STARR COUNTY, Texas (Border Report) — Under gray skies with patriotic music blaring in the background, construction crews on Tuesday put up a border wall on land the state recently bought and offered to the incoming Trump administration to use for deportation facilities.
Texas General Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham visited the construction site and promised that one mile of the planned 1.5-mile-segment will be built by Christmas.
The Texas Land Commission bought a ranch in rural Starr County and is putting up a 1.5-mile-long border wall section, as seen on Nov. 26, 2024. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
“Today signifies the General Land Office’s continued efforts to assist our state partners to gain complete operational control of our border. Behind me stands the first section of the state wall to be constructed on this property,” Buckingham said to applause from the 75 or so people who trekked to this remote county in the Rio Grande Valley to see the new structure.
Buckingham last week announced that she has offered these 1,402-acre ranchlands to the incoming Trump administration.
On Tuesday, she told Border Report they had not yet accepted.
But Tom Homan, whom President-elect Donald Trump has tapped for his “border czar,” has indicated to media that he likes the idea. And he has high praise for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star state border initiative, which is funding this section of border wall.
On Tuesday, Homan joined Abbott in serving Thanksgiving meals to National Guard troops stationed in Eagle Pass and the Rio Grande Valley.
“Gov. Abbott has done an amazing job. Illegal immigration in Texas is down 86% sorry,” Homan said. “This is a model we can take across the country.”
“It’s a shame the taxpayers of Texas had to spend billions of dollars to do the job that this administration failed to do,” he said.
Texas has spent over $11 billion on Operation Lone Star. Border wall costs vary but average about $25 million per mile.
The Texas General Land Office has offered the Trump administration use of this 1,402-acre ranch in rural Starr County to build detention facilities for undocumented migrants. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
The GLO spent $3.6 million in October to buy this ranchland east of Rio Grande City.
Buckingham says it was rumored to be a haven for human and child trafficking, as well as a corridor to import illegal drugs from Mexico.
“Our state remains a beacon of hope, justice and dignity for all who call Texas home. To quote Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: ‘We are witness to the greatest sin of the modern era, the hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children and the horror they must be experiencing,'” Buckingham said. “But the second greatest sin of the modern era is allowing greedy offenders back out onto our streets, permitting them to prevent heinous crimes against our sons and daughters.”
Buckingham’s agency oversees 13 million acres of state lands. On Tuesday, she announced that the initiative to use Texas-owned land for detention and deportation staging facilities of “violent criminals” will be called Jocelyn’s Initiative.
It’s being named after Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old girl from Houston who was killed in June. Two men from Venezuela have been charged with her death.
Jocelyn’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, came to the border wall Tuesday. She said Jocelyn always wanted to be famous while she was living and now so many people know who she is because of her death.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham on Nov. 26, 2024, introduces Alexis Nungaray, center, mother of Jocelyn Nungaray who was killed in June in Houston. Two migrants have been charged with her death. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
“It means the world to me to know that Jocelyn has touched the millions of hearts, millions of people she’s never met,” she said.
Migrant advocates oppose the use of Texas lands for detention facilities, which they warn could become modern-day internment camps.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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