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Texas Governor is directing at least $40m in additional public funds for projects related to his desire to finish former president Donald Trump’s aborted wall along the US-Mexico border. Greg Abbott said the State has started construction on around $38m worth of state-funded sections of border barriers constructed on state-owned land. He said similar materials and techniques are being used to construct barriers, as the Trump administration used for border barriers. Moreover, the same contractors will also fill the barrier gaps built on federal land. In September, Abbott signed the legislation and allocated at least $2bn towards many supposed border security projects with $750m for the construction of barriers and at least a quarter-billion also approved as part of another $1.05bn border seizures bill.

Abbott and other Republicans have repeatedly claimed that President Joe Biden has established an open border policy because he stopped the construction of border barriers. It was a pet project of Trump and his hardline immigration adviser Stephen Miller. Biden has also tried to reverse Trump-era policies to make it more difficult for non-white migrants from South and Central America to claim asylum in the United States. However, it is a right ensured under both the US and international law. On Friday, Abbott retweeted and shared images of the state-funded border barriers along with the comment. He said that President Biden allows open border policies and rejects implementing laws passed by US Congress to secure the border and carry out immigration laws. Abbott said Texas is strengthening the way to perform the job of the US federal government.

Moreover, President Biden or his administration didn’t support an open borders policy. But Republicans used the term to mention any immigration policy under which nonwhite immigrants are allowed to claim asylum after reaching the territory of the United States. Governor Abbott has also implemented other policies which aimed to compel federal immigration law. However, a state official doesn’t have the authority over including using state law enforcement to arrest asylum-seekers for violating and putting them into jail. The US Department of Justice also sued Abbott and the state of Texas in July after he signed an order directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to stop suspected vehicles for carrying migrants and turn them back towards the US-Mexico border.