Speech #1040008136

As a result. I strongly support this legislation and offer the following amendment with Senators MACK. BRYAN. and BOXER to close an important loophole in the bill with respect to immigration and its impact on State and local government. My amendment would require Congress to recognize and address the cost shift to State and local governments for any action on the floor that would delete or preempt the authorization of any Federal reimbursement program for immigration costs. such as in the Criminal Aliens Federal Responsibility Act. The amendment does not address funding levels for such programs in appropriations bills or address past immigrationrelated costs absorbed by State and local governments. However. the amendment would place immigration reimbursement programs in the same circumstance as Medicaid. the social services block grant. the Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants Program. child nutrition. and three other Federal programs. In this bill. if any of these programs are financially capped or the Federal Governments responsibility to provide funding to State and local government is reduced and State and local government lack the authority to amend their financial or programmatic responsibilities. then such an action would trigger the definition of an unfunded mandate in the bill. These are precisely the circumstances relating to immigration reimbursement programs such as the Criminal Aliens Federal Responsibility Act. As you will recall. the Criminal Aliens Federal Responsibility Act was successfully included in the crime bill last session by a bipartisan group of Senators in an effort to have the Federal Government address its responsibility for immigration and the costs imposed on States and localities of incarcerating criminal aliens. According to a recent report by the Urban Institute. more than 21.000 criminal illegal immigrants are incarcerated in U.S. prisons at an annual cost of $471 million. Educating undocumented immigrants is even more costly. More than 640.000 undocumented children are enrolled in primary and secondary schools in the United States at a cost of $3.1 billion a year. In a policy brief from the Governors office this week on the impact of unfunded mandates to the State of Florida. it is estimated that State costs relating to illegal aliens including education. emergency health care. prosecution and incarceration of criminal aliens and public infrastructure. In fiscal year 1993 this unfunded mandate cost the State of Florida $884 million. An elimination of the authorization of such program would clearly reduce the Federal Governments responsibility to provide funding to State and local governments. while those entities have virtually no authority or ability to amend their financial or programmatic responsibilities. In a letter to the Congress last year. the National Governors Association wrote. The Nations governors have been in strong agreement that immigration policy must be based on Federal responsibility and fairness to State and local governments. As you well know. immigration policy is solely a Federal concern. Yet Federal law mandates the States to provide emergency health care and education to undocumented Immigrants who reside in our States. State governments also are forced to pay for the costs of incarceratIng undocumented alien criminals. Immigration is clearly much more like mandatory or entitlement programs such as Medicaid than other discretionary programs such as transportation and housing. State and local governments do not have the discretion to amend or restrict their financial obligations for mandatory or entitlement programs. In fact. I would argue that the status of unreimbursed Federal immigrationrelated costs as an unfunded mandate is actually stronger than that of programs such as Medicaid because the Federal Governments plenary role and responsibility for immigration and border control is unchallenged. In Traus versus Raich. the Supreme Court ruled in 1915 that "(t]he authority to control immigrationto admit or exclude aliensis vested solely in the Federal Government." States cannot make treaties. hire border patrol. establish naturalization policy or even set much in the way of policy with respect to providing services to illegal immigrants. Border protection and immigration are clearly Federal obligations. The implications of my amendment would be to allow Members of Congress to raise a point or order against legislation that would reduce or eliminate the authorization of Federal immigration reimbursement programs. For example. if legislation were introduced that imposes a Federal mandate that the Congressional Budget Office estimates to cost State and local governments $350 million. the author of the bill could attempt to offset such costs by eliminating the authorization for the Criminal Aliens Federal Responsibility Act. Such an action would effectively pay for a federally imposed Federal mandate by shifting the full costs and responsibility for incarcerating criminal aliens to State and local governments.