Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General

AUSTIN (News Release) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) urging it to press forward with its original plan to build a border wall in Webb and Zapata Counties. The Biden Administration is currently conducting an “Environmental Assessment” of the wall, the construction of which was directed by Congress in 2020 and has since been stalled by the Biden Administration. This Assessment will likely be used as a pretext to halt any ongoing construction.

“A border barrier is critical to protecting Texans,” the Letter reads. “The crisis on Texas’s southern border remains ongoing—illegal alien encounters at the southwest border are currently up to 1,295,900 for this fiscal year alone. The massive influx of illegal aliens has inflicted and continues to inflict serious costs on the State of Texas as well as Texans.” A border wall is an essential tool in halting this influx.

“Until the Biden Administration uses the congressionally-allotted funds to build the border wall in the Laredo sector, our law enforcement community and the people of this great state will see no end to this crisis,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “The Department of Homeland Security has recognized the value in the wall, yet Biden ignores the facts, leaving Americans defenseless. It’s time to stop stalling and secure our borders. Build the wall.”

This letter follows on Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit with Missouri against Biden for his Administration’s illegal cancelation of border-wall contracts, which was filed in October 2021. That suit continues to be litigated in federal court.

Read the letter here.