Texas steered $1 billion in federal pandemic dollars to Operation Lone Star, which was used to hire thousands of guards, expand the wall, and bus migrants out of state.
Last year, immigration policy adviser Stephen Miller proposed sending a quarter of a million troops to the US-Mexico border to completely seal it off from would-be migrants.
Recent images of Border Patrol agents chasing down Haitians have sparked outrage, but the US has been rounding up, detaining, and deporting asylum seekers from Haiti for decades.
Critics warn that increasing militarization of the border here just means more bribe money, more corruption—and pushing more migrants into the arms of traffickers.