On Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) signed an executive order mandating that all hospitals in the state begin gathering information on all patients who are immigrants, so that they can be reported to the state government.
As Fox News reports, Order GA 46 requires the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect data on illegal aliens who go to public hospitals for either inpatient or emergency care, and to subsequently report the costs back to the state so as to determine how much taxpayer money was spent on healthcare for illegal aliens. The bill will subsequently be sent to the Biden-Harris Administration.
“Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state,” said Governor Abbott in a statement. “Texas should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants.”
“That is why I issued an Executive Order requiring the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect and report healthcare costs for illegal immigrants in our state,” the governor added. “Texas will hold the Biden-Harris Administration accountable for the consequences of their open border policies, and we will fight to ensure that they pay back Texas for their costly and dangerous policies.”
The order will take effect on November 1st, after which point hospitals must begin reporting the data on a quarterly basis; the first such submissions will be due on March 1st, 2025. Annual reports will be mandated starting on January 1st, 2026, and must be submitted to the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and state Speaker of the House.
Abbott’s order is the latest in a series of actions that attempt to crack down on mass migration in response to the Biden-Harris Administration’s preference for an “open-border” policy of simply letting in as many illegals as possible. Governor Abbott signed a bill into law making illegal immigration into Texas a state crime, and also utilized state resources to construct multiple makeshift barriers along the southern border, including stacks of metal shipping crates, barbed wire, and giant floating buoys in the Rio Grande River.
Governor DeSantis has signed legislation in Florida requiring the same actions at hospitals, ostensibly to present to the federal government for reimbursement. My issue with this kind of action now is that it feels like pandering, because it is pandering. Where were these states’ governors years ago? Illegal aliens in the United States have presented a threat to the country for decades, the latest being the 9/11 hijackers. Nothing, but nothing was done to stop or clean up the overstayed visa issue. Not. One. Thing. Why? Because Big Corporate love dem some cheap, cheap, labor! That’s why! From the bottom of my heart, I hope they lose everything!
Under Reagan, there were so many illegal aliens in the country, Tip O’Neill and the Democrats in Congress just had to grant them amnesty because, “We can’t deport them all… there are too many!”? It was fine to soak taxpayers at the state AND federal level for decades, but now that it’s politically expedient, we want numbers? Well, here’s an idea, confiscate non-citizen property, bank accounts, and soak their employers and landlords and “redistribute” that to citizens who foot their bills!
I just read a piece detailing steep increases in auto insurance. Possibly, just maybe, the 20+ million illegal invaders who entered the country since 2021 might have something to do with that, but instead of removing them from the roads and hospitals, state government is learning how to count? We’re doomed with this kind of “leadership”!