STARR COUNTY, Texas – The Texas General Land Office will unveil on Tuesday an area it has offered to the Trump administration for housing undocumented immigrants before deportation.
The 1,402-acre ranch is located in Starr County along the Rio Grande. Located 35 miles west of McAllen, Starr County flipped red for the first time in over 100 years during the Nov. 5 election.
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The GLO will host a news conference for what it called a “border wall construction kick-off event,” which KSAT will livestream at 10 a.m. on Tuesday in this article.
The GLO said it acquired the property on Oct. 23 and had planned to build a border wall on the site.
GLO Commissioner Dawn Buckingham sent President-elect Donald Trump a letter on Nov. 19, which said her 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.”
In the same letter, Buckingham also said the property’s previous owner refused to let the state construct a wall there and “actively blocked law enforcement from accessing the property.”
It’s unclear whether the incoming Trump Administration plans to take the commissioner up on her offer.
However, during an appearance on Nov. 20 on Fox News‘ “The Ingram Angle,” Tom Homan, Trump’s pick to oversee border control, said he would use the land for the deportation program.
Homan briefly served as the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first Trump Administration. His new “border czar” role does not require Senate confirmation and would put him in charge of the country’s northern and southern borders.
Homan will join Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in Eagle Pass on Tuesday at the Texas Military Base. the event will be livestreamed on KSAT.com, KSAT’s YouTube page and KSAT Plus.
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