Honorable Todd Hunter, Chair, House Committee on State Affairs
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
SB2424 by Birdwell (relating to illegal entry into this state from Mexico by a person who is not a citizen or legal permanent resident of the United States; creating criminal offenses.), Committee Report 2nd House, Substituted
The bill would create the Class B misdemeanor offense of illegal entry from Mexico. The penalty would be increased to a state jail felony in the case of a previous conviction of the offense. The bill would authorize a peace officer, in lieu of arrest, to remove a person detained for such an offense by collecting any identifying information the person may have, transporting the person to a port of entry, and ordering the person to return to Mexico. The bill would make it a second degree felony if the person refuses to comply with such an order.
Creating a new criminal offense may result in additional demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
According to the information reported by the Department of Public Safety (DPS) pursuant to Article IX, Section 7.10 of the GAA and Section 9 of House Bill 9, Eighty-seventh Legislature, Second Called Session, DPS reported 63,707 detentions and referrals to federal authorities in border regions during fiscal year 2022. It is unknown if any of these cases included conduct outlined in the bill's provisions.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct outlined in the bill's provisions that would be subject to criminal penalties.