Texas Counties Could Pay More to Keep Undocumented Inmates in Jail Under Trump Budget Plan

WASHINGTON — The budget blueprint that President Donald Trump released on Thursday morning calls for billions of dollars to be spent on immigration enforcement. But he also suggested cutting a grant program that sends millions of dollars to Texas and other states to help cover the cost of incarcerating undocumented inmates.The grant program, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, sends money to states to reimburse them for the cost of jailing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. In the 2016 fiscal year, the program sent more than $13 million to Texas, one of the top grant recipients along with California.Of that amount, $9 million went to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The two counties with the biggest reimbursements — Harris County and Dallas County — received a combined $1.5 million from the same program. Under Trump’s budget blueprint, that money would disappear.Instead, the federal government would increase spending on detention facilities overall, explained Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, at a White House press briefing on Thursday. Mulvaney said he wasn't able to discuss this grant program's elimination specifically."You're going to see an increase in the [Department of Homeland Security's] budget for an increase in detention facilities," Mulvaney said. "We increase the amount of money for detention facilities for folks who come into the country illegally."  Continue reading...