President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly weighing purchasing a large plot of land along the southern border in Rio Grande, Texas.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham purchased a 1,402-acre plot of land for $3.8 million in October and has offered it to the incoming Trump administration to use for immigration detention facilities, according to NBC News. In his campaign, Trump vowed to use the military to carry out his plan for mass deportations.
“Our message to the Trump administration is ‘we’re here, we’re interested,’” Buckingham said. “Of course, we own property all over the state, so we’re ready to sit down with them and talk about what could be strategic.”
To get access to the plot of land in its vision, the future Trump administration could declare a national emergency and divert funds to build infrastructure and fund the military troops assigned to the mission. The physical labor could be done by the National Guard or other active-duty military personnel, with the physical structures being something like tents that could be quickly assembled, according to the outlet.
Buckingham, who purchased the land, intended to use it to build a border wall. According to the commissioner’s office, a 1.5-mile border wall will be completed on the new property this week.
Buckingham told NBC News affiliate WOAI that her office has more land it is willing to use to support Trump’s mass deportation plan.
“We’ve identified some pieces that we think might be helpful to them, but of course, we will partner with the Trump administration for whatever they need,” Buckingham said.
“I think from the detention and deportation standpoint, we probably need some more urban pieces, which we do have,” she continued.
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Trump’s incoming team has praised the state for its efforts on border security. Trump’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, met with Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) along the Texas-Mexico border last week to discuss the state’s border operations.
Homan called Texas’s operations “a model we can take across the country.”