[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4282 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4282

  To provide Federal reimbursement for indirect costs relating to the 
   incarceration of illegal aliens and for emergency health services 
                   furnished to undocumented aliens.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 13, 2000

Mr. Bilbray (for himself and Mr. Hunter) introduced the following bill; 
 which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition 
     to the Committee on Commerce, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide Federal reimbursement for indirect costs relating to the 
   incarceration of illegal aliens and for emergency health services 
                   furnished to undocumented aliens.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``State Criminal Alien Assistance 
Program II and Local Medical Emergency Reimbursement Act''.

          TITLE I--STATE CRIMINAL ALIEN ASSISTANCE PROGRAM II

SEC. 101. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``State Criminal Alien Assistance 
Program II Act of 2000''.

SEC. 102. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Federal policies and strategies aimed at curbing 
        illegal immigration and criminal alien activity implemented 
        along our Nation's southwest border influence the number of 
        crossings, especially their location.
            (2) States and local governments were reimbursed 
        approximately 60 percent of the costs of the incarceration of 
        criminal aliens in fiscal year 1996 when only 90 jurisdictions 
        applied for such reimbursement. In subsequent years, the number 
        of local jurisdictions receiving reimbursement has increased. 
        For fiscal year 1999, 280 local jurisdictions applied, and 
        reimbursement amounted to only 40 percent of the costs incurred 
        by those jurisdictions.
            (3) Certain counties, often with a small taxpayer base, 
        located on or near the border across from sometimes highly 
        populated areas of Mexico, suffer a substantially 
        disproportionate share of the impact of criminal illegal aliens 
        on its law enforcement and criminal justice systems.
            (4) A University of Arizona study released in January 1998 
        reported that at least 2 of the 4 counties located on Arizona's 
        border of Mexico, Santa Cruz and Cochise Counties, are burdened 
        with this problem--
                    (A) for example, in 1998, Santa Cruz County had 
                12.7 percent of Arizona's border population but 50 
                percent of alien crossings and 32.5 percent of illegal 
                alien apprehensions;
                    (B) for fiscal year 1998, it is estimated that, of 
                its total criminal justice budget of $5,033,000, Santa 
                Cruz County spent $1,900,000 (39 percent) to process 
                criminal illegal aliens, of which over half was not 
                reimbursed by Federal monies; and
                    (C) Santa Cruz County has not obtained relief from 
                this burden, despite repeated appeals to Federal and 
                State officials.
            (5) In the State of Texas, the border counties of Cameron, 
        Dimmit, El Paso, Hidalgo, Kinney, Val Verde, and Webb bore the 
        unreimbursed costs of apprehension, prosecution, indigent 
        defense, and other related services for criminal aliens who 
        served more than 142,000 days in county jails.
            (6) Throughout Texas nonborder counties bore similar 
        unreimbursed costs for apprehension, prosecution, indigent 
        defense, and other related services for criminal aliens who 
        served more than 1,000,000 days in county jails.
            (7) The State of Texas has incurred substantial additional 
        unreimbursed costs for State law enforcement efforts made 
        necessary by the presence of criminal illegal aliens.
            (8) The Federal Government should reimburse States and 
        units of local government for the related costs incurred by the 
        State for the imprisonment of any illegal alien.
            (9) According to data from the Immigration and 
        Naturalization Service, 27 percent of all Border Patrol 
        apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 1999 
        took place in the San Diego and El Centro sectors of 
        California. Yet, those counties were reimbursed for only a 
        fraction of the expenses associated with the criminal activity 
        of illegal aliens.
            (10) It is estimated that it costs in excess of $50,000,000 
        to San Diego and Imperial County hospitals to treat 
        undocumented individuals in  emergency rooms. In October of 
1997 the California State Auditor issued a report that estimated 
between $4,900,000 and $8,100,000 of unreimbursed medical expenses were 
incurred by U.S. Border Patrol ``dumping''.
            (11) One example of costs incurred by health providers 
        involved an overturned van containing 20 undocumented persons 
        in Imperial County. One of the victims involved a young man who 
        suffered head trauma. This patient never regained consciousness 
        and the costs of his care were magnified by treating him at an 
        acute level, as placement to a lower level of care was not 
        possible. The cost of providing care for this patient alone was 
        in excess of $200,000.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this title is--
            (1) to assist States and local communities by providing 
        financial assistance for expenditures for illegal juvenile 
        aliens, and for related costs to States and units of local 
        government that suffer a substantially disproportionate share 
        of the impact of criminal illegal aliens on their law 
        enforcement and criminal justice systems; and
            (2) to ensure equitable treatment for those States and 
        local governments that are affected by Federal policies and 
strategies aimed at curbing illegal immigration and criminal alien 
activity implemented on the southwest border.

