(The Center Square) – The state of Texas has purchased more properties along the Texas-Mexico border to continue its border security and conservation efforts.
The Texas General Land Office acquired a 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County whose property backs up to the Rio Grande River, making it “a crucial location for enhanced border security and placement of a border wall,” the GLO said in a statement.
The GLO also approved an easement to allow the Texas Facilities Commission to begin the process to build 1.5 miles of border wall on the property, it said. The TFC began overseeing the state border wall construction process in June 2023 when Gov. Greg Abbott first announced Texas would build its own wall. So far, Texas has built over 30 miles of steel bollard wall, the first and only state to do so.
The Starr County ranch currently produces row crops of onions, canola, sunflowers, grain sorghum, corn, cotton, and soybeans. It will continue to produce the crops under the GLO, the state’s oldest agency says.
Starr County falls under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rio Grande Valley Sector. The sector has generally reported the greatest number of illegal border crossers in Texas. Illegal crossings reached an all-time high under the Biden-Harris administration. Apprehensions have gone down significantly in the sector and in Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded his border security mission Operation Lone Star over a year ago, The Center Square reported.
With the acquisition of this ranch, the GLO now owns two pieces of land in Starr County, encompassing more than 4,000 acres. Last year, the GLO took over 170 acres on Fronton Island in the Rio Grande Valley, enabling OLS operations to expand there to thwart cartel activity, The Center Square reported.
In far west Texas, the GLO also purchased the largest privately owned ranch in Texas, the Brewster Ranch, which is comprised of 28 historic ranches in Texas’ largest county, Brewster County. The property spans more than 350,000 acres and 552-square-miles and borders the Big Bend National Park, Black Gap Wildlife Management Area and the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River.
The Land Report first published details about the sale; the ranch, owned by Texas Mountain Holdings and Brad Kelley, a Kentucky native and the largest private land owner in Texas prior to the sale. The Brewster Ranch was previously listed for more than $245 million, it says.
“The Brewster Ranch acquisition by the Texas General Land Office ranks as one of the most significant public purchases of land in the history of Texas. This is a great day for our state and a demonstration of Texas investing in Texas,” said James King, of King Land & Water in Fort Davis, representing the seller, according to the Land Report.
The property is located in the CBP Big Bend Sector, which under the Biden-Harris administration reported the greatest number of illegal border crossers in recorded history. It is the largest southwest border sector and the least staffed and least populated. The region is extremely remote with dangerous terrain and not suitable to building a border wall. Nearly all apprehensions in the sector are of single military age men and human and drug smugglers, The Center Square has reported.
Neighboring Terrell County, also in the Big Bend Sector, was among the first Texas counties to declare an invasion on July 5, 2022, after an unprecedented number of illegal border crossers and smugglers wreaked havoc in the small county. With repeated break-ins and high-speed car chases prompting school closures, and ranchers continuing to find dead bodies, the county judge declared an invasion. A life-long Democrat, she also switched parties, becoming a Republican and blaming Biden-Harris administration border policies, The Center Square reported. She also started a trend, with other South Texas and life-long Democrats at the border leaving the party, also citing the border crisis, The Center Square reported. Texas Democrats, including Democratic border sheriffs, have also endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, citing the border crisis.
The state will manage the Brewster Ranch property not just for border security efforts but also for conservation, the GLO says. This includes “many types of leasing options available including but not limited to hunting, agriculture, mineral, and soil carbon sequestration,” The Texas Standard, part of the University of Texas-Austin, reported.
The state is currently battling the Biden-Harris administration over conservation claims, including over protections for freshwater mussels in Central Texas and at the border in the Big Bend region. Last August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing two freshwater mussel species as endangered in the Big Bend region of Texas. It also proposed designating 200 river miles as critical habitats in areas where OLS is actively operating in the border counties of Brewster, Terrell, and Val Verde, The Center Square reported.
Former Border Patrol agent and Terrell County Sheriff Thad Cleveland told The Center Square that if the Biden-Harris administration “were really concerned about the mussels in the Rio Grande, they would prevent illegal aliens from crossing. They leave trash, clothing and human waste that is far more damaging to our environment.”
Instead, their border policies “dismantled the most secure border the United States has ever had” under the Trump administration, he said.
The GLO is the oldest agency in Texas that manages state lands and historical records, operates the Alamo, administers disaster funds, oversees the Permanent School Fund, provides benefits to Texas veterans, manages the Texas coast among other responsibilities.
