In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday signaled strong cooperation between state and federal law enforcement during a Thanksgiving dinner event in the border town of Edinburg. Abbott was joined by incoming U.S. border czar Tom Homan, who helped serve meals to Texas state troopers and National Guard members. Separately, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham on Tuesday offered the incoming Trump administration the use of up to 13 million acres of Texas land to stage mass deportations. Buckingham spoke from a Starr County ranch in the Rio Grande Valley, where Texas is currently constructing a section of border wall.
Dawn Buckingham: “I have extended an offer to President Trump and incoming border czar Tom Homan to use this 1,400-acre property to construct a facility for the processing, detention and coordination efforts of what will be the largest deportation of violent criminals in our nation’s history.”
Meanwhile, U.S. agricultural industry groups are calling on the incoming Trump administration to exempt farmworkers from mass deportations, arguing Trump’s promise to expel millions of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. would devastate their sector. An estimated 1 million farm, dairy and meatpacking workers are undocumented.