Ground Zero, Texas: Economy, Families, & Future Under Trump Immigration Policies
America at the crossroads of cruelty and Texas’ role in Trump’s immigration experiments.
We already know that Texas is ground zero for the climate crisis, but one Republican is ushering in a new way for Texas to become ground zero for something else.
In 2024, you truly have to be willfully ignorant to believe that the planet is not in the midst of a climate crisis. Yet, countless Republicans, each with the fossil fuel industry in their pockets, deny that Earth’s climate is rapidly changing. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham is one such Republican.
Related:
Nasa: Evidence
Climate.Gov: What evidence exists that Earth is warming and humans are the leading cause?
Wired: 10 Facts That Prove the World Is in a Climate Emergency
As the Texas Land Commissioner, Buckingham oversees public lands and oil and gas leases. But despite being in the throws of a climate disaster, Buckingham’s mantra has been, “Drill, baby, drill.”
Buckingham’s daughter was a student at Texas A&M in 2023, and when her professor criticized Dan Patrick and his handling of the opioid epidemic, Dawn Buckingham put in a phone call and got that professor suspended.
Dawn Buckingham orchestrated the commandeering of Frontier Island. ⬇️
Commissioner Buckingham hasn’t been very productive during her last two years in office. Instead of focusing on policies that could help Texas adapt to the climate crisis, which the Land Commissioner should be doing, Buckingham has chosen to use her office to score political points.
Her actions, from leveraging her position for personal vendettas to stoking nationalist rhetoric over land disputes, reflect a disturbing prioritization of ideology over responsibility. That’s why her latest actions should come as no surprise and should serve as a reminder of how Republicans always elect the worst people.
Dawn Buckingham offered 1,400 acres along the border this week for mass deportation facilities.
Her decision to offer 1,400 acres of Texas land for deportation facilities signals a dangerous escalation in the state’s role in advancing hardline, nationalist immigration policies. This move marks a shift toward using more of Texas’ resources to enable mass deportations—a promise with dire implications for the state.
The cost and consequences of mass deportation for Texas.
A report by the American Immigration Council lays bare the staggering price tag of mass deportation proposals. Deporting the estimated 13.3 million undocumented immigrants currently in the US would cost at least $315 billion for a one-time operation or an average of $88 billion per year over a decade-long campaign. These costs are driven by logistical needs—arresting, detaining, and legally processing millions of people before repatriating them—at a scale the US has never attempted. However, even this financial burden pales compared to the economic devastation such a policy would unleash, particularly in Texas.
The front lines of mass deportation.
Texas is home to one of the largest undocumented populations in the country, with undocumented immigrants making up 6.4% of the state’s population and 8.5% of its workforce. The labor of undocumented immigrants isn’t marginal—it’s essential. They form the backbone of critical industries like agriculture, construction, and hospitality. If a mass deportation campaign were to strip these workers from the economy, entire industries would collapse, driving up costs for consumers and exacerbating already dire labor shortages.
Earlier this week, Governor Abbott and Trump’s new Border Czar, Tom Homan, visited the border for a photo op. I watched their speeches, so you don’t have to, and here’s what they said:
Both Abbott and Homan repeatedly use militaristic language, likening immigration to an invasion and comparing the National Guard to “minutemen” defending Texas.
Abbott used dehumanizing language, claiming that undocumented immigrants are responsible for rape, murder, and neighborhood “decimation.”
Homan suggests that undocumented immigrants are directly tied to crime, including drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and terrorism. (This is a lie. In a Texas study, undocumented immigrants were found to be 47% less likely to be convicted of a crime than native-born Americans.)
Homan said mass deportation was both necessary and inevitable.
Abbott and Homan both praised the $12 billion Operation Lone Star, which has militarized border communities and incarcerated American citizens, but neither acknowledged the humanitarian impact of Operation Lone Star.
Homan minimizes the rights of asylum seekers, implying that granting them due process in immigration courts undermines border security.
Homan claimed that allowing migrants to stay in the US sends a message to the world to “ignore court orders” and commit a “crime.”
Homan warns that anyone attempting to “get in their way” during mass deportation operations would face legal consequences, referring to harboring migrants as a “felony.”
Homan stated that any governor, mayor, or official opposing mass deportation is failing their primary responsibility and effectively siding with criminals. This was an important statement, considering that Homan has already threatened to jail the mayor of Denver, CO.
If you do want to watch it, it’s 20 minutes long:
Tom Homan - a bad hombre.
We already know that Greg Abbott has a long history of discriminatory policies. That’s true about most Texas Republicans, but we must discuss Trump’s Border Czar pick and the operations he plans to execute in South Texas.
