For a state official to offer land to a government not yet in office for the purpose of carrying out questionably legal mass deportations is a major preemptive step, to say the least. However, Trump seems prepared to make good on his campaign promise for mass deportations, given his appointment of Tom Homan as ‘border czar’. Homan was the architect of the first Trump administration’s brutal family separation policy, which led to nearly 2,000 children being torn from their families after being detained at the southern border. Homan appeared on CBS 60 minutes last month laying out exactly what a mass deportation program could look like.

Trump plans to declare a national emergency and call in the US military for these deportations, targeting all undocumented immigrants, criminal or not. Trump’s pick for deputy chief of staff for policy, white nationalist Stephen Miller, has said the president-elect would revoke legal protections such as birthright citizenship, DACA and temporary protected status, resulting in legal immigrants also facing deportation.

Texas’ action suggests Trump will get enough help at the state level to implement his unprecedented plan. “We thought, the Trump administration probably needs some deportation facilities because we have a lot of these violent criminals that we need to round up and get out of our country,” Buckingham told Fox News on Tuesday. “We are happy with this offer and hope they will take it up.”