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Since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last week, Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — the state’s first two elected officials — have signaled a new willingness to potentially reduce the state’s historic spending on border security.

During the election campaign, Trump promised to crack down on illegal immigration by re-implementing policies from his first term and starting new ones. such as mass deportations.

Abbott told reporters Last week, Texas would have to continue its border security measures as an “interim effort” during the time it takes for Trump to implement his border and immigration policies. But once they’re in place, Abbott said, Texas “will have an opportunity to consider” repurposing the state money it’s invested in. Operation Lone Starthe multifaceted effort Abbott launched in 2021 shortly after President Joe Biden took office.

OLS has cost $11 billion to date, and Abbott’s office has asked MPs to approve another $2.9 billion in the next legislative session. Abbott now says the OLS money could be used for things like reducing property taxes or education.

“President Trump will deliver a more secure border than any president in the history of the United States of America,” Abbott said a day after the election. “I’ve had private discussions with the president, and he’s going to be stronger and better at securing the border than he was in his first term, which was very strong and effective.”

Meanwhile, Patrick added that Trump’s victory could mean a shift in spending priorities for the state.

“We had to do everything we could to protect our citizens,” Patrick said in an interview with WFAA-TV in Dallas published Sunday. “We’re going to be able to take a lot of that money now and give it back to our taxpayers, for roads, for water, for education, for health care, for all the things that we need and that Joe Biden forced on us let’s do them. spend because it let millions cross the border.”

It is not clear how exactly the state’s border spending breaks downbut the money was used to get Texas Department of Public Safety troops and Texas National Guard troops to the border; send busloads of migrants to Democrat-run cities; and support local governments that have joined the OLS effort through grants — including sheriffs’ offices that have used the money to hire deputies.

Even though state spending on border security has increased, the survey showed that Republican Texans believe the state could spend even more to secure the state’s 1,254-mile border with Mexico.

Trump’s victory “provides an enormous amount” of political cover to cut spending now, said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin. And with such an expensive initiative, “it’s hard not to feel like there’s room for some cuts,” he said.

“When you spend government funds, constituencies grow among those funds, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s hard to cut spending,” Henson added.

Other lawmakers have also indicated it may be time to cut spending on state border security.

“I don’t know if I won any of it,” the rep said. Gary VanDeavera New Boston Republican who has supported the border crackdown said this week during a Texas Tribune event. “I think it’s time to cut it back, start using those resources for infrastructure and needs in our state, and I think we need to send Congress a bill for the money that we’ve spent.”

Two public policy experts told the Tribune it appears unlikely that Texas will be reimbursed by the federal government for its border spending, even with Trump in the White House and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress, because Trump has also promised to reduce government spending – and money is always collected in DC

Abbott credited the state’s efforts for a drop in illegal immigration into the country through Texas this year; but people who study immigration say several variables contribute to migration patternssuch as violence and poverty around the world.

The biggest “losers” from any border security spending cuts will be DPS, the National Guard and local agencies that “often come to rely on that extra money,” said Tony Payan, director of the Center on the United States and Mexico at Baker Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization based at Rice University in Houston.

“It’s an opportune time, I think, for the Abbott administration because obviously the Republican trifecta in Washington means that now Washington is going to invest additional resources” at the border, Payan said. “So if it goes away, it’s a penny saved for all of us Texas taxpayers, and I saw it more as a political remark.”

Disclosure: Rice University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial backers play no role in Tribune journalism. Find a complete their list here.