Texas is offering additional land to assist the incoming Trump administration in establishing facilities for mass deportations. This comes one week after announcing the state would provide 1,400 acres of land on a ranch in Starr County, Texas.
On Tuesday, Nov. 26, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced the state is expanding its efforts. Buckingham said that land near El Paso is also available to the Trump administration.
“The Jocelyn Initiative” will enable the Texas General Land Office to identify all land under its jurisdiction “that the federal government can use for the deportation operations of violent, criminal illegal immigrants.”
The initiative is named after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Houston girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted and killed by two undocumented immigrants from Venezuela.
“When I hear the stories of Jocelyn, when I meet Alexis, who is such a strong mom, being a mom myself, I do not want a single mother to have to endure a similar situation,” Buckingham said during an interview with WOAI.
“Nor do I want to lose any more of our sons and daughters,” Buckingham said. “We’re just looking to partner with the Trump administration in any way that is helpful to them to be sure that these violent criminals who are hurting our sons and daughters are off our soil.”
President-elect Donald Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, confirmed on Fox News the incoming administration will use the land offered by Texas to build detention facilities and conduct mass deportations.
Homan said his first priority is to deport violent criminal migrants. He accompanied Texas Governor Greg Abbott on a visit to the Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday, Nov. 26.
