The Rio Grande River in Starr County, Texas.  Texas General Land Office

From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered state property the GLO acquired last month in Starr County. Next week, the state breaks ground building a new section of Texas’ border wall on the property. Buckingham is offering part of the land to be used for Trump’s deportation plan, more than 1,400 acres, to construct deportation facilities and staging areas.

Texas is offering state land to be used for President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.

Trump has said he plans to declare a national emergency on his first day in office, citing the border crisis. Doing so will enable him to utilize the military to secure the border and begin a deportation process that first prioritizes removing violent criminal foreign nationals who are in the U.S. illegally. The next priority is removing those illegally in the country with deportation orders. Combined, they total several million, The Center Square has reported. A majority of Americans polled support the plan, The Center Square reported.

“The moment that President Trump puts his hand on that Bible and takes the oath of office, as he has said, the occupation ends and liberation day begins,” Stephen Miller, who’s been named deputy chief of staff for policy in Trump’s new administration, told Fox News. “He will immediately sign executive orders sealing the border shut, beginning the largest deportation operation in American history.”

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has said deporting violent criminals is his top priority. He’s said he plans to do this by coordinating with multiple federal agencies to remove criminal foreign nationals in the country illegally, followed by those with deportation orders and local jail detainer requests. Part of his plan also involves identifying those on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist who were reportedly released into the country by the Biden-Harris administration, as well as those with local jail detainer requests and imposing consequences for local jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate.

In an effort to aid the administration, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered state property the GLO acquired last month in Starr County. Next week, the state breaks ground building a new section of Texas’ border wall on the property.

Buckingham is offering part of the land to be used for Trump’s deportation plan, more than 1,400 acres, to construct deportation facilities and staging areas.

The GLO is “prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history,” Buckingham wrote Trump.

“As Texas Land Commissioner and steward of over 13 million acres, it’s been my promise to all Texans since assuming my role at the GLO to use every tool at my disposal to gain complete operational control of our southern border,” Buckingham said in a statement. “This is why I am offering President-elect Trump over 1,400 acres of state land on the southern border to aid his administration in carrying out their deportation plans to place the safety and well-being of all Americans first and foremost.”

Buckingham has also taken other actions to help Texas secure the border.

Last June, the GLO declared 170 acres on Fronton Island in the Rio Grande Valley and 45 acres of two islands south of Eagle Pass as state property allowing Operation Lone Star officers to clear what was previously used as a staging area by cartel operatives, The Center Square reported.

In far west Texas, the GLO also purchased the largest privately owned ranch in Texas, which spans more than 350,000 acres and 552-square-miles, for border security and conservation efforts, The Center Square reported.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has praised Trump’s plan, also arguing that Texas should be able to remove illegal foreign nationals through a bill the state legislature passed that he signed into law, SB 4. The Biden administration sued to stop it. The case is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Texas is also daily expanding Abbott’s border security efforts, including continuing to build Texas’ border wall on state land and putting in place marine and concertina wire barriers. The Biden administration also sued to stop these efforts, and Texas continued to build them. Those cases are also before the Fifth Circuit.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

By Jason Hopkins

Canadian officials are bracing for a possible migrant influx into their country because of President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory in the U.S., marking a major pivot in policy compared to Trump’s first White House term.

Canada’s Liberal Party-led government appears to be taking a much more hawkish approach to illegal immigration and the possibility of a surge in asylum seekers, according to the New York Times. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) — the country’s law enforcement arm that patrols the border — is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities.

RCMP would use the extra vehicles to help patrol the U.S.-Canada border and utilize newly-established facilities to detain and process arriving migrants, according to the New York Times.

The preparations up north come as Trump — who just won election to a second, non-consecutive term to the White House — has vowed to conduct the largest deportation operation in the country’s history. He is set to re-occupy the Oval Office in January, where he will get to work on his hardline immigration enforcement agenda.

Canadian officials have spoken about the possibility of a migrant surge into their country early on since Trump’s victory.

“We started planning because we knew that there were a lot of people in the United States who will fear to be deported, and if that happens, they won’t wait for the Trump administration to seize power, it’s more likely that they will attempt to cross into Canada from now in the next few weeks until he takes on power,” RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Charles Poirier said on CTV News earlier in November.

Trudeau’s government did not have the same response to Trump’s first-term crackdown on illegal migrants.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada,” the Canadian prime minister posted on social media on Jan. 28, 2017, just days after Trump was sworn into office.

However, in the years since Trudeau made these public overtures, the Canadian government has recognized the need to change course. The change in policy is largely reflective of less tolerance in the country for mass migration, public opinion surveys have shown.

“To be clear: all newcomers are valued in Canada,” Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, said during a September speech in Ottawa before announcing the rollout of immigration enforcement measures. “But we also need to recognize that this can impact communities, such as the increases in unemployment amongst youth and newcomers.”

“We are introducing changes to further recalibrate international student, foreign worker and permanent resident volumes. That work has already started,” Miller continued.

In addition to beefing up its border infrastructure, Canadian officials also plan to make use out of an international agreement that will allow them to send asylum seekers back into the U.S., according to the New York Times. The “safe third country” agreement — which the Trump administration heavily enforced onto Mexico at that time — designates both the U.S. and Canada as safe countries for asylum requestors, meaning a migrant that arrived in the U.S. must first seek asylum there before attempting to do so in Canada.

“We expect that agreement to continue to be fully enforced,” Miller told reporters earlier.

The RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.