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The state General Land Office this week announced the purchase of a massive ranch in the Big Bend area and a smaller ranch in Starr County, where state leaders plan to build a 2.5-mile border wall along the Rio Grande.

In West Texas, the state purchased a 353,785-acre ranch bordering Big Bend National Park for an undisclosed price. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham There are a variety of leasing options for the land, he said in a statement, including hunting, agriculture, mining and carbon sequestration, a process that stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in soil.

“With such a beautiful and expansive property, GLO has many income-generating opportunities for Texas schoolchildren,” Buckingham said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.

One Press release published by The Land ReportBuckingham said GLO also prevented foreign competitors from purchasing Brewster Farm, a collection of 28 farms that had been parceled out by the owner for two decades.

Buckingham told the Tribune that another party was interested in purchasing the land but did not provide further details.

“My view is that no foreign enemy should own land in Texas,” he said. “I will do my part to ensure our national security remains strong and our enemies do not gain a foothold in our state.”

state I also bought 1,400-acre Starr County ranch along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Buckingham accused the federal government of “abdicating its duty to secure our southern border”; This endangered Texans by “allowing hundreds of thousands of uninspected illegal immigrants to cross our porous border.”

He said the Texas Utilities Commission, which oversees the state’s border wall construction, approved an easement within 24 hours of the purchase to allow it to begin building a wall there through its contractor.

Governor. Greg Abbott Three years ago, he announced the state’s plan to build a border wall. By July, the state had built nearly 34 miles of steel barrier wall. $25 million per mile — but is still far from having a contiguous barrier along the 1,254-mile-long border shared with Mexico.

“As Land Commissioner charged with overseeing 13 million acres of state land, I will not stand idly by and allow this dereliction of duty to impact the lives of hard-working Texans,” Buckingham said. “That’s why I’m stepping in and purchasing this 1,402-acre property at the heart of the border crisis.”