HOUSTON – Last week, Tom Homan, an immigration hard-liner selected by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as his “border czar,” boarded a helicopter with Gov. Greg Abbott for an aerial tour of Texas’ border efforts. From the helicopter, they viewed the newly built camp for the Texas National Guard, whose border mission increasingly resembles a military deployment. Nearby, a line of buoy barriers in the Rio Grande puts migrants at risk of drowning. The river’s edge is lined with concertina wire, which has often caused cuts and gashes for border crossers. State police patrol the brush, regularly arresting migrants in an expansion of state authority over immigration issues. “This is a model we can take across the country,” Homan remarked to a group of National Guard members and Texas state troopers in Eagle Pass. “I am impressed by what I’ve seen today.”
Frustrated by the Biden administration’s inability to secure the border, Texas has spent billions of dollars over the past three years working to prevent unauthorized crossings, often clashing with the federal government and pushing the limits of state power. With that effort now winding down, Texas is preparing to play a central role in the Trump administration’s promised swift border crackdown and the largest deportation program in U.S. history. Other Republican-led states have voiced support for the initiative. In Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox pledged to help identify, incarcerate, and deport migrants who have committed crimes. Oklahoma’s Gov. Kevin Stitt announced his intention to deport unauthorized migrants in state prisons. But Texas, as the only Republican-led state on the Mexican border, stands out.
In recent weeks, Texas officials have initiated new border programs, planned for the end of several legal disputes with the federal government, and offered assistance to the Trump administration in launching its deportation program. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham has already offered 1,400 acres of state land along the South Texas border for a large federal deportation center, revealing that other sites around El Paso have been identified. “Whatever the federal government needs, I have hundreds of thousands of acres on the river,” Buckingham said in an interview. “If the Trump administration asked for a property near Austin, Dallas, or Houston, we’d be happy to help.”
Abbott has mentioned that he and Trump discussed the border after the election, and that Texas is already taking “actions, planning, preparation, schematics” for the deportation program. However, Trump has not detailed his plans, though he has suggested declaring a national emergency on immigration and involving the U.S. military. In a joint interview with Homan on Fox News, Abbott voiced support for using the U.S. military for deportations, citing the role of the Texas National Guard in Operation Lone Star. “In Texas, we showed how police can work with the military, where police handle the enforcement and the military builds barriers,” Abbott said. “Look, me and Gov. Abbott, we’re already working together,” Homan added. “We’re already making plans. We’re not waiting for Jan. 20. The planning starts now. Jan. 20: Game on.”
However, Abbott has also suggested that Texas’ role will diminish once the Trump administration takes office, calling the state’s current border enforcement efforts a “stopgap.” Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have stated that once the Trump administration takes over, the state can redirect its border-related spending toward other priorities. Texas has already spent more than $10 billion on border security in the past three years. “We’ll be able to return a lot of that money to our taxpayers for roads, water, education, and healthcare,” Patrick said in an interview after the election.
Democrats have called on Abbott to seek reimbursement from the incoming Trump administration for the state’s expenses. “The time is now,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, chair of the Democratic caucus in the Texas House.
Since President Biden’s inauguration, Abbott has tested the limits of state authority in enforcing immigration laws, which are typically a federal responsibility. Texas state police began arresting migrants on state charges of trespassing on private land in 2021, holding thousands in state jails for months while awaiting trial. Many migrants chose to plead guilty in exchange for release, only to be deported by the federal government. This process might now influence federal practices, according to Kristin Etter, director of policy at the Texas Immigration Law Council. “Everything done under Operation Lone Star is a prototype for how to round up immigrants, put them in harsh conditions, pretend to offer due process, and then coerce them into accepting deportation,” she said.
Earlier this year, Texas attempted to grant local police more power by making unauthorized border crossings a state crime. The law, Senate Bill 4, also empowered state police to order migrants back to Mexico. The law was blocked by the Biden administration and civil rights groups, with a federal court case still ongoing. Even if the Trump administration drops the challenge, the legal fight against SB 4 is likely to continue. “The law is unconstitutional and goes against a century of precedent,” said Adriana Piñon, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Meanwhile, Texas has grown increasingly confident that its legal position on the border is improving. Abbott recently extended the buoy barrier at Eagle Pass, likely anticipating that the federal government would drop its legal challenge. The state had been more active until migrant crossings dropped sharply this year. Texas’ migrant busing program, which relocated around 120,000 migrants to Democratic cities, has largely halted due to the decrease in migrant numbers. However, immigrant advocates suggest that this network could be revived for deportations. “They could just turn those buses around and bus immigrants from blue cities back to Texas,” Etter said. “They already have all the infrastructure.”
Since the election, Texas has announced new enforcement measures, such as the introduction of a mounted unit to patrol the border on horseback. Some local law enforcement officials, however, have not seen much in terms of preparations for new enforcement efforts. “Nothing, so far as I know,” said Sheriff Tom Schmerber of Maverick County. Schmerber, a Democrat, said he would work with the Trump administration on deportations but noted the need for federal resources. “I don’t have the place in the county jail, and I don’t have enough deputies to work immigration,” he said. “We don’t have the resources for that. Not that I don’t want to help.”
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