Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is offering 1,402 acres of land the state purchased from the Trump administration along the Texas-Mexico border for use in a mass deportation operation.
In a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, Buckingham said he is offering the land “to build removal facilities.”
The Texas General Land Office bought the land from a farmer in October to facilitate Texas’ efforts to build the wall.
“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 he wrote in the lettertuesday
The border wall runs along the Texas 375 Loop in El Paso, Texas, on April 10, 2024.
Alexandra Buxbaum/Sipa USA via AP
The move shows that despite Democratic governors in California and Arizona, two other southern border states, Pledge not to support the Trump administration’s mass deportation plansthe incoming administration will have allies in Republican-led states.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs told ABC News Live on Monday that she would not use state police or the National Guard to help with the mass deportation.
“We will not participate in misguided efforts that harm our communities,” he said.
Trump on Monday He confirmed that he would declare a national emergency He pledged to follow through on his campaign promise of mass deportations of immigrants living in the US without legal authorization, and to begin mass deportations as soon as he takes office.
A spokesman for Trump’s transition team said the president-elect will “pull all the levers of power” to launch his mass deportation plans.
“Local and state officials on the front lines of the Harris-Biden border invasion have been suffering for four years and are eager to have President Trump back in the Oval Office. On day one, President Trump will bring together all the levers of power to secure the border, protect their communities, and launch the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in history. the biggest massive,” said Karoline Leavitt.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent inspects land along the Rio Grande in Starr County, Texas, as part of a federal call for the U.S.-Mexico border.
Sgt. Mark Otte/Texas Military Department via AP
In an interview with Fox News, when the Texas General Land Office’s offer was first announced, Buckingham reiterated that he is “100% on board” with the incoming administration’s promise to deport criminals.
The land is located in Starr County, 35 miles west of McAllen, Texas.
“Now it’s basically farmland, so it’s flat, it’s easy to build on. We can very easily put a detention center there as we get these criminals out of our country,” he told Fox News.
