A 1,400-acre Rio Grande ranch purchase marks Texas’ latest step in border wall expansion, with a new mile-long section underway in the coming weeks.

Under gray skies with patriotic music blaring in the background, construction crews on Tuesday put up a border wall on land the state recently bought and offered to the incoming Trump administration to use for deportation facilities.

The race to secure the southern border seems to have already started before the President-Elect is sworn into office.

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham talks about a new stretch of border wall that will be built in Starr County, Texas. The property's owner had previously refused to allow a border wall to be built on it.

The land offer highlights the divide between states and local governments on supporting or resisting Trump's mass deportation plans.

Texas broke ground on 1.5 miles of added border wall at a 1,402-acre ranch in Starr County that it acquired in October for $4M.

Texas land commissioner shows off border wall progress in bid to stop migrants Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham invites the media to witness border wall construction on a 1,400 acre ranch as a site offered to the incoming Trump administration for detention centers.