Dallas Fort Worth International Airport scrapped a proposal to install Islamic ablution washing stations after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed a review of state grants to the airport and referred it to the U.S. Department of Transportation for investigation.
Abbott announced the move Friday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, calling the planned facilities at the government-owned airport unconstitutional. He ordered a review of all state grants to entities operating both DFW and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, warning that funding could be revoked and future grants denied. He also referred both airports to the USDOT for a federal probe.
Hours later, DFW reversed course. The airport said it had "accelerated its review due to elevated public interest this week" and determined not to proceed with the project, Fox News Digital reported. The airport claimed the washing stations would not deliver "the originally anticipated operational benefits."
The retreat came after a regulatory filing revealed the scope of the project. DFW's outside design firm registered the ablution station plan with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on July 31, listing an estimated cost of $300,000 and a completion target by year's end. The filing also described the project as privately funded, a designation DFW later called an error, saying airport funds would have covered the work.
A DFW spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital the $300,000 figure was a "preliminary high estimate" and that the actual cost, had the project gone forward, would have been closer to $120,000. The stations were proposed for the pre-security side of Terminal D, the airport's international terminal.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Abbott laid out his legal objection in plain terms. He asked both USDOT and the Federal Aviation Administration to review religious facilities and accommodations at DFW and George Bush Intercontinental.
Abbott wrote to Duffy:
"These ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion. That is illegal."
He continued:
"Both airports are government-owned facilities. The federal and state constitutions prohibit government from facilitating this sort of discrimination. Just as the government cannot favor the secular over the sacred, it also cannot favor one religious view over all others."
Abbott's office noted that recipients of state grants must certify compliance with laws prohibiting discrimination. That requirement gave the governor direct leverage over both airports' funding.
On X, Abbott put the point more bluntly:
"Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others. DFW plans to install Islamic wudu washing facilities are illegal. I've directed a review of all state grants to both airports for possible revocation, and referred DFW & IAH to USDOT for investigation. Texas will not allow illegal religious discrimination at taxpayer-funded facilities."
Abbott's directive did not stop at DFW. His office confirmed that George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston already operates an ablution station with an adjoining prayer room. The Washington Examiner reported that the Houston facility is furnished with Qurans, prayer rugs, prayer beads, and a turbah, a small clay tablet used in Islamic prayer. Abbott referred that airport to the USDOT for investigation as well.
Similar low-level basins and interfaith spaces exist at other major airports, including Chicago O'Hare, Just The News noted. But Abbott's argument centers on the constitutional line between accommodating religion broadly and using government resources to single out one faith for special treatment.
DFW Airport, for its part, pushed back on the framing. In a statement to Fox News Digital, the airport said it does not use taxpayer dollars for operations and instead relies on revenue from parking, concessions, and other commercial activity. The airport described the ablution proposal as an internal evaluation, not a finalized project.
The regulatory filing added a wrinkle the airport struggled to explain. When the outside design firm submitted the project registration to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, it listed the funding source as private. DFW later said that was a mistake and that airport funds, not private donations, would have covered the cost.
That distinction matters. If the project had been privately funded, the constitutional argument against it would have been weaker. With airport funds on the line, revenue generated at a government-owned facility, Abbott's claim that the installation amounted to government-sponsored religious favoritism carried more force.
Breitbart reported that the plan called for separate foot-washing stations for men and women, a detail that underscored the religious specificity of the project. DFW's revised $120,000 estimate still represented a significant expenditure at a government-owned facility directed toward accommodating the practices of a single faith.
DFW spokesperson Heath Montgomery said the airport ultimately concluded the project would not provide the operational benefits originally anticipated. The airport did not elaborate on what those benefits were supposed to be.
Fox News Digital reached out to both the U.S. Department of Transportation and Houston Airports for comment. Neither had responded as of the time of the report. Whether Duffy and the FAA will act on Abbott's referral, and what form a federal review might take, remains an open question.
Abbott's move fits a pattern. The governor has repeatedly drawn lines against what he describes as preferential treatment of Islamic institutions using public resources. His willingness to put state grant money on the table, and to escalate the matter to a federal cabinet secretary, signals that this was not a casual objection.
DFW folded within hours of Abbott's announcement. The airport framed its reversal as a routine project evaluation that simply did not pan out. But the timing told a different story: public pressure mounted, the governor intervened, and the plan disappeared.
Government-owned airports serve travelers of every faith and no faith at all. When one religion gets a dedicated facility on the public dime, that is not accommodation, it is favoritism, and taxpayers are right to expect their elected officials to say so.
