AUSTIN, Texas: The opening efforts by the Texas House to solve the state’s foster care crisis erupted into a fierce debate over immigration, when a Republican lawmaker proposed ending financial assistance for adoptions of at-risk children by relatives in the country illegally.
Lawmakers eventually passed the chamber’s first two major bills of a legislative session that began nearly two months ago – both aimed at mending foster care system that a federal judge has ruled is unconstitutional – but not before a roughly hour-long, raucous argument over immigration that featured accusations of racism.
The unexpected diversion came weeks after the Texas Senate passed a hotly contested bill prohibiting “sanctuary cities,” and potentially jailing law enforcement officials who don’t help enforce federal immigration policies – underscoring Republicans’ determination to impose tough immigration policies in the era of President Donald Trump.
The House flap started when Republican Rep. Mark Keough, of The Woodlands in suburban Houston, tried to amend a major, bipartisan bill to increase state spending on efforts to persuade relatives to adopt abused and neglected children as part of so-called “kinship care.”
The proposal, touted as one of the House’s main pieces of foster care legislation, would give more financial assistance to grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members who adopt a relative by providing monthly lump sums that in some cases could reach almost $520. The program currently provides a one-time “integration payment” of $1,000 per child and an annual reimbursement of about $500 per child, regardless of the caregiver’s immigration status.
But Keough proposed a change to say that Texas would be barred from providing money to a relative or caregiver “who is not lawfully present in the United States.” He said payments to such people who adopt a relative are equivalent to an “entitlement.”
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