The Texas National Guard will spend nearly $131 million to build a forward operating base near the state’s border with Mexico to house up to 1,800 troops serving on a mission to deter illegal activity, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. (Office of Gov. Greg Abbott)
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas National Guard will spend nearly $131 million to build a forward operating base near the state’s border with Mexico to house up to 1,800 troops serving on a mission to deter illegal activity.
Gov. Greg Abbott made the announcement Friday alongside Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, commander of the Texas National Guard, at a podium backed by a row of Guard troops armed with assault rifles and wearing body armor.
The contract was awarded Feb. 9 to the company Team Housing Solutions for “Forward Operating Base Eagle Base Camp” with a completion date of Sept. 7, according to the state’s online contract records.
A presentation created by New Braunfels-based company shows a camp similar to those already housing troops at the border — just on a larger scale. The facilities proposed are modular buildings, trailers and tents. The presentation compares the facilities to those already in operation at other camps the company maintains for the National Guard, such as Camp Walker in Laredo and Camp Alpha in Del Rio.
Troops at the new base will still rely on trailer-based toilets and showers, as they do in the other camps. There will be one toilet per seven soldiers, according to the presentation. The “executive trailer” rooms boast in-suite bathrooms.
However, Abbott said Friday the camp will “improve conditions for our soldiers” and focused mainly on the location reducing their travel time to work.
“Before now, National Guard have been scattered across this entire region in cramped quarters away from fellow soldiers and Guard, sometimes traveling long distances to be able to do their job,” he said.
It was unclear Friday whether the camps already in operation along the border will remain open once the new base is fully operational.
Abbott began sending troops to the border on a state mission nearly three years ago. Known as Operation Lone Star, troops work with state police to deter illegal activity between legal ports of entry. At its peak, the mission had roughly 10,000 troops assigned to it but that number has decreased over time. The Texas Military Department also stopped releasing the number of troops working at the border.
The state legislature has provided Operation Lone Star more than $10 billion during that time. That price tag includes aspects of the mission that are outside the scope of the Guard, such as the governor’s program that buses migrants out of state.
The new base is needed to expand and sustain the state’s effort, Abbott said.
Those efforts have come in opposition to the federal government’s border operations in recent months, pitting Abbott against President Joe Biden in at least two border-related court cases.
Texas sued the Department of Homeland Security in October for cutting coiled wire barriers placed by Guard troops near the border, calling it destruction of state property. Customs and Border Protection responded it has an obligation under federal law to detain and process any people who reach U.S. soil or act when conditions put migrants at risk. The case is ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice sued Texas last month to challenge a new state law it deems unconstitutional. The law creates two new state crimes that attempt to regulate immigration — something the courts have ruled is the job of the federal government, not the states. The law is set to go into effect next month.
The new base camp is about 6 miles from Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, a city-owned park recently seized by the Texas National Guard, who have blocked federal immigration agents from entering. The entire 47-acre park is enclosed with wire barriers, according to media reports.
Abbott said Friday that illegal border crossings into the riverfront park have dropped from between 3,000 to 5,000 a day to less than 1% of that. He touted the razor wire as the reason.
“Having the soldiers located right here right by the river, they’re going to have the ability to more quickly be able to construct that razor wire barrier,” he said.
The camp will be built on 80 acres near Eagle Pass and will have 300 beds available by mid-April, Suelzer said. It will add 300 beds every 30 days until complete and has a surge capacity to house up to 2,300 troops when needed.
Soldiers will have individual 118-square-foot rooms, a dining facility able to seat 700 troops at a time, a fitness center, recreation, laundry facilities, wireless internet and medical care. It also will have weapons storage, vehicle maintenance bays and a helipad.
By contrast, Camp Walker sits on 22 acres and sleeps 700 troops in double-occupancy rooms.
Aside from the housing announcement, Suelzer announced the Guard will add more wire barrier north and south of Eagle Pass, add three more boats to its operations on the Rio Grande and expand its drone program and radar truck capabilities.
