A Texas official who offered it to the incoming Trump administration this week 1,402 hectares of land He says other places in Texas near the border could be offered in a similar way to build “deportation facilities.”
“Absolutely – I have 13 million acres, if any of that can be helpful in this process, we’re happy to have that discussion,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told ABC’s Mireya Villarreal in an interview.
The Texas General Land Office bought the land from a farmer in October, originally to facilitate Texas’ efforts to build a border wall. Along with this land, the state office owns about 4,000 acres in Starr County, about 35 miles from McAllen, Texas.
“My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to build a facility to process, detain, and coordinate the largest violent deportation of criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham wrote to President-elect Donald Trump earlier this week. in a letter
In an interview via Zoom, Buckingham said authorities were frequently “getting reports from the community” that crimes were occurring at the property.
An aerial view of Texas National Guard troops inspects razor wire crossing the Rio Grande at the US-Mexico border on September 18, 2024 in El Paso, Texas.
John Moore/Getty Images
“There was a great mass of humanity and terrible things happening on this property. We heard it over and over again,” he said.
Buckingham blamed what he called the Biden administration’s “open border policies” and said the county voted Republican for the first time in a century because residents there believed those policies were “directly harming their communities” and endangering their safety.
During the interview, Villarreal noted that he has been speaking with area residents and community leaders who paint a different picture of the area, one of a safe community without the violent crime Buckingham described.
When Villareali asked him to provide details on where these crimes are occurring, Buckingham said most migrants are passing through and, using the same rhetoric about migrants and crime that President-elect Donald Trump used on the campaign trail, said to “unleash some of their violent criminal habits” across the country. in some states
“Well, a lot of it is crime against migrants, but you’re right, the communities along the border are beautiful,” he said. “The people who live there are beautiful. Obviously, most of the migrants they meet aren’t interested in staying too long. They go to other parts of the country, as we’ve seen in faraway states, the people they meet. The Texas border — and then unleash their violent criminal habits. they do in other states.”
He added: “But the bottom line is, until we have full operational control of the border, until we have these violent criminals off our land who continue to harm our children, we must and must continue to work. .”
In 2023, the Texas commission recently purchased 1,402 acres of land in the same county that the Biden administration announced had approved. Construction of about 20 kilometers of the southern border wall Using money that already existed in the first Trump administration.
At the time, President Joe Biden said he had no chance of building the wall, which directly contradicted a promise he made during the 2020 presidential election.
“I tried to redirect the money,” Biden told reporters. “They didn’t, they wouldn’t. And in the meantime, according to the law there is nothing but to use the money for what it belongs to. I can’t stop that.”
Following the announcement, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there is an “immediate need to build physical barriers” in the area.
Buckingham said he is confident he will be informed of the Trump administration’s land offer.
“We have heard from back channels that they are aware of our letter and are certainly looking into it,” he said.
Tom Homan, in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, stated that the incoming administration would be willing to use the land that Texas has to offer.
“We will absolutely do it,” he said, adding that when a migrant is arrested they will need a place to be detained.
Democratic governors of border states — such as Arizona and California — have said they will not support the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs told ABC News Live earlier this week that she would not use state police or the National Guard to assist in the mass deportation.
ABC News’ Mireya Villareal contributed to this report.
