A group of Texas lawmakers are calling on Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen to probe whether Greg Abbott misused federal coronavirus funding for an ongoing political stunt at the border. With Operation Lone Star on track to run out of money, the right-wing governor and GOP officials raided hundreds of millions in federal coronavirus funds in order to keep the multi-billion dollar border scheme operational.
Abbott “is taking this funding away from integral public sector resources,” lawmakers led by Joaquin Castro and Veronica Escobar tell Yellen. “It is negligent and irresponsible for Governor Abbot to direct additional funding to Operation Lone Star, especially if the funding in question was intended to help Texans rebuild from the pandemic.”
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“Essentially, Texas this year transferred money away from its public health and safety agencies and to the governor’s office to administer Operation Lone Star,” The Texas Tribune reports. “That cash, totaling nearly $1 billion, was available because the state had backfilled those same public health and safety agencies with stimulus funds it received from Washington, according to interviews with local officials,” the report continued.
Abbott eagerly snatched this federal coronavirus relief despite enacting numerous pro-pandemic policies. I don’t mean policies to combat the virus, I mean policies to help it, including blocking businesses in the state from requiring vaccinations. Abbott tested positive for the virus one day after attending a maskless GOP fundraiser last August.
While The Texas Tribune reports that GOP lawmakers’ funding trick does “appear to be legal under the stimulus law known as the Cares Act,” the Texas lawmakers said the Treasure Department rules state that “funding should be used to replace lost public sector revenue due to the pandemic, respond to the far-reaching public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic, provide premium pay for essential workers, and invest in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure.”
There is nothing essential about Operation Lone Star, other than it being essential to Abbott’s political ambitions. The state has refused to be fully transparent about the scheme, blocking dozens of public records requests for media outlets.
“To date, Operation Lone Star has hampered Texas’s economic recovery from the pandemic and caused significant harm to Texas National Guard members and their families,” lawmakers note. “Soldiers have attempted suicide, and one solder drowned trying to save migrants because he wasn’t equipped with a flotation device.” The Texas Tribune and Military Times reported that the Texas Military Department didn’t order any flotation devices until February, nearly a year into the scheme.
Federal funding is also being redirected to benefit a racist program that violating the state’s own law. A group of migrants recently sued Texas, after being unlawfully detained for months at a time without any formal charges. These aren’t outliers, they’re the norm, with advocates ringing the alarm about these unlawful detentions since at least the fall. “Virtually all of those arrested on trespass charges are Black or brown, the overwhelming majority of whom are Latino, and virtually all of those arrested are migrants,” a court filing said.
That lawsuit warned that without court intervention, Texas plans to continue terrorizing Black and brown migrants through this racist program for several more years. Or at least until a Republican is president again, because Texas coincidentally chills out on the border theatrics when Democrats aren’t in power.
“As you continue your oversight of the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds, we urge you to ensure all states are using these crucial funds for the reasons they were meant to be used,” they continue. “Texas has struggled immensely during the pandemic, and these funds are critical to help our state recover from the devastation of the past two years. Governor Abbott must not be allowed to use federal coronavirus relief funds to further his political theater at the expense of Texas families.”
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