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Good to hear from you too thinden - and good to hear from Governor Abbot, manning up to the task.

It is the Federal Government’s duty, but they have dropped it. It falls on the shoulders of the Governor, who has not shirked.

I’ve looked into it a bit more, and like what I see. A quarter billion (out of the 1.1 billion security budget) appears set aside for barrier (over ten times what We Build the Wall was able to raise). If that is a single year’s budget, then this is not a trivial showpiece, but a serious effort. Somewhere around 10-75 miles of high end barrier system, depending on location. But they can feasibly make a significant impact with a Program like this (especially if future year budgets can ramp up).

They have announced that they will hire a Project Manager. That person will produce the plan, then contracts will have to be competed and awarded, and the winning vendor(s) will need start up time.

So groundbreaking will not be this year, and it would have to be a multi-year effort to really control the border - perhaps even a decade or more, depending on funding. (That is just building the infrastructure, enforcement will largely remain in Federal hands.)

The issue of requesting land from the Federal Government, likely concerns the parcels that Feds have acquired (and are still acquiring) along the planned path of the Wall. Land acquisition has been the long pole in the tent, to build border wall in Texas. In other States, the Roosevelt Reservation had already acquired right of way.

Texas wants to target its investments where they are most needed, and will produce the biggest effects - the same as the Trump Program. The highest priority miles are in the Rio Grande Valley, where Border Patrol is now leading parades of a thousand captured illegals through town every night, while even more are getting away.

The problem of prioritizing which miles to build first, has been extensively studied during the Trump Program, and is now well known (although it does shift over time, as cartels adapt). To plug those worst of the holes, the Feds have already acquired key tracts of land required, from private landowners, and Local and State Governments, through use of eminent domain.

Leftists in the Biden Administration can use control of that land to obstruct State progress in building effective barrier, where it is most needed. They will of course, also use “Lawfare” techniques to obstruct, using environmental and fake Native American front groups, but they won’t have the Ninth Circuit to back them up in Texas.

So it might be like pulling teeth to get the land, unless Texas Democrats like Henry Cuellar (D - Laredo/Los Zetas) agree behind the scenes (while publicly trashing it, of course). We’ll have to see how it plays out politically, because the shift in voting toward the Republican Party in Hispanic South Texas districts was one of the biggest in the whole Country last election. The Dems might be scared enough to want the problem to go away.

200-300 miles more worth of Trump-style super barrier system (with all the relatively inexpensive technology enhancements) is really the main job in Texas. Those priority miles are the great bulk of the problem - The Rio Grande Valley and Laredo Sectors of the Borders, and 10-20 miles each around Eagle Pass and Del Rio. The rest is relatively playing small ball.

I think that the bottom line on getting the land from the Feds, is that if they do not agree (even though they could fight in court), the State will end up having to go down the priority list, and build where they can get the land.

They will be playing whack-a-mole for several more years at that rate, but as barrier gets built out, law enforcement can concentrate greater resources on the shrinking gaps, and gradually the nature of the remaining terrain will be growing more favorable to law enforcement as well (more open and accessible), as the tougher spots get cleared and built out.

It is just a big job, that is going to take a determined effort. Once the Program is set up and planned out, and contractors are working, it would then be possible to scale it up by adding more money. It is not really possible to start a Program like this at peak speed, there is some unavoidable ramp up.