By Shapleigh                                          S.C.R. No. 12
         77R2904 MTD-D                           
                                CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, The strategy of the United States Department of
 1-2     Justice to reduce crime along the United States border by focusing
 1-3     on illegal immigration, alien smuggling, and drug trafficking
 1-4     generated an explosion in arrests by agents from the United States
 1-5     Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the
 1-6     Immigration and Naturalization Service at border checkpoints; and
 1-7           WHEREAS, In 1999, the five federal southwestern judicial
 1-8     districts along the border, including two in Texas, received 27
 1-9     percent of all criminal case filings in the United States while the
1-10     other 73 percent were spread among the country's remaining 84
1-11     federal district courts; and
1-12           WHEREAS, From 1996 to 1997, the total number of federal
1-13     criminal cases filed in the Western and Southern districts of Texas
1-14     doubled, and from 1997 to 1999, the number of drug cases filed in
1-15     the Western District of Texas increased 64 percent and 100 percent
1-16     in the Southern District of Texas; and
1-17           WHEREAS, Judicial resources in the five southwestern border
1-18     districts have increased by only four percent, and  since 1990,
1-19     congress has not approved any new judges for the Western District
1-20     of Texas, which leads the nation in the filing of drug cases; and
1-21           WHEREAS, As a result of the federal courts being inundated by
1-22     this unprecedented number of new drug and illegal immigration
1-23     indictments, the federal authorities no longer prosecute offenders
1-24     caught with less than a substantial amount of contraband; these
 2-1     cases are instead referred to the local district attorneys in the
 2-2     border counties of Texas to prosecute; and
 2-3           WHEREAS, As a result, local governments in the border
 2-4     counties, who are among the poorest in the United States, are being
 2-5     overwhelmed with the costs involved in prosecuting and
 2-6     incarcerating federal criminals; and      
 2-7           WHEREAS, The annual cost to prosecute these federal criminal
 2-8     cases ranges from $2.7 million to approximately $8.2 million per
 2-9     district attorney jurisdiction, and it is anticipated that the
2-10     total cost will reach $25 million per year; and
2-11           WHEREAS, The federal government has infinitely more resources
2-12     than state and local governments and in turn must shoulder a larger
2-13     portion of the financial burden; now, therefore, be it
2-14           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
2-15     hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to
2-16     authorize an additional 16 federal judges and commensurate staff to
2-17     handle the current and anticipated caseloads along the Texas-Mexico
2-18     border and to fully reimburse local governments for the costs
2-19     incurred in prosecuting and incarcerating federal defendants; and,
2-20     be it further
2-21           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
2-22     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
2-23     the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of
2-24     the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of
2-25     the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
2-26     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
2-27     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.