Texans want a voice in federal border and immigration policy. We have borne the brunt of what the federal government has not addressed. Now lies a pivotal point for Texans of all political ideologies to demand more fiscally responsible policies.
In the last four years, Texas’ taxpayers have funded $11 billion into Operation Lone Star’s (OLS) efforts to tackle increasing irregular immigration. On the opposing end are Texans running nonprofits and community organizing to support migrants’ legal, material, and psychosocial support.
These initiatives are the results of an unresponsive federal government. OLS’s largest proponent, Governor Abbott, requested that President Trump reimburse the Operation’s cost. Texan migrants rights groups, upon losing federal assistance, are searching for local government funding.
Both sides are bound to their criticisms. But they demand a federal government receptive to their needs. Because, for how long can Texans continue taking matters into their own hands?
In this last state election, 2.9 million Texans showed up to vote on Proposition 17. The proposition – now constitutional amendment – prevents property tax increases on border-county-landowners with state-installed border security. Interestingly, the larger support margins came from countries away from the border. These Texans view border security as means to prevent problems that could reach their counties. Furthermore, they want policy solutions that work in the financial interests of the Texans implementing it.
But what if our neighbor Mexico could alleviate these burdens before migrants reach our border? What if U.S.-Mexico collaboration could provide Texans both security enforcement and migrants rights, all for a fraction of the cost?
Meet COMAR, Mexico’s cost-efficient Refugee Assistance Commission. Last year, COMAR processed almost 79,000 asylum applications at around $107 dollars per applicant. Compare that to last year’s Border Patrol’s apprehensions each worth $3,975 dollars. COMAR has shifted the U.S.’s cost burden away from Border Patrol and onto Mexico.
But this year, when the U.S. federal government cut back its funding to the United Nations, COMAR lost 25 percent of its annual budget, equal to $2.1 million dollars. Currently, COMAR is processing a similar amount of applications as it did last year with only three-fourths the budget. As a result, asylum seekers are waiting six to nine months for their applications to process instead of the typical one to two. These longer waiting periods increase the probability of asylum seekers to enter organized crime or to join caravans heading to our border. The federal government can prevent this vulnerable group from interfering with its border by recommitting to fund COMAR.
Texans are in the perfect position to bring their voices to the national stage.
Right now, both of our senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz form part of the current Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration. This Subcommittee holds a track record of meeting infrequently, and are bound to continue doing so without the pressure to reconvene. Therefore, us Texans, regardless of our support for current border policies, need to push for constant review of our tax dollars going to border spending.
We need to contact Senators Cornyn and Cruz to get the Subcommittee to slightly amend the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB). BBB Section 90002(a)(1), which allocates $4.1 billion to Border Patrol agent recruitments and training, should redirect a miniscule $15 million to support COMAR over the next four years. This will allot $8.4 million to relieve COMAR’s worker capacity and $6.6 million to implement research on asylum-seeking migrants’ behaviors across Mexico. Over time, our federal government will be on track to understand how it can produce the most-cost effective combination of funding cheaper Mexican migration management systems with costlier American border enforcement.
Texans have dealt long enough with picking up the federal government’s slack. For mere millions, the U.S. can work with Mexico’s COMAR to save Texas billions. Let’s speak up.
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