UN Vehicle Stockpiling in Texas

  Original Report by David Palmquist, @ AllTexas.net rior to Aug. 6, 1999

 

 650+ UN Vehicles & photos from Bastrop Federal Pen

**from busy Highway 95 in Bastrop County, Texas, lies a growing fleet of nearly a thousand showroom-new SUVs, 4WD pickups, suburbans and vans. These vehicles are not overflow storage for an overstocked dealer. This fleet is owned by the federal government.

All the vehicles are U.N. White. Rumors have been floating in the area for months about a fleet of suspicious vehicles being outfitted with prisoner cages, shackles and insignia such as "U.S. Police Force" and the U.N. roundel. None of the vehicles observed in the storage area appeared to have any markings at all other than window stickers with equipment data.

However, prison officials did confirm that the SUVs and vans were in fact being outfitted with prisoner cages and shackles. When pressed for information on the intended users of these vehicles, a prison spokesman said they were intended for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. However, vehicles assigned to the INS are predominantly painted green and those assigned to the Border Patrol are usually the same. The suitability of a high-visibility color such as white for either agency is in question. Large, white vehicles can be seen approaching from miles away.
This $30 million fleet of unused government vehicles has been steadily growing, but has not been deployed. It seems the vehicles keep coming in, but none go out to user agencies. This field-full of top-of-the-line utility vehicles, bought with taxpayer dollars, is sitting idle, soaking up Texas sun.

The site is located a few miles North of the city of Bastrop on U.S.Prison property. The high-security prison itself takes up the Southern part of the property. The area where the vehicles reside is fenced-off from the public road with no more precaution than a farmer might use to keep his cattle from straying. The unguarded entrance warns that the area is U.S. Prison property and trespassing is prohibited. Another sign strangely warns of "Poison Gas."