Perry seeks reimbursement for detained immigrants
Perry seeks reimbursement for detained immigrants
By GUILLERMO X. GARCIA San Antonio Express-News
Feb. 10, 2010, 4:21PM
SAN ANTONIO — Contending that national leaders have failed to control the U.S.-Mexico border, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday he'll begin billing the federal government the state's monthly $13.5 million cost to incarcerate undocumented people held on criminal charges.
Whether led by a Democrat or Republican president, “there is a massive indifference in Washington to the Texas taxpayer footing the bill for what is clearly a federal responsibility,” Perry said at a campaign stop here.
Texas has paid $1.3 billion over the past decade to house inmates who should have been picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he said.
Federal authorities routinely pick up state prisoners jailed for other offenses who are also in the country illegally. But Perry charged that immigration officials often don't make the pick-ups quickly enough, forcing the state to bear the added costs.
He said he'll continue “to use the bully pulpit of the governor's office to press for reimbursement” but was “not going to hold my breath waiting” for Washington's repayment.
Perry, who picked up the endorsement of the 2,000-member San Antonio Police Officers Association and was to attend an invitation-only fundraiser here Wednesday night, indirectly criticized Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison — a key opponent in the GOP primary — as he took a swipe at what he called the federal government's border-control failures.
Hutchison's camp labeled the governor's latest proposal politically motivated.
“Every election year, Rick Perry talks tough about illegal immigration,” said Hutchison campaign spokesman Joe Pounder. “But his record amounts to little more than publicity stunts.”
Perry said the federal government had been as indifferent to the state's border security over the eight years that George W. Bush, the man Perry replaced as governor in 2000, was president as it is under the Obama administration.
He said he wants state prison officials and the Department of Public Safety to help local border law enforcement agencies determine costs for housing undocumented prisoners — and include that amount in the state's bill to Washington.
Perry is seeking his third full term. In addition to Hutchison, he faces Wharton nurse Debra Medina in primary.
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