Gov. Abbott says Texas will spend $250 million to build its own border wall where the Trump administration was trying to build one

• Gov. Abbott said Texas was spending $250 million to start funding a wall at its border with Mexico.

• On Wednesday, the state opened a website where Texans could donate to help fund the wall.

• Abbott also demanded Biden return land taken by the Trump administration for its border wall.

• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said the state was funding a $250 million down payment to help pay for its own wall at the Texas-Mexico border.

"That's a quarter of a billion dollars," Abbott said at a press conference. "It's more than enough to hire a project manager and contractor to begin building the wall. We are committed to adding more resources as needed going forward."

Abbott said Wednesday that the state's wall would be built on land owned by the state and areas provided by volunteers who surrendered their land.

He also demanded the Biden administration return land taken by the Trump administration for its border wall.

"President Biden: Return Texas land to Texas," he said at the press conference.

Read more: Matt Gaetz's former staffers are scrubbing their resumes of all links to the congressman

Abbott said those property owners would then be approached by the state to have a state-created border wall built there instead.

The governor announced last week that Texas would start building its own wall after President Joe Biden stopped construction on the border between the US and Mexico when he took office earlier this year.

He also told a podcast host on Tuesday he would solicit donations from the public to fund a wall if he had to. On Wednesday, the state opened a website on which Texans could make donations.

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