Wilson Sues Over Immigrant Health Care : Courts: Governor calls on federal government to cover nearly $370 million in emergency medical costs of illegal residents.

Gov. Pete Wilson sued the federal government Tuesday, seeking nearly $370 million for the cost of providing emergency medical care for illegal immigrants.

The suit was the second of three Wilson plans to file against the Clinton Administration in an attempt to force the federal government to shut down illegal immigration or reimburse the state for the cost of services for illegal immigrants.

The first lawsuit focused on prison costs and the third is to seek funds for educating illegal immigrants in California’s public schools. Wilson is bringing the suits in the federal District Court in Los Angeles.

“It is time the federal government starts to enforce the nation’s immigration laws,” Wilson said at a news conference at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles. “The federal government has failed in its basic responsibility to secure the border.”

Wilson said it will cost the state $369.8 million in the current fiscal year to provide emergency care, including obstetrics, to an estimated 309,000 illegal immigrants. The federal government already matches the state’s costs dollar for dollar, but Wilson wants Washington to pay the entire bill.

The costs have grown dramatically since Congress and former President Ronald Reagan made limited health care for illegal immigrants part of the federal MediCaid program, known as MediCal in California. Before the new law, which Wilson voted for as a U.S. senator, county programs for the poor and private health providers absorbed the cost of such care.

Wilson’s critics say the governor is using the issue to drum up support in an election year. But the Republican governor notes that the Democratic chief executives of Texas, New York and Florida also have either filed similar lawsuits or are considering doing so. “This is not a partisan issue,” he said.