Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is offering over 1,400 acres of land on a ranch in Starr County, Texas, to assist the incoming Trump administration with mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Starr County, located along the U.S.-Mexico border, could become the site for deportation facilities and staging areas to help fulfill President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations, Buckingham said.
“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 allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham wrote In a letter to Trump.
The Texas General Land Office acquired the ranch at the end of October 2024, originally to begin state border wall construction, according to a news release.
Buckingham said that the land was previously owned by someone who blocked law enforcement access and refused to allow border wall construction. She added that the previous owner’s actions “enabled cartel members and violent criminals to sexually abuse migrant women and children on this land for some time.”
Buckingham appeared on Fox News to discuss her offer of support to the Trump administration.
“There’s no doubt that we are losing too many of our children to these violent criminals that are coming across the border,” Buckingham said. “I am 100% on board with the Trump administration’s pledge to get these criminals out of our country and we are more than happy to offer our resources to facilitate those deportations of these violent criminals.”
Democratic governors of California and Arizona, both border states, have said they will not assist the Trump administration with mass deportations.
Leaders of some sanctuary states and cities for undocumented immigrants have also pledged not to cooperate.
