LINCOLN - When Nebraska sent state troopers to the Texas-Mexico border over the summer, spokespeople said the state may be reimbursed for the cost. But behind the scenes, there was an understanding among state employees that Nebraska would pay for the deployment, according to emails and text messages obtained by The World-Herald.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts was one of multiple Republican governors who responded to a call for help at the border from Texas and Arizona via the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, commonly referred to as EMAC, a mutual aid agreement among states. Ricketts said at the time that the state was “happy to step up” and that the federal government had fallen short in its response at the border.

The World-Herald reported in July that Nebraska had agreed not to seek reimbursement from Texas for costs, most recently estimated at $500,000.

The World-Herald has since reviewed dozens of pages of emails and text messages, obtained under the state’s public records law, between state officials and employees in the days leading up to the original deployment and the deployment’s extension. Some show that employees understood, even before the deployment was announced, that the state would not be reimbursed.

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