Did Texas gift 355,000 acres of land to Trump for deportation camps? No, the offer was way smaller

In keeping with a core campaign promise, President-elect Donald Trump said his administration would declare a national emergency and use military assets to conduct a mass deportation program. 

Trump advisers have previously said this could mean using military funds to construct holding facilities, using the Defense Department’s transportation assets and even tapping the National Guard to act as immigration enforcement officers.

According to one social media post, the border state of Texas is already helping deliver this promise by offering hundreds of thousands of acres of land to facilitate deportations.

"Texas just gifted Trump 355,000 acres for deportation camps," a Threads user posted Nov. 20. "I want you to think about that critically."

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The Texas General Land Office, which manages state lands, has offered land to the Trump administration to aid in deportation. But the amount of land offered is nowhere near 355,000 acres. That figure is equivalent to 554.6 square miles. (In comparison, the land area of the capital city of Austin is about 320 square miles.)

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham wrote a Nov. 19 letter to Trump offering 1,402 acres of land in Starr County, Texas, "to be used to construct deportation facilities." This is the only tract Buckingham has offered, the Texas General Land Office confirmed to PolitiFact. 

In her letter, she said the tract was about 35 miles west of McAllen, Texas, and along the U.S.-Mexico border. The office acquired the ranch in October. She said within 24 hours, she granted an easement across the ranch to allow the construction of a border wall.

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts

stated on November 23, 2024 in a Facebook post

The NFL said Beyoncé is “not a good artist” and rejected her Christmas halftime show.

"My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol 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," she wrote.

Tom Homan, Trump’s appointed "border czar," said Nov. 20 on Fox News’ "The Ingraham Angle" that he will use the land Texas offered as a detention facility.

Texas has not offered any more land to help these operations. In a follow-up Nov. 21 post, the Threads user said, "I am aware that the number I posted is incorrect."

We rate the claim that Texas gifted Trump 355,000 acres for deportation camps False.

RELATED: Who is Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s ‘border czar’? And what has he said about mass deportations?