SEC. 103. REIMBURSEMENT OF STATES AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS FOR 
              INDIRECT COSTS RELATING TO THE INCARCERATION OF ILLEGAL 
              ALIENS.

    Section 501 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (8 
U.S.C. 1365) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``a State for'' and all 
        that follows through the end and inserting the following: ``a 
        State (or, if appropriate, a political subdivision of the 
        State) for--
            ``(1) the costs incurred by the State or political 
        subdivision for the imprisonment of any illegal alien or Cuban 
        national who is convicted of a felony by such State; and
            ``(2) the indirect costs related to the imprisonment 
        described in paragraph (1).'';
            (2) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the following:
    ``(c) Indirect Costs Defined.--In subsection (a), the term 
`indirect costs' includes--
            ``(1) court costs, county attorney costs, and criminal 
        proceedings expenditures that do not involve going to trial;
            ``(2) indigent defense; and
            ``(3) unsupervised probation costs.''; and
            (3) by amending subsection (d) to read as follows:
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated $200,000,000 to carry out subsection (a) for each of the 
fiscal years 2001 through 2004.''.

SEC. 104. REIMBURSEMENT OF STATES AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS FOR COSTS 
              OF INCARCERATING JUVENILE ALIENS.

    (a) In General.--Section 501 of the Immigration Reform and Control 
Act of 1986 (8 U.S.C. 1365), as amended by section 103 of this Act, is 
further amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)(1), by inserting ``or illegal 
        juvenile alien who has been adjudicated delinquent or committed 
        to a juvenile correctional facility by such State or locality'' 
        before the semicolon;
            (2) in subsection (b), by inserting ``(including any 
        juvenile alien who has been adjudicated delinquent or has been 
        committed to a correctional facility)'' before ``who is in the 
        United States unlawfully''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(f) Juvenile Alien Defined.--In this section, the term `juvenile 
alien' means an alien (as defined in section 101(a)(3) of the 
Immigration and Nationality Act) who has been adjudicated delinquent or 
committed to a correctional facility by a State or locality as a 
juvenile offender.''.
    (b) Annual Report.--Section 332 of the Illegal Immigration Reform 
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1366) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (3);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (4) and 
        inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) the number of illegal juvenile aliens (as defined in 
        section 501(f) of the Immigration Reform and Control Act) that 
        are committed to State or local juvenile correctional 
        facilities, including the type of offense committed by each 
        juvenile.''.
    (c) Conforming Amendment.--Section 241(i)(3)(B) of the Immigration 
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1231(i)(3)(B)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``or'' at the end of clause (ii);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of clause (iii) and 
        inserting ``; or''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(iv) is a juvenile alien with respect to 
                        whom section 501 of the Immigration Reform and 
                        Control Act of 1986 applies.''.

SEC. 105. REIMBURSEMENT OF STATES BORDERING MEXICO OR CANADA.

    Section 501 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (8 
U.S.C. 1365), as amended by sections 103 and 104 of this Act, is 
further amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(g) Manner of Allotment of Reimbursements.--Reimbursements under 
this section shall be allotted in a manner that takes into account 
special consideration for any State that--
            ``(1) shares a border with Mexico or Canada; or
            ``(2) includes within the State an area in which a large 
        number of undocumented aliens reside relative to the general 
        population of the area.''.

