AUSTIN, Texas _ As of April 12, 762 Texas National Guard troops were deployed to the border, state officials announced at a legislative hearing on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Texas House Committee on Appropriations, Angela Isaack, manager the Legislative Budget Board, said the deployment had come as a consequence of President Donald Trump's request for the deployment of National Guard personnel to the border.
She said deployment will increase by 300 each week until total deployment reaches 1,400.
Through March 2018, according to a presentation by Isaack, 130 National Guardsmen were deployed to the Texas border.
Texas agencies spent $783.7 million on border security in 2016 and 2017, according to the latest data available. The vast majority of it _ $678.5 million _ was spent by Department of Public Safety.
She said National Guard troops are assisting Customs and Border Patrol agents in surveillance and support roles.
Steve McCraw, director of the Department of Public Safety, said that Texas has "leaned forward and used its own funds for a federal mission."
"I don't think we should put a dime on border security," McCraw said. Paying for it should be the federal government's duty, "plain and simple," he said.
