The State of Texas has purchased more property along the Texas-Mexico border to continue its border security and conservation efforts.

The Texas General Land Office has acquired a 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County whose property backs onto the Rio Grande River, making it “a crucial location for strengthening border security and establishing 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 of constructing 1.5 miles of border wall on the property, it said. The TFC began overseeing the state’s border wall construction process in June 2023 when Governor Greg Abbott first announced that Texas would build its own wall. So far, Texas has built more than 30 miles of steel bollard walls, 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 crops under the GLO, the state’s oldest agency said.

Starr County falls under the U.S. Customs and Border Protection sector of the Rio Grande Valley Sector. The sector has generally reported the highest number of illegal border crossings in Texas. Illegal crossings have reached an all-time high under the Biden-Harris administration. Arrests declined significantly in the sector and in Texas after Gov. Greg Abbott expanded his border security mission, Operation Lone Star, more than a year ago, The Center Square reported.

With the acquisition of this ranch, the GLO now owns two tracts of land in Starr County, covering more than 4,000 acres. Last year, GLO acquired more than 170 acres on Fronton Island in the Rio Grande Valley, allowing OLS operations to expand there to thwart cartel activities, The Center Square. reported.

In far West Texas, the GLO also purchased the largest private ranch in Texas, the Brewster Ranch, which includes 28 historic ranches in Texas’ largest county, Brewster County. The property spans more than 350,000 acres and 552 square miles and borders Big Bend National Park, Black Gap Wildlife Management Area and the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River.

The land report first details published on sale; the ranch, owned by Texas Mountain Holdings and Brad Kelley, a Kentucky native and the largest private landowner in Texas before the sale. Brewster Ranch was previously listed for more than $245 million, it says.

“The Texas General Land Office’s acquisition of Brewster Ranch is one of the largest public land purchases in Texas history. This is a great day for our state and a demonstration of Texas investment 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 has reported the highest number of illegal border crossings in history. It is the largest border sector in the southwest and the least staffed and least populated. The region is extremely isolated, with dangerous terrain and not suitable for the construction of a border wall. Nearly all of the arrests in the area involve single, military-age men and human and drug traffickers, The Center Square 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 leading to school closures and ranchers continuing to find dead bodies, the county judge declared an invasion. A lifelong Democrat, she also switched parties, becoming a Republican and blaming the Biden-Harris administration’s border policies, The Center Square reported. She also started a trend, with other South Texas and longtime border Democrats leaving the party, also citing the border crisis, The Center Square reported. Texas Democrats, including Democratic border sheriffs, also supported Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, citing the border crisis.

The state will manage the Brewster Ranch property not only 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, minerals and soil carbon sequestration,” The Texas Standard, part of the University of Texas-Austin, reported.

The state is currently fight the Biden-Harris administration on conservation claims, including on protecting freshwater mussels in central Texas and on the border in the Big Bend region. Last August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing two species of freshwater mussels as endangered in the Big Bend region of Texas. He also proposed designating 200 river miles as critical habitats in areas where OLS actively operates 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 “was really concerned about Rio Grande mussels, they would stop illegal aliens from crossing . They leave trash, clothing and human waste far more damaging to our environment.

Instead, their border policies have “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.