NATIONAL SECURITY: TEXANS BEAR UNFAIR BURDEN

It's wrong that state taxpayers must foot immigration and medical bills on
behalf of the federal government.

In the border state of Texas, and right here smack on the border, Texans
are picking up the tab for holding undocumented immigrants in state
prisons, and El Pasoans are paying some of the medical bills for Mexican
citizens critically wounded in the Juarez drug war.

Last week, Gov. Rick Perry revived a message sent to Washington by other
governors in previous years. He pointed out that Texans, not
U.S. taxpayers in the 49 other states, wind up paying $172 million a year
to hold undocumented immigrants who are serving sentences for crimes
committed in the U.S., or are awaiting deportation.

In El Paso, University Medical Center is the county's hospital and by law
must treat anyone who comes to its door with a serious injury or
ailment. The issue, though, is that federal agents at our ports of entry
are allowing some non-citizens, who have been shot in the drug war, to
enter the U.S. for treatment.

The total cost of treating all drug-war victims, who do not pay their
medical bills here, has been about $1 million a year.

In 2008, after the first year of the drug war, UMC treated 50 victims of
violence in Mexico at a cost of around $1.4 million.

And ongoing data show El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar was
correct when she said last year, "I anticipate it ( drug war ) will
probably go on for a very long time. If this will be the status quo for
our community, we need more federal aid. If we don't get that funding, the
burden falls on the back of the local property taxpayer."

And Perry had a good point regarding prisoner bills. He pointed out that
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the same argument to
Washington, D.C. four years ago when she was governor of Arizona.

The feds hold charge over the border, and its issues. All taxpayers in the
U.S., not just border states, must fund that endeavor.