AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is offering the trump administration land, military bases and jail cells to help his administration crack down on illegal immigration and secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
Abbott made the offer on Wednesday in a private meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House. The state shares a 1,254-mile border with Mexico, the most of any state in the country.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Abbott touted the 50 miles of border wall the state has completed. He said they plan to add 20 more miles in the coming days. Trump has vowed to help Texas build more of the wall on the border and send the military to help with border enforcement.
Abbott said the federal government could take over military bases the state built in Del Rio and Eagle Pass. The two bases combined can house up to 2400 soldiers, ice agents, or border patrol agents.
Abbott also offered prison cells across the state to be used to detain people who are in the country illegally.
“The state of Texas is offering 4000 prison cells at no cost to the United States that they will be able to use for at least the next 4 years or longer than that if it’s needed,” Abbott said.
Abbott said the state will continue to do whatever it can to help the Trump administration in those efforts.
“Texas can transfer to the United States of America a value of well over $5 or $6 billion of real assets on the ground that Texas put in place that will continue to secure the United States for decades to come,” Abbott said.
Abbott also met with Border Czar Tom Homan at some point on Wednesday. It is not clear if the federal government will accept Abbott’s offer. When reporters at the White House on Thursday asked about Abbott’s offer, Homan said he was looking into it and did not rule out taking Abbott up on it.
“All cards are on the table,” Homan said. “We’re looking for as many beds as we can get. We just have to hope that Congress will give us the funding to buy the many beds we need. I know they’re talking about that today, so hopefully, we’ll get a budget to increase the bed capacity.”
Abbott didn’t specify where in the state he identified the 4,000 prison cells that could hold people who are in the country illegally. KVUE contacted the governor’s office and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to ask about the 4,000 cells the governor offered. A spokesperson for TDCJ directed us to the Governor’s office. KVUE had not heard back from the governor’s office at the time of publication.
Data from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards says that as of November, the three TDCJ units, Briscoe, Lopez, and Sergovia, which house migrants with low-level offenses as part of Operation Lone Star, a border security initiative started by Abbott in 2021 to curb illegal immigration in Texas, have just over 2,000 open beds.
“It just blows my mind. I don’t understand how we have capacity to offer 4000 beds to this, to this program that the Governor is talking about, when we don’t have space and capacity and staff for our own people,” Krish Gundu, the co-founder and Director of the Texas Jail Project said. “We’re unable to keep Texans in Texas, but somehow, we have found 4000 beds for this program. It makes no sense at all.”
According to the most recent Sunset Advisory Commission Staff report, the inmate population is projected to potentially outgrow the agency’s current operating capacity by the end of fiscal year 2025.
The Legislative Budget Board’s projections, which were released in July 2024, estimate TDCJ’s population will reach almost 140,000 by the end of fiscal year 2025, about 7,000 higher than TDCJ’s current operating capacity, and surpass 150,000 by fiscal year 2028. Although the report noted that TDCJ has 14,000 beds not currently counted in its online capacity, they are closed because there is not enough staff, and the agency is “not able to adequately and safely staff these beds should it need to reopen them.”
“Although these beds sit unoccupied and appear to be a resource, TDCJ acknowledges the state cannot operate under the assumption they can be easily made available if needed,” the report said.
Gundu said several counties in Texas, including Harris County, home to Houston, have had to ship some pretrial detainees to Louisiana and Mississippi.
“The cost to the families and taxpayers is enormous,” Gundu said. “Families are hurting, communities are hurting, and instead of taking care of ourselves, I don’t understand how we’ve found 4000 beds to offer.”
Abbott is planning to make another trip to Washington, D.C., next week to meet with members of Congress about the state’s recent request for the federal government to reimburse it $11 billion for money it has spent on border security operations over the past few years.
When asked if the president was on board with the request, Abbott said Trump understands where the state is coming from, but he has to talk to his advisors and Congress.
Abbott said he has met with House Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the Texas Republican Congressional Delegation, and they are “enthusiastically working with their fellow members” to make it happen.