Texas Is “Governing Blind” on Immigration’s Costs to Schools, Hospitals, and First Responders

New TPPF Research: Texas Is “Governing Blind” on Immigration’s Costs to Schools, Hospitals, and First Responders

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is legally required to educate, treat, and respond to everyone who enters its classrooms, emergency rooms, and 911 systems, but it has no consistent way to measure what those obligations cost. That’s the central finding of Governing Blind: The Fiscal and Operational Impact of Immigration on Texas Public Systems, a new paper by Selene Rodriguez of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Secure & Sovereign Nation campaign.

“Texas can’t manage what it doesn’t measure. Our schools, hospitals, and first responders are absorbing real costs every day, and policymakers deserve accurate numbers, not guesswork,” said Rodriguez.

Under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-46, Texas hospitals reported 313,742 visits by patients illegally present in the U.S. in fiscal year 2025. Those visits accounted for more than $1 billion in total healthcare costs, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. However, because patients may decline to disclose their citizenship status, the reported figures may not capture the full extent of immigration-related healthcare utilization and costs.

Schools face a bigger blind spot. Because no state agency tracks student immigration status, no one knows how many illegal aliens are enrolled in Texas public schools. In Liberty County, Cleveland ISD grew 211% over a decade, and nearly 90% of its students live in the Colony Ridge community, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Houston Landing reported that the district ran a $10 million deficit in 2023. While these figures do not establish the immigration status of enrolled students, they illustrate the challenge districts face when rapid population growth outpaces existing resources.

The paper recommends that the Texas Education Agency create a statewide reporting framework to measure immigration’s impact on public schools, which Plyler v. Doe does not prohibit. It also calls for making GA-46’s hospital data collection permanent in statute and for expanding EMS reporting to capture uncompensated response costs and changes in call volume.

“This issue is not simply about immigration; it is about governance,” the paper concludes. “Uncertainty cannot justify the absence of measurement altogether.”

The full paper is available here.