California and the West : U.S. Should Pay States’ Illegal Immigrant Costs, Bush Says

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, clarifying comments he made last week, said Wednesday the federal government should reimburse California and other states for the costs they incur from illegal immigration.

Although the Republican presidential front-runner said last Thursday that he opposes such reimbursements, Bush’s campaign said that he misunderstood a reporter’s question and that his answer does not signal a change in his position nor a contradiction of the policies of the state he governs.

Texas has sought--with mixed success--billions of dollars from the federal government to cover what it has spent on health care, education and incarceration of illegal immigrants.

California, too, receives federal money for services to undocumented immigrants--$173 million last year to house and feed its 22,000 undocumented prisoners and $299 million for illegal immigrants’ emergency health care, according to the state Department of Finance.

Bush supports such reimbursements wholeheartedly, spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said Wednesday, and would continue to do so as president. But his first priority regarding immigration, she said, would be to tighten America’s borders, a power that he lacks as a governor.

“As president he is going to have the opportunity to enforce the border and hopefully make these expenses nonexistent, or at least lessen them.”

Bush was asked by the San Francisco Chronicle whether California should recoup the billions of dollars it spends to provide services and education to illegal immigrants. He said no, “because that’s not a federal role, in my judgment.”

The comment confused experts on immigration issues because in 1995 Bush supported a legal appeal in which Texas unsuccessfully sought $5 billion in immigration-related reimbursements from the federal government.

After Bush was criticized for appearing to go against his own state’s position as well as against the opinions of both pro- and anti-immigration groups, Tucker said Bush misunderstood what he had been asked. Because the interview took place immediately before a speech Bush was giving in Los Angeles on education, he assumed the reporter was asking whether the federal government should reimburse states for the costs of educating all students, not just illegal immigrants or their children, Tucker said.

If the federal government fails to keep immigrants from crossing U.S. borders, Bush believes that states should not have to bear the “unusual costs” of educating them or their children. In those cases, Tucker said, the governor supports reimbursements.

California does not recoup any of the $2 billion it spends each year to educate illegal immigrants or their children, said Sandy Harrison, spokesman for the state finance department.

Tucker said that if Bush is elected, he will aim to repay the states for more of the expenses incurred in providing services to illegal immigrants. “Gov. Bush understands current federal reimbursement programs may not be adequate and will work with Congress and those states to improve them,” she said.

Bush will lay out his plans for stricter border enforcement as his presidential campaign progresses, she said.

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* TWO AL GORES

Vice president is typically prosaic in one Orange County appearance, but lively and engaging in another. A15