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WASHINGTON As Gov. Greg Abbott tries to raise cash so the state can pick up building former President Donald Trumps border wall, Texas Democrats are trying to keep him from tapping into more than $15 billion in COVID relief funding the federal government is sending to Texas.

Every Texas Democrat in Congress signed a letter on Monday urging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to take steps to block Abbott from using COVID relief funding on border barriers, asking her to issue a formal rule making clear that recovery funding cannot be used for a border wall, fence, or similar installation. They also say the Treasury needs to make rules ensuring the money cant be used to replenish state funding spent on a border barrier.

Its the latest in an ongoing battle over record numbers of migrants crossing the border and encountering border patrol a fight in which Abbott seeks to lead the GOP on a national level as he pushes to have the state of Texas finish the border wall and begin arresting migrants. Abbott also moved to revoke state licenses from shelters housing migrant children as he declared an emergency in counties along the border earlier this month.

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The governor who will tour parts of the border with Trump this week on Monday tweeted out a video of a tractor clearing brush, declaring that building the border barrier has begun.

But Democrats point out that Abbott has so far identified just a fraction of what it would cost to fill the gaps of the border barrier, and they fear he plans to use federal money to reimburse state funding hes already started to pull for the project.

With no Republican support, we approved $350 billion in the American Rescue Plan for eligible state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to assist local leaders, who confronted pandemic challenges, and to assist with economic and job recovery, the 13 Texas Democrats in Congress wrote in a letter to Yellen. We are concerned by the prospect of Texas Governor Greg Abbotts potential misuse of these funds to continue the misguided plans of President Trump to extend a wall along the border between Texas and Mexico.

A spokeswoman for Abbott said he still plans to call a special legislative session in the fall for lawmakers to decide how to dole out the $15.8 billion in COVID relief Texas is set to receive so the entire Legislature can participate in the allocation process in a way that best serves all Texans.

The governor will work with the Legislature during that special session to determine the most effective use of those federal funds to address the needs of Texans, Renae Eze said.

Abbott has directed that $250 million be taken from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a down payment for the wall and his office reported raising $450,000 in private donations as Abbott has stressed crowdsourcing will be key to funding the effort. Abbott said the $250 million will go toward hiring a project manager, who will eventually provide a full cost and timeline for the project.

The former administration devoted about $2.8 billion to build or replace barriers along portions of the border in Texas, completing just 55 miles of new wall, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump officials had planned to add some 280 miles to the wall in the state. Biden stopped construction on the wall and the White House said earlier this month that some portions of the wall cost the Trump administration $46 million per mile.

[Abbott] has failed to raise enough money to construct more than a few yards, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a San Antonio Democrat, said in a statement. With so many needs in Texas, spending for a useless wall is truly outrageous. With Abbott having already wasted millions on his pseudo-border security effort, we are determined to restrain him from robbing the recovery funds to misuse for this boondoggle.

It isn't the first time congressional Democrats have asked the federal government to keep a close eye on Texas' stimulus spending decisions.

During the first round of COVID funding last year, Congress allocated $1.3 billion to support public education in Texas, but officials cut state commitments by the same amount and moved the money into the general fund.

Congress later passed another two rounds of stimulus funding that included billions more in public school money. Democrats wrote a similar letter to federal leaders in April, asking that they ensure Texas only use the cash to supplement existing funding commitments, rather than replace them.

IN-DEPTH: White House to Congress: Leave border wall funding to Texas, at up to $46M a mile

The letter comes as recent public polling in Texas shows that Abbott, running for reelection next year, has earned the approval of substantially more Texans than Biden has on the issue.

Forty six percent of Texans approve of Abbotts handling of immigration and the border, according to the survey from the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune, while just 37 percent disapprove. Just 27 percent of Texans approve of Bidens handling of the issue, meanwhile, and 57 percent disapprove.

The online poll of 1,200 residents found Texans are deeply divided on the issue along party lines as well as racial and ethnic groups. Notably, Abbott has a slight edge on the subject among Hispanic Texans, who both parties are trying to woo. Thirty nine percent approve of his handling of the border, compared to 34 percent who side with Biden.

Biden, meanwhile, has said he is working to build a more humane immigration system as his administration deals with a surge in encounters with migrants that began under the Trump administration and reached record levels this spring. The White House has focused its efforts on standing up shelters to house a record number of unaccompanied children arriving at the southern border, an effort that could soon be complicated by Abbotts move to revoke state licenses from shelters housing many of them.

Abbott, who has not ruled out a run for president, has remained laser-focused on the border as he heads into a more immediate gubernatorial primary field in which at least one challenger, former state Sen. Don Huffines, was already campaigning on a border wall.

Abbott has Trumps endorsement, but Huffines has continued to hammer him over the border, saying in a statement last week that Abbott stole his wall idea and calling his plan unacceptable and impractical.

Abbotts plan also includes directing state troopers to begin arresting migrants, a move that immigration experts say is legally dubious after the Supreme Court stopped Arizona from a similar effort in 2012, ruling that only the federal government can enforce immigration law.

Cayla Harris contributed reporting from Austin.

ben.wermund@chron.com

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Democrats try to block Gov. Abbott from using COVID recovery funds on border wall - Houston Chronicle