Texas officials estimate at least $250 million spent on illegal immigrants annually

 

Jerry McGinty, the chief financial officer for the Texas Department of Corrections, said that last month, state prisons held 11,766 offenders who are foreign citizens – about 7.5 percent of the prison population. Housing them costs about $171 million per year, and the federal government reimburses about 10 percent of the expense.

Rick Allgeyer, director of research for the Health and Human Services Commission, told the committee that health care to illegal immigrants last year cost the state nearly $100 million, mostly for emergency hospital care.

The figure includes the cost of 63,000 births – including 11,000 at Parkland Memorial Hospital , as The Dallas Morning News reported last week.