 TITLE II--REIMBURSEMENT OF STATES AND LOCALITIES FOR EMERGENCY HEALTH 
                    SERVICES TO UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

SEC. 201. AUTHORIZATION OF ADDITIONAL FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT OF 
              EMERGENCY HEALTH SERVICES FURNISHED TO UNDOCUMENTED 
              ALIENS

    (a) Total Amount Available for Allotment.--To the extent of 
available appropriations under subsection (e), there are available for 
allotments under this section for each of fiscal years 2002 through 
2005, $200,000,000 for payments to certain States under this section.
    (b) State Allotment Amount.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary shall compute an allotment 
        for each fiscal year beginning with fiscal year 2001 and ending 
        with fiscal year 2004 for each of the 17 States with the 
        highest number of undocumented aliens. The amount of such 
        allotment for each such State for a fiscal year shall bear the 
        same ratio to the total amount available for allotments under 
        subsection (a) for the fiscal year as the ratio of the number 
        of undocumented aliens in the State in the fiscal year bears to 
        the total of such numbers for all such States for such fiscal 
        year. The amount of allotment to a State provided under this 
        paragraph for a fiscal year that is not paid out under 
        subsection (c) shall be available for payment during the 
        subsequent fiscal year.
            (2) Determination.--For purposes of paragraph (1), the 
        number of undocumented aliens in a State under this section 
        shall be determined based on estimates of the resident illegal 
        alien population residing in each State prepared by the 
        Statistics Division of the Immigration and Naturalization 
        Service as of October 1992 (or as of such later date if such 
        date is at least 1 year before the beginning of the fiscal year 
        involved).
    (c) Use of Funds.--
            (1) In general.--From the allotments made under subsection 
        (b) for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall pay to each State 
        amounts described in a State plan, submitted to the Secretary, 
        under which the amounts so allotted will be paid to local 
        governments, hospitals, and related providers of emergency 
        health services to undocumented aliens in a manner that--
                    (A) takes into account--
                            (i) each eligible local government's, 
                        hospital's or related provider's payments under 
                        the State plan approved under title XIX of the 
                        Social Security Act for emergency medical 
                        services described in section 1903(v)(2)(A) of 
                        such Act (42 U.S.C. 1396b(v)(2)(A)) for such 
                        fiscal year; or
                            (ii) an appropriate alternative proxy for 
                        measuring the volume of emergency health 
                        services provided to undocumented aliens by 
                        eligible local governments, hospitals, and 
                        related providers for such fiscal year; and
                    (B) provides special consideration for local 
                governments, hospitals, and related providers located 
                in--
                            (i) a county that shares a border with 
                        Mexico or Canada; or
                            (ii) an area in which a large number of 
                        undocumented aliens reside relative to the 
                        general population of the area.
            (2) Special rules.--For purposes of this subsection:
                    (A) A provider shall be considered to be 
                ``related'' to a hospital to the extent that the 
                provider furnishes emergency health services to an 
                individual for whom the hospital also furnishes 
                emergency health services.
                    (B) Amounts paid under this subsection shall not 
                duplicate payments made under title XIX of the Social 
                Security Act for the provision of emergency medical 
                services described in section 1903(v)(2)(A) of such Act 
                (42 U.S.C. 1396b(v)(2)(A)).
    (d) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Hospital.--The term ``hospital'' has the meaning given 
        such term in section 1861(e) of the Social Security Act (42 
        U.S.C. 1395x(e)).
            (2) Provider.--The term ``provider'' includes a physician, 
        another health care professional, and an entity that furnishes 
        emergency ambulance services.
            (3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Health and Human Services.
            (4) State.--The term ``State'' means the 50 States and the 
        District of Columbia.
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $200,000,000 for each of fiscal 
years 2001 through 2005.
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