Tom Homan, the former Acting Director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Trump from 2017 to 2018, played a significant role in the development and implementation of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
Tom Homan was also a contributor to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
So, what does Project 2025 say about the border and immigration?
Enable a nationwide deportation machine to streamline and accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrants.
Militarize the border with increased surveillance, personnel, and infrastructure aimed at restricting immigration.
Expand immigrant detention centers to accommodate the growing number of individuals targeted for removal.
Eliminate popular relief programs and visa categories that provide pathways for legal immigration and humanitarian protection.
Mandate misguided work verification programs that disproportionately burden employers and immigrant workers.
Entangle local and federal law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws at the community level further.
Aside from destroying the economy, this would devastate many communities at a high taxpayer cost and likely lead to a humanitarian crisis. America—the land of opportunity and refuge? Not anymore.
Tom Homan already committed humanitarian atrocities by separating children at the border. On 60 Minutes a few weeks ago, he threatened to deport minor American citizens with undocumented parents. Now, he’s threatening to jail the Denver Mayor.
Take this guy seriously. He will do everything Trump okays, and we all know where the orange one stands.
What does mass deportation look like if we go to war with Mexico?
I know you’re thinking, “What the hell are you talking about? War with Mexico? That’s just bananas.”
Under normal circumstances, I would agree. However, in a Rolling Stone interview this week, one senior Trump transition member mused on “how much” they should invade Mexico. The source close to Trump told Rolling Stone about a plan for a “soft” invasion of our southern neighbor, in which US special forces would assassinate cartel leaders covertly, an idea Trump was in favor of earlier this year.
This week, Mexico responded to Trump’s tariff threats but has not yet responded to his threats of invasion.
Hypothetically, let’s say that during Trump’s second administration, he doesn’t have any adults in the room, and no one stops him with a “soft invasian” of our closest trade partner and geopolitical ally. Then what? How will Mexico respond?
The Mexican government would likely sever critical diplomatic ties with the United States, expelling American diplomats and recalling their own. This could lead to a freeze on bilateral agreements, including trade deals under USMCA.
While Mexico’s military is not equipped to counter US forces in a traditional war directly, paramilitary groups within Mexico or even cartels themselves could target US interests abroad, including embassies or businesses.
The cartels would retaliate. This could include targeted assassinations of US citizens, large-scale terrorist-style attacks, or escalated trafficking of drugs and even migrants to destabilize border communities. If such events occurred, this would destabilize border states…Texas, especially.
If the cartels stage attacks against law enforcement or infrastructure and Texas is going to be ground zero for Trump’s mass deportation plans, then Texas would be an obvious target.
Not to mention that this “soft invasion” they’re discussing would be a blatant breach of international law. Sovereign nations do not tolerate violations of their territory without United Nations approval—look at the global outcry against Russia with Ukraine.
A “soft invasion” of Mexico, while framed as targeting cartels, would cause more harm than good for both nations. However, Republicans and the Trump administration haven’t thought about this. This is why reactionary politics should never be at the helm of government.
Trump’s radical immigration agenda threatens economic devastation, humanitarian crises, and geopolitical stability.
Texas will be on the front lines of this, no matter which way it goes. Across Texas, organizations and activists are mobilizing to resist these dangerous plans. Groups like the ACLU of Texas, the Texas Immigration Law Council, and the Texas Civil Rights Project are already on the front lines, defending immigrants, fighting discriminatory policies, and advocating for justice. Make sure to sign up for their newsletters or follow them on social media to stay informed about this fight in the coming years.
The road ahead will be difficult, but history shows that oppressive policies can spark the strongest resistance. As Texas becomes ground zero for Trump’s immigration agenda, we must rally together and fight for a future where compassion, justice, and humanity prevail over fear, division, and cruelty.
December 9: House Administration Committee meets to debate rules.
January 14: The 89th Legislative Session begins.
March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.
June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.
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My own suspicion is that Trump/Texas will not deport many immigrants; rather, they will detain most of them as prisoners after “convicting” them of some crime in some kangaroo court proceeding. In that way, Trump/Texas can legally offer up these prisoners as slave labor under the 13th Amendment. All the Texas businesses will rejoice at this “solution,” because they will still have access to their immigrant workforce while not having to pay their workers anything at all.
Buckingham is an Abbott HACK....of COURSE she is going to leverage her position for whatever will help her advance herself and her ideology. Also, her call to have a professor suspended yielded a big fat nothing, since the prof. never lost her job. Mommy Dearest needed to protect those easily offended Aggie snowflakes.