Texas authorities have offered President-elect Donald Trump 1,400-acres of land along the US-Mexico border to build detention facilities for undocumented migrants. The Texas General Land Office stated that the land could be used to process and detain criminals for what Trump has called the largest deportation in the nation’s history. The owner of the land had previously blocked a border wall from being built there but is now willing to sell it for this purpose.
However, Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented migrants and mobilise the National Guard to help faces financial, logistical, and legal challenges. The Democratic governors of California, Arizona, and New Mexico have stated they will not aid in mass deportations.
It is unclear what the new detention facilities would look like, but Trump administration officials have suggested they could be “soft-sided” and built on open land near the Texas-Mexico border. Texas currently holds the largest number of immigrant detainees in the US.
The offer from Texas comes amid Democratic-led cities and states enacting “sanctuary city” ordinances to limit co-operation with federal immigration authorities. Experts warn that Republican-led states may be more likely to co-operate with the Trump administration’s immigration goals, potentially leading to a patchwork of protections across the country. Additional facilities in Texas could mean undocumented migrants detained in blue states may be moved and processed in red states like Texas.
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