Billionaire Timothy Mellon Donates 98% of Privately Raised Money for Texas Border Wall Fund

Non-Texas resident and billionaire Timothy Mellon has donated around 98 percent of a privately raised fund for the $54 million border wall that Gov. Greg Abbott is planning.

Mellon is known to be based in Wyoming and the grandson of banking tycoon and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, according to a Newsmax report.

He was also known to be a top supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Mellon had donated $53.1 million in stock to Texas in August.

Abbott's private fundraising campaign that started in June had only managed to raise about $1.25 million in its first two months before Mellon's donation.

Some 12,100 individuals had donated to Abbott's fundraising campaign.

Timothy Mellon and His Donations

The state website that tracks the donations to the crowdfunding had seen a jump on the donations on August 27, making it around $19 million.

It had topped $54 million by the end of August, according to a Texas Tribune report. Upon reaching the target amount, the donations have since stalled again.

Mellon and Abbott had both declined to comment on the border wall funding.

Mellon has been a top donor to the reelection campaign of Trump. The former president has made the border wall his administration's priority.

Mellon has also previously donated money to defend legislation targeting immigrants.

He gave an unsolicited $1.5 million in 2010 to the legal defense of an Arizona law that would require police to determine the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally.

Many critics said that the law would lead to racial profiling and was challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In addition, Mellon gave $20 million to America First action last year.

He has donated $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund since 2018 and had given $30 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which tries to elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate.

Mellon has not donated to Abbott, but he gave $2,500 to Republican challenger Allen West when he ran for Congress in Florida in 2012.

Mellon was also donating to two Democrats namely U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018 and former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in 2020.

However, Ocasio-Cortez's campaign later said it did not solicit the donation and would return it.

Mellon has been under scrutiny when he used offensive stereotypes to describe Black Americans in his self-published autobiography.

He also called social safety net programs "slavery redux."

Abbott's Border Wall Efforts

Abbott announced that he plans to return to the southern border on Wednesday. He will meet with 10 fellow Republican state chief executives from around the nation.

Mission Mayor Armando O'Cañ said that he sees evidence that his community is being overtaken by migrants crossing from Mexico.

Abbott and Texas law enforcement officials had also installed a wall of black-and-white squad cars barricading migrants from advancing farther north, according to a USA Today report.

Texas lawmakers had allotted more than $2 billion for Abbott's border security measures, including $250 million as a "down payment" on the governor's border barriers.

The Republican governor had also signed Senate Bill 576, which ramps up criminal penalties for human smuggling.

This article is owned by Latin Post

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Governor: Texas will build its own border wall - from Associated Press