Texas is scrambling to locate state-owned land for new migrant detention facilities as the Trump administration readies its plans for mass deportations come January.
Last week, the state’s land commissioner, Dawn Buckingham, announced a new program to acquire or lease land for federal deportation centers, including a number of “urban locations” and a 1,400-acre site near the Rio Grande. Texas Governor Greg Abbott also spoke with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, about using the military to both erect the new facilities and transport migrants to them, NBC reported.
Texas’s eagerness isn’t all that surprising, given recent history: Under Abbott, Texas has become an aggressive architect and enforcer of immigration policy, despite the fact that those responsibilities are technically reserved for the federal government. In 2021, frustrated by the policies of the Biden administration, Abbott issued a disaster declaration and launched a $11-billion initiative called Operation Lone Star, which essentially created a parallel, state-operated criminal justice and deportation system in Texas. As part of that effort, the state has commandeered public parks and constructed new processing and military facilities, including an 80-acre base in the border town of Eagle Pass. Last week, Homan called Operation Lone Star “a model” for the Trump’s administration’s mass deportation plans, which could potentially remove millions of people currently living in the US. “There is unprecedented success in Texas,” Homan said.
But Trump’s plans will require even more resources, from the workers who transport detainees to the land for detention centers. The president-elect is expected to hurdle some of those obstacles by declaring a national emergency, which would allow him to direct the National Guard and other active-duty military members to work in construction, transportation and other support roles. Texas, meanwhile, seems pretty jazzed to handle the real estate question. The Texas General Land Office owns more than 13 million acres in the state, some of which it’s purchased for the express purpose of building a border wall. The large site near the Rio Grande, which the office has offered to lease to the Trump administration, was purchased in late October for $3.8 million.
Around the same time, Buckingham’s office also acquired more than 350,000 acres near Big Bend National Park, an ecologically significant parcel that had attracted attention from conservation and environmental groups. A spokesperson for the office told NBC that land will “most likely not be used” for immigrant detention, but didn’t conclusively rule out the option. “I meant it when I said that I will do everything in my power to help this administration,” Buckingham said in a separate statement. “Should you need land for a facility elsewhere in the state for the deportation of violent criminals, my office has identified several of our properties and is standing by, ready to make this happen.”
