By Lana Ferguson
Dallas Morning News
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News
Deportation facilities and staging areas could be built on the property, the official said.
The Texas General Land Office is offering President-elect Donald Trump its recently acquired 1,400-acre ranch on the state’s border with Mexico “for the construction of deportation facilities and staging areas” to deport undocumented immigrants starting next year.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham penned a letter to Trump on Tuesday saying her office is prepared to enter an agreement with federal agencies to build a facility for the “processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history.”
“As Texas Land Commissioner and steward of over 13 million acres, it’s been my promise to all Texans since assuming my role at the GLO to use every tool at my disposal to gain complete operational control of our southern border,” Buckingham said in a news release this week. “This is why I am offering President-elect Trump over 1,400 acres of state land on the southern border to aid his administration in carrying out their deportation plans to place the safety and well-being of all Americans first and foremost.”
The president-elect’s transition team did not say whether they would accept Texas’ offer but sent a statement.
“On day one, President Trump will marshal every lever of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrant criminals in history,” Karoline Leavitt, the transition spokeswoman for Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance, said Wednesday.
Trump campaigned on a promise to deport a record number of undocumented immigrants, with the operation to launch on “day one.”
“We do hear through back channels that they are taking a look at it and considering it. But we just want them to know we’re a good partner. We’re here. We want to be helpful,” Buckingham told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.
Trump has named Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to be his “border czar.” Homan has said the new administration would carry out workplace immigration raids.
Trump taps for acting ICE director Tom Homan as ‘border czar’
The president-elect made cracking down on illegal immigration the central element of his campaign, promising mass deportations.
Trump also chose Stephen Miller to be deputy chief of staff for policy and the president’s homeland security adviser.
Miller first suggested the idea of large detention camps in a 2022 interview with The New York Times.
Miller said the camps would likely be built “on open land in Texas near the border” to hold migrants who had been arrested and were being processed for deportation.
State Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, whose district includes the ranch, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment Wednesday morning.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The land office purchased the Starr County property, about 35 miles west of McAllen, late last month because its frontage on the Rio Grande makes it a crucial location for enhanced border security, officials said.
It’s where state leaders plan to build a 1.5-mile stretch of border wall and less than 24 hours after the land acquisition, Buckingham signed an agreement with the Texas Facilities Commission that authorizes it to begin border wall construction.
The previous landowner refused to let a wall be built on the property and actively blocked law enforcement from entering the area, Buckingham wrote in her letter to Trump.
“I am committed to using every available means at my disposal to gain complete operational security for our border,” Buckingham wrote.
Starr County is part of the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, which has recorded approximately 1.4 million migrant encounters crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into South Texas since January 2021, according to the land office.
The property has no paved roads and sits in a county with one public hospital and limited local resources. But Buckingham stressed its location.
“We feel like this is actually very well-located. The land is very flat there. It’s adjacent to major airports. It’s also adjacent to a bridge over the river,” Buckingham told the AP. “So if it’s helpful, then I would love to partner up with the federal government. And if it’s not, then we’ll continue to look to ways to be helpful to them.”
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Buckingham said the land is easy to build on and accessible to an international airport.
“We’re just happy to get help to do anything we can to get these violent criminals off of our soil,” Buckingham said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas. |
You must be logged in to post a comment Login