Trump's Border Czar to meet with Abbott in Texas, unveil 'big news,' feed soldiers and DPS

Tom Homan, President-Elect Donald Trump’s recommended 'Border Czar,' will meet with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott along the southern border on Tuesday.

The leaders will visit Texas National Guard soldiers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, serving meals ahead of Thanksgiving.

National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez, DPS Director Steve McCraw, Adjutant General of Texas Major General Thomas Suelzer and Texas Special Advisor on Border Matters Mike Banks will also join the visit.

The Eagle Pass visit is set for noon, followed by a meeting in Edinburg at 3:15 p.m. A press conference will reveal a “major initiative to secure” the border.

Giant buoys added to Rio Grande to deter immigrants from crossing

Tuesday's events will begin in Eagle Pass, an important border town for the state's Operation Lone Star program. The town is the site of surges in illegal immigrant crossings.

Under an order from Abbott, Operation Lone Star has also placed a chain of giant buoys in the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass in an effort to discourage such crossings. The governor previously announced that he had dispatched about 1,000 DPS troopers and "hundreds of soldiers from the Texas National Guard" to the border.

1,400-acre Starr County ranch purchased for Trump's 'deportation of violent criminals'

The meeting also comes a week after Texas General Land Office offered President-elect Donald Trump a massive Starr County ranch on which to build detention centers.

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham notified Trump she had purchased a 1,402-acre ranch along the U.S.-Mexico border, about 35 miles west of McAllen. She also assured him that her office would work with federal agencies to construct a detention center.

"My office is fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history," Buckingham wrote.

Immediately after purchasing the land on Oct. 23, Buckingham permitted a 7,681-foot (1.45-mile) easement around the property, giving federal agencies the power to build a border wall on the land.

In a social media post Monday, Buckingham also said "big news" would be revealed during Tuesday's press conference, when officials "will announce a major initiative to secure our southern border!"

Who is Tom Homan?

President-elect Donald Trump named Tom Homan, a former Border Patrol agent who rose to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement, his next "border czar" overseeing mass deportations promised during the campaign.

Homan oversaw contentious enforcement of border security, including a “zero tolerance” policy that led to separating migrant families, during Trump’s first administration. He became a key surrogate for Trump during the campaign explaining how border security could be beefed up.

The post of “border czar” isn’t an official job title at the Department of Homeland Security, leaving open what Trump intends Homan to do. But the announcement was one of Trump’s first job assignments during his transition to take office on Jan. 20, reflecting the priority he places on border security.

Read more: Who is Tom Homan? Trump names former Border Patrol agent, ICE chief named 'border czar'

Homan served 34 years with the Border Patrol before becoming acting director of ICE during the first two years of Trump’s first term. He was the first rank-and-file agent to lead the agency that oversees immigration enforcement.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Trump's 'Border Czar' Tom Homan to meet with Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday