Thread: Rep. Larson wants Mexico to reimburse Texas for illegal aliens

Rep. Larson wants Mexico to reimburse Texas for illegal immigrants

By Jason Buch
Updated 06:35 p.m., Tuesday, April 3, 2012

State Rep. Lyle Larson is asking Mexican President Felipe Calderón to pay for services that Texas provides immigrants who are here illegally.

In a March 21 letter, Larson, R-San Antonio, wrote that the state spends between $6 billion and $8 billion a year on health care and other costs for illegal immigrants, a number he attributed to the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas.Larson, who filed a bill during the 2011 legislative session that would have required state agencies and organizations that receive state funding to track the services they provide immigrants, said he wants to “start a dialogue.”

“We need to sit down and figure this out from an economic viewpoint,” he said. “I don't believe anybody I'm aware of has asked the people in power in Mexico for compensation.”

In August, Gov. Rick Perry sent a bill to the federal government for $349 million for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants. Perry's office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Labor organizer and activist Jaime Martinez said even illegal immigrants pay property and sales taxes, among others.

“I don't believe that letter is going to do anything other than highlight his own political agenda,” said Martinez, CEO and founder of the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy and Educational Foundation. “It's not going to get anywhere.”

In his letter, Larson said 1.6 million Mexican citizens live illegally in Texas. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the total number of illegal immigrants living in Texas is 1.65 million.

Pinning down the actual cost to taxpayers caused by illegal immigration is difficult. In 2006, the Texas Comptroller found that illegal immigrants pay more in state taxes than they cost the state in services.

At the local level, however, the study found that illegal immigrants pay more than $513 million in taxes, and cost hospitals $1.3 billion in uncompensated healthcare costs and $141.9 million for incarceration.

But, as Larson pointed out, hospitals don't generally track the immigration status of their patients, so reaching an estimate of the costs is difficult. The law he proposed during the session that would have tracked that data didn't make it out of committee.

“The time has come for us to sit down and start having adult conversation about them reimbursing us,” he said.

And he had some creative ideas for how Mexico, which nationalized its oil industry in the 1930s but has seen a decline in production in recent years, could compensate Texas.

“Mexico could provide payment for these services by allowing U.S. companies to develop mineral rich areas of northern Mexico and collect these resources as an in-kind payment,” Larson wrote.

Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy, said neither the embassy nor Calderón had received the letter.

“As a matter of principle, we do not provide comment on letters we have not received,” he said.

jbuch@express-news.net

Rep. Larson wants Mexico to reimburse Texas for illegal immigrants - San Antonio Express-News

I could see them billing for incarcerated illegal foreign nationals from Mexico (Mexicans) because their status is documented through the prison system and medicaid bills that are proven to be incurred by Mexicans. I could see billing Mexico for services to Mexicans that are proven to be here through records, the rest are still "in the shadows" so to speak.

If Mexico wants it's citizens to have diplomatic immunity, as they advocate with their traveling counsulates and legal advocay, then the children born to Mexican citizens should have the same status as children born to diplomats from other countries and Mexico should pay for them also.

“Mexico could provide payment for these services by allowing U.S. companies to develop mineral rich areas of northern Mexico and collect these resources as an in-kind payment,” Larson wrote.

This seems to say "it is OK for them to keep coming if you pay off corporations while US citizens support them through social welfare".

I don't like this at all.

SHOW: YOUR WORLD WITH NEIL CAVUTO 4:43 PM EST
April 5, 2012 Thursday
Interview With Texas State Representative Lyle Larson
Neil Cavuto
Lyle Larson

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Forget the border battle. Just send a bill.

One Texas lawmaker is proposing just that. With an estimated 1.6 million illegal immigrants from Mexico in his state, Representative Lyle Larson says Mexico owes the state for all the services that it has provided their citizens. The tab, about $6 billion, he says, at the very least. And that`s just for last year.

He sent this in a letter to Mexico`s President Felipe Calderon.

The representative joins me now.

By the way, we went ahead and contacted the Mexican president`s office. So far, no response, but, as I always say, hope springs eternal. You never know.

Representative, good to have you.

So, you have gotten no response to this?

LYLE LARSON (R), TEXAS STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I haven`t.

CAVUTO: And a lot of folks say, you know, you are, I guess, wasting time here. But what do you say?

LARSON: Well, we need to start a dialogue with the folks that are the source point for illegal immigrants, not only in Texas, but in all the bordering states.

We have tried for the last three decades to try to get cost recovery for local school districts and for folks that are given health care in Texas. And they have not given us any funding to offset that. So let`s go to the source point and start the dialogue.

I think it is critical that if we are going to ever secure the border, it is imperative that the folks in Mexico are part of the equation. No country in the history of the world has ever unilaterally been able to secure their own border. So we need to start a dialogue and we need to start doing some cost recovery.

And, in fact, Texas and a number of these states are de facto welfare states for the folks in Mexico. And they are rich in resources, and they`re the 12th largest economy in the world, second largest importer into the United States. And so we can have this dialogue.

CAVUTO: Well, I think, Representative, you are right on all the above, as far as what their -- what -- the assets they have.

But, as you know, they have either blown the assets or wasted the money or corruption, they don`t have the money, so you have a country that is literally imploding, depending on your point of view. So they will not pay up on this.

And the only saving grace I guess has been, Representative, that things -- when the slowdown was taking, gripping this country, fewer Mexicans were coming here because, as bad as things were there, they were not a hell of a lot more promising here.

But now, as things are picking up, it is getting to be a problem again, isn`t it?

LARSON: It is. You have got 1.6 million, and it is going to grow, the illegal immigrants in this community -- in this state.

And I think it is critical that if we do not get a guest-worker program, that we will have to do something from the state standpoint to try to get some cost recovery. Going to Mexico is one of the strategies. There is a lot funding that goes into Mexico at the federal level for drug interdiction, for education, for infrastructure and those kinds of things.

But the host states, like Texas and California, where we`re losing $6 billion to $8 billion a year in providing these services, we will have to get some relief. So I think we have got a lot of common interests with Mexico. I think that they do have a lot of resources that are available.

And if we introduced oil companies back into the northern part of Mexico or deep offshore drilling, there`s resources there.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, you know, that is not a bad idea, get them in there and raise the money that way.

Representative, thank you very much.

LARSON: All right, thank you. Appreciate it.


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