Texas has opened the doors to a new military housing complex on the Mexico border, where it plans to house nearly 2,000 soldiers under state assignment to guard the international boundary.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) welcomed 300 National Guard members into the facility in Eagle Pass on Friday following completion of the three-month construction project.
“Troops deployed on Operation Lone Star have been scattered for miles across the region, having to drive miles to work and miles back to where they’re staying later that night,” Abbott said during a press conference at the site Friday. “It has been an inefficient method of housing our soldiers, and this base camp will provide the type of housing and standards of living that both improve the quality of life for the men and women in uniform securing our border and allow Texas to have a permanent presence on the southern border.”
The Lone Star State began in March with its latest effort to boost security along its border following former President Donald Trump’s visit to Eagle Pass in late February.
Since Abbott launched the state’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative in early 2021, thousands of state troopers and soldiers deployed to the border have been housed in hotels and tents.
The base camp is located on 80 acres of land in Eagle Pass. It has beds for 1,800 soldiers with the ability to house 500 more people. A 700-seat dining hall, recreation center, laundry facilities, chaplaincy programs, and medical and mental health facilities will also be available.
Soldiers have individual rooms at 118 square feet in size and have one bathroom per seven people. Seventy-five rooms for military brass have individual bathrooms.
The state expects an additional 300 rooms coming available each month through October, according to Texas Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer.
At present, roughly 3,000 National Guard members are deployed up and down the state’s border under Operation Lone Star, though that figure fluctuates month to month.
Soldiers guard the river’s edge and apprehend immigrants as they cross and detain them until law enforcement can take people into custody. They have also led the state initiative of installing barriers, including buoys and concertina wire, in various locations statewide.
The undertaking was expected to cost $171 million, and Texas-based company Team Housing Solutions won the contract to build the facility.
The new base camp will be the state’s third such site, following ones in nearby Del Rio and Laredo.
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Suelzer said soldiers housed in hotels will be moved into the state housing facility.
“This base camp is also a fiscally sound way to house soldiers. We will be moving in soldiers who are dispersed in hotels across the region,” Suelzer said. “Once this base camp is fully occupied, we will save critical taxpayer dollars each month on housing soldiers.”