Central American Refugee Surge and Increased Border Security Appropriations

Did an increase in the influx of Central Americans arriving into the Rio Grande border prompt the Texas Legislature to increase Border Security expenditures during the 84th legislative session? Some recent trends from the Legislative Budget Board Report seem to provide sufficient evidence that indicate so.

In the summer of 2014, the Department of Homeland Security noticed an increase in the number of Central American children and families crossing various sectors into the United States. More specifically, the biggest percentage change came from the Rio Grande sector. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2014 there was a 132% change in the number of apprehensions at the Rio Grande border, which is a dramatic increase in the arrival of refugees coming into Texas compared to fiscal years 2015 and 2016.

The number of family unit apprehensions also saw a dramatic increase. From fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2014, the Rio Grande Border sector totaled a more than 500% change. Addressing the 2014 surge in the rising flow of Central Americans crossing into the Rio Grande border became a priority to the Department of Homeland Security, the Texas Legislature and Republicans.

The influx of refugees in 2014 came specifically from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, which made Central America the focus of immigration and border security issues among Republicans. The dramatic upsurge of Central Americans arriving into Texas ignited demand of increased appropriations for border security by Republican officials and public opinion in order to combat the issue.

According to results from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll in June of 2014, Texas voters saw Immigration and Border Security as the two most important problems facing the state of Texas. The Central American Refugee surge that occurred in 2014 led the enaction of policy in order to deal with the increased entry of refugees into Texas. The policy response was shaped by the crisis itself and public opinion.

The strong Republican stance on immigration and border security lead to an increase of appropriations for border operations. In both graphs below, Conservatives surpass Moderates and Liberals in strongly supporting escalating funds for border security. The Conservative ideology of increasing border security expenditures aligns with the Republican ideology in which both Republicans and Texans supported increased appropriations to deal with the refugee crisis.

Data from the Legislative Budget Board Report clearly demonstrates an increase in funding that the Texas Department of Public Safety received in the 2014–15 biennium compared to 2008–09 through 2012–13 bienniums. State appropriations for border security went from $108.2 million dollars (08–09) to $401.6 million dollars (14–15) in response to the Central American refugee surge. The methods of finance for border security operations by the Texas Department of Public Safety came from a wide array of accounts and state funds. The importance of this data is the difference in amount of funds generated through the years. In the 2012–2013 biennium the total amount of money going to Texas DPS was $212,933,367 dollars and when the flow of Central Americans increased, it led to funds for DPS to accumulate to $401,613,119 dollars in the 2014–15 biennium. This data clearly provides sufficient proof that the Central American surge led Republicans to increase expenditures for border security operations during the 84th legislative session in Texas. A move that legislators and the executive branch knew would be well-received by voters with the Republican majority that form their base of support. Given the previous graph on public opinion polls in which voters expressed concerns on immigration and border security, Republican officials were able to pass legislation to deal with the refugee crisis.

The Central American Refugee Surge of 2014 led to increased expenditures for Border Security. It was not only the strong Republican stance on immigration and border security that lead to this increase of appropriations, but public opinion too, which provided members of the legislature the support they needed to enact legislation to deal with the crisis.

The Texas House of Representatives in the 84th legislature had an interim charge to evaluate the effectiveness of the Department of Public Safety’s use of funds appropriated during the legislative session for border security operations. The goal of the interim charge is to “examine existing data and [report] on border security metrics, and recommend improvements to ensure the availability of accurate information considering sustaining or increasing border security funds.” It’ll be extremely interesting to see how the Texas legislature will respond to the interim charge in the 85th legislative session now that DHS has released data on apprehensions in the Rio Grande Border that show the numbers of Central Americans have substantially decreased.