The Texas General Land Office said it has offered President-elect Donald Trump a 1,400-acre ranch in a county located near the U.S.–Mexico border to build centers for mass deportations.
“I am writing to formally offer 1,402 acres of land in Starr County, Texas, to be used to construct deportation facilities,” Buckingham wrote in the letter, adding that the parcel is located about 35 miles to the west of McAllen, Texas.
Adding that her office is “fully prepared” to work with federal immigration agencies, she said a facility could be built on the tract of land for “processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” echoing campaign statements made by Trump and his surrogates regarding his mass deportation plan.
Buckingham’s office told Trump that Texas purchased the ranch with the intent to construct its own 1.4-mile border wall on an area bordering the Rio Grande after the land’s owner had declined to allow the wall to be constructed on the property and had blocked law enforcement from entering the area.
“I am committed to using every available means at my disposal to gain complete operational security of our border,” she wrote.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. The president-elect also has not publicly responded to the offer.
Trump has promised to stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. There are an estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.
Trump frequently raised the issue of illegal immigration during his campaign, linking a record spike in unauthorized border crossings to issues ranging from drug trafficking to high housing prices. Meanwhile, the arrival of numerous illegal immigrants in cities and communities around the country has strained some budgets and was a focus of political debate over immigration.
On Nov. 10, Trump selected Tom Homan to become his “border czar,” tasked with deportation and other immigration control efforts under the incoming administration.
Homan will be responsible for the southern and northern borders, maritime and aviation security, and the mass deportation efforts, Trump said.
“You concentrate on the public safety threats and the national security threats first, because they’re the worst of the worst,” Homan said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” earlier this month. He also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner.”
