DALLAS — 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 illegal 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 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.
