The Texas General Land Office has offered President-elect Donald Trump the use of a 1,400 acre Starr County ranch next to the Texas-Mexico border to build detention centers in preparation for the incoming president’s promised deportation of illegal migrants.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent a letter this week notifying Trump of the offer.
“I am writing to formally offer 1,402 acres of land in Starr County, Texas, to be used to construct deportation facilities. The Texas General Land Office (GLO) currently owns a 1,402-acre tract roughly 35 miles west of McAllen, Texas. My office is fully prepared to enter into agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham’s letter said.
“I am committed to using every available means at my disposal to gain complete operational security of our border. Please let me know if I can answer any questions you may have,” Buckingham wrote.
During his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
In fact, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, and said he would declare a “national emergency” and deploy “military assets to carry out the operation.
After winning the November general election, Trump named Tom Homan as his ‘boarder czar.’
Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has long shown little patience for those in the country illegally. He has deemed the Biden administration’s immigration policy “national suicide.”
Asked recently on a podcast hosted by Donald Trump Jr. what U.S. citizens and illegals can expect on Day 1 of the Trump administration, Homan replied: “Shock and awe.”
Trump’s aggressive deportation plans have proven to be a contentious topic among at least two Texas Republicans in Congress.
“Congress is going to have to support [Trump] and I frankly don’t want to hear excuses out of my Republican colleagues,” Rep. Chip Roy said, reported the Texas Tribune.
“If the message is, ‘We’re here to deport your Abuelita,’ that’s not going to work well,” Rep. Tony Gonzalez countered.