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Texas Asks For $30 Million To Secure Border

Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R)

  Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked the U.S. Homeland Security secretary for $30 million so Texas can send more state troopers to the Texas-Mexico border to provide security while the Border Patrol is contending with an immigration surge.

In a letter Thursday, Abbott, Republican nominee for Texas governor, tells Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson that it would cost $1.3 million per week for the state to launch a significant border security operation.

Abbott says organized crime is benefiting as Border Patrol agents deal with a humanitarian crisis of more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who entered the country from last October to this May.

Border Patrol agents have made more than 170,000 arrests in the Rio Grande Valley this fiscal year, more than double any other border sector.

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