Texas’ 245 County Jails spent $156.6 mill. detaining undocumented immigrants
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – “I sincerely hope you will honor your commitments and reimburse Texans for continuing to shoulder one of Washington’s most critical responsibilities. The dollars expended in this fashion would be better spent enhancing law enforcement efforts to better protect our citizens,” said Lt. Governor David Dewhurst in a letter to President Obama last Tuesday, demanding the Federal Government pay for the $156.6 million expended by Texas County Jails over the past two years holding undocumented immigrants.
The state’s 245 county jails are required to report how much they spend detaining undocumented immigrants under a law passed by the Texas Legislature in 2011.
Harris County tops that list, with more than $49 million in expenditures spent to house 30,306 inmates over the past two years.
Dewhurst also expressed his “disappointment” with the Obama Administration’s failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, while stating the expenditure of county and state jail funds to house more than 130,000 undocumented 
immigrants since October 2011 represent an “unnecessary burden”.
According to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Bexar County has spent some $6.9 million over the past two years while detaining 7,620 immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally. That ranks 4th in the state for both money spent, and the number of undocumented inmates.
