By:  Shapleigh, Lucio                                 S.C.R. No. 12
 1-1                        SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-2           WHEREAS, The strategy of the United States Department of
 1-3     Justice to reduce crime along the United States border by focusing
 1-4     on illegal immigration, alien smuggling, and drug trafficking
 1-5     generated an explosion in arrests by agents from the United States
 1-6     Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the
 1-7     Immigration and Naturalization Service at border checkpoints; and
 1-8           WHEREAS, In 1999, the five federal southwestern judicial
 1-9     districts along the border, including two in Texas, received 27
1-10     percent of all criminal case filings in the United States while the
1-11     other 73 percent were spread among the country's remaining 84
1-12     federal district courts; and
1-13           WHEREAS, From 1996 to 1997, the total number of federal
1-14     criminal cases filed in the Western and Southern districts of Texas
1-15     doubled, and from 1997 to 1999, the number of drug cases filed in
1-16     the Western District of Texas increased 64 percent and 100 percent
1-17     in the Southern District of Texas; and
1-18           WHEREAS, Judicial resources in the five southwestern border
1-19     districts have increased by only four percent, and  since 1990,
1-20     congress has not approved any new judges for the Western District
1-21     of Texas, which leads the nation in the filing of drug cases; and
1-22           WHEREAS, As a result of the federal courts being inundated by
1-23     this unprecedented number of new drug and illegal immigration
1-24     indictments, the federal authorities no longer prosecute offenders
 2-1     caught with less than a substantial amount of contraband; these
 2-2     cases are instead referred to the local district attorneys in the
 2-3     border counties of Texas to prosecute; and
 2-4           WHEREAS, As a result, local governments in the border
 2-5     counties, who are among the poorest in the United States, are being
 2-6     overwhelmed with the costs involved in prosecuting and
 2-7     incarcerating federal criminals; and      
 2-8           WHEREAS, The annual cost to prosecute these federal criminal
 2-9     cases ranges from $2.7 million to approximately $8.2 million per
2-10     district attorney jurisdiction, and it is anticipated that the
2-11     total cost will reach $25 million per year; and
2-12           WHEREAS, The federal government has infinitely more resources
2-13     than state and local governments and in turn must shoulder a larger
2-14     portion of the financial burden; now, therefore, be it
2-15           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
2-16     hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
2-17     authorize an additional 18 federal judges and commensurate staff to
2-18     handle the current and anticipated caseloads along the United
2-19     States-Mexico border and to fully reimburse local governments for
2-20     the costs incurred in prosecuting and incarcerating federal
2-21     defendants; and, be it further
2-22           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
2-23     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
2-24     the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of
2-25     the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of
2-26     the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
 3-1     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
 3-2     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.