribune investigation, it has only built about 6% of that. Texas has appropriated $3 billion for border wall construction so far, and lawmakers will likely need to appropriate more money in the upcoming legislative session.
“The estimates are that this program will cost upwards of $20 billion,” Despart said. “There are questions about if this program can even be finished given the landowner land acquisition problem.”
Abbott said he expects the border barrier to expand along the Southwest border in the next few years and he will do whatever is necessary to secure the border.
“What the Trump administration is doing is they want to figure out the most cost-effective and strategic way to go about all this process. What the Trump administration knows is that Texas stands ready to assist them in any way,” Abbott said. “They know that we can build the wall, maybe faster and cheaper than what they’re able to do. We’d be more than happy to build the wall, assuming the federal government pays for it.”
With a new legislative session on the horizon as lawmakers prepare to reconvene in Austin in January, Gov. Abbott is asking for $3 billion in funding to continue Operation Lonestar through 2027. Abbott wants to add more physical barriers and continue busing migrants out of Texas to other states.
On Wednesday, Abbott announced $55.7 million in public safety grants for projects that support Operation Lonestar. Abbott announced 90 grants to enhance border security.
This week, Texas leaders claimed the Biden Administration is selling off pieces for pennies on the dollar. Attorney General Ken Paxton and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham filed motions in federal court to try and stop the sales after reports surfaced that up to half a mile of border wall sections are being sold.
However, the Biden administration is not selling off sections of the border wall.
For years, the Department of Defense has been sitting on excess border wall materials purchased between 2017 and 2022. A section of last year’s Department of Defense budget required the agency to use, donate, or sell the excess materials. Congress mandated the materials first go to border states or other federal agencies that are working on projects “aimed at stopping illicit human and vehicle traffic along the border of the United States with Mexico.” The DOD estimates that accounted for nearly 60 percent of the materials. The rest of the materials, which Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick called “mostly junk, with most panels covered in concrete and rust,” were sold to private auction company GovPlanet.
Patrick said they would buy any panels that are up for sale and give them to Trump when he takes office.