That deal remains a work in progress but it was a visible signal that Texas policymakers continue to view border security as a top priority. “For the last four years, Texas has had to stand in the gap created by the Biden administration’s abdication of their constitutional duty to protect our borders,” Buckingham says. “We want the violent criminals off of our soil who've been harming our sons and daughters.”
The General Land Office in Texas is an unusual entity, a holdover from the state’s days as an independent republic. In addition to land management, the office is responsible for disaster recovery and veterans’ benefit programs. Its large mineral holdings generate billions annually in education funding. It’s like a combination of the federal Interior Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Veterans Affairs. “We’re the agency that literally touches the lives of Texans every single day,” Buckingham says, “and most of them don’t even know that we exist.”
Buckingham, an eye surgeon and rancher, was elected land commissioner in 2022, after serving in the state Senate. She spoke with Governing about her office’s wide-ranging portfolio. Edited excerpts from a phone interview are below:
Governing: You drew national attention with your offer of land for staging deportations just after the election. Of course, President Trump hadn’t been inaugurated yet. Where do things stand on that offer now?
Buckingham: They're still in the process of determining their final plans. Of course, Gov. [Greg] Abbott is leading the charge as the chief executive in the state but we're all behind him and on the same team, doing everything we can. So as their plans fully develop, if they need us, we are at the ready to be of help.
The facilities commission came to us, and they said, “Hey, Dawn, can you acquire this property for us? This owner will not allow law enforcement on the property and because of that, when the bad guys know they get a free pass, terrible things were happening there.” And so we acquired the property at fair market value. Within 24 hours, we had the right of way for the wall set. The wall has been completed at this point. That was the property that we initially offered the Trump administration because it's by a pretty major road for that part of the state, an international airport and an international bridge with good water and electricity access. So we thought it might be helpful if they need a detention and deportation center. Then we expanded our offer to include anything I have in the state that is of help to them.
(Courtesy of Texas General Land Office)
Governing: Can you talk about other efforts the state has been making in regard to immigration?
Buckingham: We've been spending billions of dollars on border security. Most people don't know that the General Land Office built the first section of the border wall.
We had a request from the Department of Public Safety (DPS). They had identified three islands in the Rio Grande that are actually Texas territory. Because they were not claimed either by Texas or by Mexico, they were law enforcement free zones for the cartels. The violent cartels were literally fighting over control of the island nightly with fully automatic gunfire heard regularly. Once we claimed them, we started Operation Flat Top, which was a coordinated operation between the Texas Military Department, Texas DPS and Border Patrol. We got those islands cleared, we had the concertina wire put up, and within a matter of a few weeks, we had complete operational control.
Governing: Texas has been hit with a number of major storms over the last few years. Tell me how you manage these disasters, which are both predictable and unpredictable.
Buckingham: Mostly unpredictable. We do a whole lot on the preparedness front. We put out a whole lot of information about how to be prepared: What you have to think of if you have to evacuate quickly, how to develop a plan, what resources you can access, usually, in the acute part of the disaster.
We are wrapping up the largest disaster recovery that this country has ever seen in the Hurricane Harvey recovery, running billions of dollars of flood mitigation projects. We are embarking on the largest infrastructure project that the Army Corps of Engineers has ever done in the Texas Coastal Spine Project, which is a resiliency barrier, starting at the Louisiana border. Someday, we'll go all the way to Mexico and make our coast more resilient to hurricanes.
Our oil spill guys, they're containing oil spills that happen right after the hurricane, and they're doing some search and rescue. They're looking for sunken vessels that are hazards to other vessels going through, and we're responsible for getting those vessels out of the waterways that are impeding traffic. But then where we come in mostly at this point is in the housing-related recovery, which is putting tens of thousands of Texans back in their homes. That's a really rewarding experience, to be able to get somebody back in a home whose home has been destroyed by a storm, and they couldn't afford to rebuild it themselves.
Governing: You oversee the Alamo and helped secure some major funding in the last legislative session. How is that project going?
Buckingham: We are excited about this. What we're doing through the project is making a visit to the Alamo worthy of the significance of the events that happened there. In general, Texans are very proud of our Shrine of Texas Liberty and yet the way that the city of San Antonio developed around the Alamo, people literally asked us, "Why did they move the Alamo downtown?" And the average person spent about seven minutes at the Alamo and then they went to do something else.
Now we have in process a 100,000-square foot museum that's going to have a 4D theater at the center of it. That seat will shake when the cannonballs hit, and you will smell the gunpowder and the smoke. You will, of course, be immersed in the visual aspects and auditory aspects of the battle. The museum sets the battle in the context of its time. It is battle-centric, but we'll talk about everything from early Native Americans all the way through to how the Alamo affects pop culture.
Governing: I wanted to ask you about your background. You've been in politics for a while now, but how does being a rancher and coming from a family of ranchers inform your approach to the land? I'm also curious whether having been a surgeon informs your thinking in this role as well?
Buckingham: My rural roots really taught me — as well as medicine — a significant work ethic. You're up early, you're up late. You have a connection to your property. You love your property. I love every square inch of Texas, every part of Texas, and I love defending it.
I view myself as a rural person. I believe rural Texas is truly the Texas identity, and I fight very hard to preserve that identity. As we have so many people moving in from out of state, you know, we need to. They move here for a reason, right? And so we need to educate them on the ways of Texas and how to be Texas proud.
