**Texas Unveils Site for Proposed Deportation Facility
Citizen Frank Published on November 27, 2024
Texas unveiled its newly acquired border ranch — offered as
the site of detention facilities to help the Trump administration
with proposed mass deportations — and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn
Buckingham said Tuesday the state is looking to identify additional
land to aid the federal effort.
The General Land Office has more than 13 million acres of land
under its jurisdiction, D. Buckingham said.
“If the Trump administration thinks it’ll be helpful, we want
to be good partners with them,” she said.
The effort, known as the Jocelyn Initiative, is named for
Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Houston girl who was raped and
murdered in June.
Two Venezuelan immigrants who were in the country illegally
have been charged with murder and sexual assault.
“We will continue to fight to ensure that our state remains a
beacon of hope, justice and dignity for all who call Texas home,”
Buckingham said.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Buckingham said
her agency is not looking to buy additional land and added she wants
to be supportive of the incoming Trump administration.
Buckingham, a former state senator whose agency manages state
land, introduced the news media to the 1,402-acre ranch purchased in
October for $3.82 million, according to a purchasing agreement
obtained by The News. She stood before a portion of border wall the
state is building on the property.
Buckingham said her agency bought the ranch after the previous
owner refused to let the state build its border wall on the prop-
erty. Buckingham criticized the former landowner Tuesday, saying her
decision to block the border wall contributed to drug trafficking
and illegal crossings into Texas.
The Starr County ranch is on the outskirts of Rio Grande City,
a town of about 15,000 people 40 miles west of McAllen.
About a dozen Texas House lawmakers — including Rep. Ryan
Guillen, R-Rio Grande City — and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin joined
Buckingham at the news conference.
Buckingham said the 1.5-mile section of wall, being built about
one mile inland from the Rio Grande, is expected to be finished in
the next week as part of Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s
immigration crackdown.
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, said on Laura
Ingraham’s Fox News show last week that the administration “abso-
lutely will” use the ranch land for detention facilities. He did not
specify whether facilities to process migrants would be permanent
or temporary, such as tents.
Tuesday afternoon, Homan and Abbott greeted and served Thanks-
giving meals to Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers
stationed in Edinburg, about 50 miles east of Rio Grande City.
Abbott praised the soldiers and troopers for assisting with
immigration operations, portraying the border situation under the
Biden administration as an “unprecedented threat.”
“This mission that you’re on right now is on your homeland,
a mission on your homeland to preserve the safety and sovereignty
and security of your very own state, of your very own country, of
a threat that’s not on some foreign land but a threat on your very
own border,” Abbott said.
Abbott and Homan held a similar event Tuesday morning in
Eagle Pass, more than 200 miles northwest of Edinburg.**
God guides us but too often we seem to misplace our priorities
and forget who is really in charge.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 