EXCLUSIVE — The state of Texas strongly urged the Biden administration not to move forward with plans to build another massive processing facility along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling the latest undertaking “an expensive Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.”

Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham blasted Customs and Border Protection over its plan to build a facility in Webb County’s border city of Laredo, Texas, where the federal government has proposed housing 500 illegal immigrants.

“While I commend CBP on their tireless efforts to police the border, the proposal for DHS to spend tens of millions of dollars (or more) to build a [Joint Processing Center] which accommodates ‘500 non-citizens in processing’ is an expensive Band-Aid on a gunshot wound,” Buckingham wrote in a Tuesday letter to CBP obtained first by the Washington Examiner. “What this crisis demands is improved CBP facilities coupled with real federal leadership by DHS and the Biden administration on the underlying border issues.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced in mid-February it would accept comments from the public on the forthcoming project.

Since President Joe Biden took office, more than 8 million immigrants have been encountered attempting to enter the United States without authorization — the highest number in any three-year period in U.S. history.

The state has dramatically ramped up its own border security initiatives since 2021, particularly after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) brought on former Border Patrol official Mike Banks as the state’s border czar in January 2023.

“The GLO, along with the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety, has taken control of Fronton Island in the Rio Grande, which was formerly a bastion of cartel activity and smuggling,” Buckingham said. “Texas has built its own state border wall on GLO property in South Texas and the GLO has worked with various state partners to fill the void left by the Biden administration and DHS.”

Earlier this year, Abbott announced the state would build a permanent military base in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, in order to have dependable accommodations for state National Guard soldiers deployed to the border under its Operation Lone Star initiative.

Buckingham said the state’s efforts “should be a model for the Biden administration to follow.”

“Instead, the administration insists on lawsuits and bureaucratic sabotage to prevent the State of Texas from protecting our border,” Buckingham wrote. “Without a change in the Biden administration’s lawless approach to the border, the proposed JPC will have no significant impact on this crisis.”