Texas agency offers Trump land for ‘deportation facilities’

WASHINGTON: Texas authorities have offered the incoming Trump administration land on the border with Mexico to build “deportation facilities” in support of the president-elect´s plan for the mass removal of undocumented migrants.

Incoming president Donald Trump said this week he planned to declare a national emergency on border security and use the US military to carry out the mass deportation of undocumented migrants after taking office in January.

On Wednesday, the Texas General Land Office announced that commissioner Dawn Buckingham has offered him more than 1,400 acres of public land on the US southern border “to aid his administration in carrying out their deportation plans”.

The plot of land is a ranch along the Rio Grande river -- serving as a border between the United States and Mexico -- in Starr county. It was acquired by the office in late October, the statement from the agency said.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Buckingham said she had authorized a 1.5-mile easement on the ranch to allow “the Texas Border Wall to be built” after the land was acquired.

She added that her office was “fully prepared” to work with US federal agencies 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.”

Republican Trump has repeatedly railed against undocumented migrants during the election campaign, blaming them for “poisoning the blood” of the country and highlighting violent crimes perpetrated by members of the migrant community.