By State Rep. Ken Paxton
Last week Arizonas Governor signed into law one of the toughest bills cracking down on illegal immigration in the country. I applaud Arizonas legislature for addressing this growing problem. However now that presumably fewer people will cross into United States illegally through Arizona Texas as only one of four states that borders Mexico is now even more vulnerable.
Therefore Texas must address the illegal immigration problem next legislative session.
Data from the
Urban Institute indicates that there are currently over 1.1 million illegal immigrants living in Texas (approximately 1 person in 22 living here).
The
Federation for American Immigration Reform reports that Texas illegal immigrant population is costing the states taxpayers more than $4.7 billion per year for education health care and incarceration.
In fact fiscal year 2004 data shows that the average cost to the State of Texas per day for incarcerated illegal immigrants is $40.06 per offender per day.
With at least 3000 illegal immigrants incarcerated in our prison system the state easily incurs a cost of over $44 million a year just on prisoners who are in our country illegally.
In addition to the economic impact there are serious homeland security concerns ensuing as a result of our border problems in Texas.
Human trafficking drug running and gang violence are growing problems in Texas. The Texas Department of Public Safety recently issued a statement to encourage students to avoid border towns during Spring Break because of recent kidnappings and sexual assault incidents.
As a state and as a country we must do a better job policing who crosses our borders in order to best protect our citizenry.
To address this problem Texas should pass a bill that accomplished the following:
- Strictly enforces existing employment laws;
- Penalizes cities that offer safe havens for illegal immigrants;
- Requires tighter screening for all state social service programs;
- Reports costs of state and local expenditures relating to illegal immigration to the federal government; and
- Improves security along our borders.
Texas cannot afford to ignore the problems resulting from illegal immigration and unfortunately the federal government has been unwilling to accept its responsibility for protecting our borders and prohibiting limited resources from being used on people who enter our country illegally.
Therefore we in Texas must put in place policies that are appropriate at the state level in order to ensure our resources are used to serve our citizens and protect our citizens from harm that can result from a border that is not secure.
Representative Ken Paxton was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2002 and is currently serving his 4th term representing district 70. Paxton received his BA and MBA from Baylor University and also earned a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He and his wife Angela live in McKinney TX and have 4 children.
