On Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) signed an executive order mandating that all hospitals in the state begin gathering information on all patients who are immigrants, so that they can be reported to the state government.

As Fox News reports, Order GA 46 requires the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect data on illegal aliens who go to public hospitals for either inpatient or emergency care, and to subsequently report the costs back to the state so as to determine how much taxpayer money was spent on healthcare for illegal aliens. The bill will subsequently be sent to the Biden-Harris Administration.

“Due to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ open border policies, Texas has had to foot the bill for medical costs for individuals illegally in the state,” said Governor Abbott in a statement. “Texas should not have to shoulder the burden of financially supporting medical care for illegal immigrants.”

“That is why I issued an Executive Order requiring the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collect and report healthcare costs for illegal immigrants in our state,” the governor added. “Texas will hold the Biden-Harris Administration accountable for the consequences of their open border policies, and we will fight to ensure that they pay back Texas for their costly and dangerous policies.”

The order will take effect on November 1st, after which point hospitals must begin reporting the data on a quarterly basis; the first such submissions will be due on March 1st, 2025. Annual reports will be mandated starting on January 1st, 2026, and must be submitted to the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, and state Speaker of the House.

Abbott’s order is the latest in a series of actions that attempt to crack down on mass migration in response to the Biden-Harris Administration’s preference for an “open-border” policy of simply letting in as many illegals as possible. Governor Abbott signed a bill into law making illegal immigration into Texas a state crime, and also utilized state resources to construct multiple makeshift barriers along the southern border, including stacks of metal shipping crates, barbed wire, and giant floating buoys in the Rio Grande River.