AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, has introduced a bill that would move headquarters for the United States Customs and Border Patrol to Texas.  

What You Need To Know

  • A proposed bill, introduced by Rep. Keith Self, would move U.S. Customs and Border Patrol headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Texas

  • Relocating Border Patrol headquarters is part of President-elect Donald Trump’s larger plan to relocate thousands of federal employees

  • An Austin-based immigration attorney calls the proposed move of CBP to Texas an action to garner attention but believes it won’t affect determined asylum seekers

  • A political scientist says he isn’t confident Self’s bill will become law, but if it does, Gov. Greg Abbott could benefit

Self posed the question on X, formerly Twitter, asking “Why is the agency responsible for securing the border 2,000 miles away from the border?”

The proposed bill would move U.S. Customs and Border Patrol headquarters from Washington, D.C. to the Lone Star State. 

“Doing so will be cost-effective and critical to bringing President Trump’s fight to the border,” Self said.

“This proposal fits a broader pattern that President Trump engaged in during his first term of trying to decentralize the federal government,” said Mark Jones, a Rice University professor of political science.

Relocating Border Patrol headquarters is part of President-elect Donald Trump’s larger plan to relocate thousands of federal employees.

“As many as 100,000 government positions can be moved out. And I mean immediately out of Washington to places filled with patriots who love America,” Trump said.

During his first term, Trump moved the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service to Kansas City, Missouri, and the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado. Jones says he isn’t confident Self’s bill will become law, but if it does, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could benefit.

“It’s one thing to propose moving an agency outside of the D.C. metro area to another state. It’s another thing to actually do so in practice, in part because so many of the employees will not want to move,” Jones said. "This fits very well with his belief that Texas and the state should be playing a more active role in border security. Having Customs and Border Patrol here in Texas would, I think, be a natural fit from the perspective of the governor."

Recently, Abbott authorized dozens of billboards across South America and Mexico to stop border crossings.

“We will work with the Trump administration to deport them,” said Abbott.

Self says his bill “will allow America’s Border Patrol agents to be on the ground at the critical point of the crisis.”

But an Austin-based immigration attorney calls the proposed move an action to garner attention but believes it won’t affect determined asylum seekers.

“If we were to expand legal immigration options, temporary work programs, ways for people to access asylum protections without having to be at the border, then we would see a lot of this immigration along the border with Mexico go down,” Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said.

If passed, Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, will be required to work with Texas to select an area “strategically placed” to address border security.