Texas To Continue Offering Land To Trump Admin To Conduct Mass Deportation Plans

Texas officials said they will continue offering land to the incoming Donald Trump administration to help carry out its mass deportation plans, as they show ample willingness to join the efforts set to mark the beginning of the new government.

Firstly, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said her office is identifying property to offer to the new administration for deportation facilities once it takes office in January. She has already offered a 1,402 ranch in Starr County where the state is building a border wall to also hold a deportation facility.

"We have 13 million acres around the state, and if there's something that meets the federal government's needs, we want them to be able to utilize that," Buckingham told the Texas Tribune. She was joined by the mother and grandmother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl from Houston who, police say, was killed by two Venezuelan men who were in the country illegally.

Buckingham said in a letter to the Trump administration that the General Land Office was "fully prepared" to allow the building of a facility for the "processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation's history."

Buckingham had already expressed confidence that the incoming Trump administration will take up her offer. "We have heard through back channels that they're aware of our letter and they are definitely looking at it," she said.

Elsewhere in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott anticipated to state National Guard officials and Department of Public Safety Officials that "there's help on the way." "The cavalry is here, quite literally with us here today," Abbott said when introducing Tom Homan, Trump's pick to carry out the mass deportation plans as his incoming "border czar."

Homan has also made reference to Texas' offer of land, saying the administration would be open to using it and highlighting the need for such spaces to carry out the plans.

In contrast, Democratic governors of border states, including Arizona's Katie Hobbs, have indicated they will not support the plans. Hobbs said she is open to working with the incoming administration on border security, particularly in combating fentanyl trafficking, but warned: she will not support actions that harm families such as mass deportation. California Governor Gavin Newsom has also signaled reluctance to help with the effort.