BILL ANALYSIS
By: Solomons
In 1995, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated the annual cost of immigration to Americans at a net $29 billion, with the costs divided between direct expenditures for programs for immigrants and the increased costs of education, health care, and welfare programs attributable to the added demand posed by immigrant populations. As staggering as that figure was in 1995, when the number of immigrants living in the United States totaled 24.3 million, today's costs are considerably higher, given the recent acceleration in the rate of immigration and the 45 percent increase in this population over the past decade. The sheer size of this population, which had grown to 35.2 million by March 2005, combined with its current rapid rate of growth, poses serious socioeconomic challenges to communities and governments at all levels by placing an undue burden on their already limited budgetary resources and further straining their health and human services and criminal justice systems as well as their educational and correctional facilities.
Given its proximity to Central America and the 1,254-mile border it shares with Mexico, Texas bears a disproportionate share of the burden when it comes to paying the cost of immigration, both legal and illegal; during the past decade, a surge of immigration mirroring the national trend brought Texas' foreign-born population to 3.4 million, or about 15.1 percent of the state's population; of this total, an estimated 1.4 million were undocumented illegal aliens. Because illegal immigrants generally have little formal education, this population consequently also shares socioeconomic disadvantages that not only contribute to widespread poverty among their number but also make them more likely to burden state welfare and health care programs and, in some cases, the state criminal justice system. The prevalence of poverty among illegal aliens is more pronounced in Texas, which already has the second-highest number of illegal aliens among the 50 states; nearly three-quarters of Texas' illegal aliens live in or near poverty; consequently, welfare use and the incidence of uninsured individuals among illegal immigrants are higher in Texas than in most other states
While the federal government provides some funding to states to help them with certain costs incurred in dealing with illegal aliens, the amount of federal assistance that Texas receives remains woefully inadequate. For example, Texas receives funds from the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which was created to compensate states and local governments for the incarceration of certain undocumented aliens, but Texas' share of funding has declined sharply both in terms of the total amount and as a share of the state's actual expenses.
In 1999, Texas received nearly $59 million in SCAAP funding, or 38.6 percent of its costs for 7,854 prisoner years of detention; within three years, the reported illegal detention rate had risen 73 percent, to 13,586 prisoner years, but Texas SCAAP funding fell by 12 percent to less than $52 million, and that total fell by more than half two years later. Similarly, the federal government, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, requires hospitals to treat and stabilize patients with emergency medical needs regardless of citizenship status or ability to pay; in 2003, the U.S. Congress passed a measure to appropriate $250 million per year for four years to help offset states' costs of providing this service to illegal aliens, with the funding allocated on the basis of each state's estimated illegal population and other related data, yet the total amount compensates only a fraction of the states' outlay, and in 2004, Texas received an amount of less than $48 million. While securing the nation's borders, instituting immigration policy reforms, and enforcing immigration laws are federal responsibilities, the federal government's laxity in this regard has placed an undue financial burden on those states with the largest numbers of illegal aliens; to the extent that Texas' burden is attributable to the federal government's default on these matters, it is only reasonable to expect that the federal government provide Texas the funding it needs to meet these obligations.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this resolution does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
H.C.R. 11 provides that the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby direct the Office of the Attorney General of Texas to pursue all available remedies, including but not limited to initiating a suit or joining other states in a suit against the United States attorney general, to demand the enforcement of all existing federal immigration laws by the federal government and to recover any money owed Texas by the federal government for costs incurred by the state in dealing with illegal immigration.
H.C.R. 11 provides that the secretary of state forward an official copy of this resolution to the attorney general of Texas.