McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday ordered hospitals that treat undocumented migrants to collect and send future information on their citizenship to the state.
Abbott is requiring that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission “assess costs to the Texas public hospital system imposed by the federal government’s open-border policies,” according to the executive order that Abbott signed Thursday afternoon.
“The surge of individuals crossing the southern border has continued,” Abbott wrote in his executive order. “Federal law contributes to the growth of uncompensated medical costs by requiring that any individual must be allowed to obtain emergency medical treatment regardless of that individual’s immigration status, or willingness or ability to pay for such treatment.”
His order requires hospitals to collect information on patients “who are not lawfully present in the United States” starting Nov. 1. This includes the number of inpatient discharges and emergency room visits.
Migrant advocates and healthcare professionals reacted with confusion and tell Border Report they fear that this will cause racial profiling, and could deter migrants from seeking medical care.
“It’s going to discourage people from seeking medical care that otherwise are going to need it. And whether you’re legal or not, if you’re having an emergency or a medical problem, you’re a human being and you need to be seen,” Hidalgo County Health Director Dr. Ivan Melendez told Border Report.
Abbott states that the federal government “may and should be obligated to reimburse the State of Texas for the costs,” and indicated that the collection of data is a way for the Lone Star state to, in effect, bill the federal government.
Abbott says hospitals must tell patients that the collection of the information “will not affect patient care.”
The information is to be submitted to the Health and Services Commission quarterly with the first batch of data sent no later than March 1, 2025.
Starting Jan. 1, 2026, the commission is to send the information to the governor, lieutenant governor and Texas Speaker of the House on “inpatient and emergency care of patients not lawfully present in the United States as reported by hospitals,” the order states.
Hospitals tell Border Report they do not ask patients whether they are U.S. citizens or not, but do ask for identification.
Melendez says migrants who are brought to Texas public hospitals for care by U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers or U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, have a card that authorizes the care and all costs to go to the federal government.
He says he understands, from a fiscal standpoint accounting for costs, but he says the federal government picks up costs for undocumented migrants in federal law enforcement care.
However, he says asking other patients for their citizenship information “is overreaching.”
“Medical facilities, especially the physicians, the actual staff that takes care of the patient — We’re already so overburdened with the volume and the acuity of the patient’s care that asking us to ascertain a legal status of a patient, regardless of whether we’re not going to turn the patient away, regardless of their status. I think for me, it’s overreaching,” Melendez said.
“I can see his motivation. I can see he’s well motivated, that he’s trying to take care of the citizens and the well being of everyone. But if you look at it from a pure humanistic perspective, I think it’s going to get in the way of delivering health care to those people who are at greatest need, which are the indigent, poor, and especially immigrant, that all that may be here illegally, they’re human beings also. So I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Melendez said.
Gabriel Rosales, Texas State Director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, on Thursday told Border Report that this order, in effect makes doctors and healthcare workers law enforcement officers for the border and will promote “racial profiling.”
“That’s ludicrous. Right off the bat it’s racial profiling,” Rosales said. “It’s going to immediately intimidate the community, our immigrant community, from trying to get the help that they need. This is completely uncalled for.
“It is an insult and a slap in the face to Latinos in Texas,” Rosales said.
Rosales said LULAC is meeting with their lawyers and looking at possible court action to try to stop this.
In West Texas, the El Paso County-run University Medical Center issued a statement saying: “We are aware of the Executive Order that was issued today by Governor Abbott. We will be reviewing it with our team to fully understand its implications and requirements.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.