Abbott Will Attempt To Use Crowdfunding To Bankroll Texas Border Wall

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has announced plans to crowdfund Texas’ border wall with Mexico.

“When I do make the announcement later on this week, I will also be providing a link that you can click on and go to for everybody in the United States — really everybody in the entire world — who wants to help Texas build the border wall, there will be a place on there where they can contribute,” the Texas Republican said on the conservative Ruthless podcast.

Abbott had already announced that Texas would construct its own wall to secure the border but has yet to release a plan on how it would fund the endeavor, The Texas Tribune reported. “Texas will not sit idly by as this crisis grows,” Abbott said in Del Rio, Texas, last week.

“It is out of control and a change is needed,” he said, the Tribune reported.

This isn’t the first attempt at crowdfunding the border wall, as We Build The Wall, a private fundraising organization, accrued $25 million on a pledge to build three miles of border wall across the South Texas border. Four men involved with the effort, including Steve Bannon, were later indicted in August by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on suspicions of allegedly defrauding donors.

Bannon was later pardoned by former President Donald Trump last year.

Abbott said the donations would “go to a fund in the state of Texas, not a private entity, not an individual,” and will be “overseen by the state of Texas in the governor’s office.”

“Everyone will know every penny in, every penny out, but the sole purpose for those funds will be going to build the border wall,” he said on the podcast.

Abbott will also have to overcome legal disputes with private citizens that own much of the land the border wall would be built on. This proved to be a major roadblock to the Trump administration’s own attempts to build the wall, according to NBC News.