Vice President Kamala Harris is being pressed by a top state official in Oklahoma to back a reimbursement for the cost to taxpayers of illegal immigration and its impact on schools, according to a letter.
In a letter on Tuesday to Harris and the White House, Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its “abject failure to secure the border and enforce immigration law.” Citing data from the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Republican requested a reimbursement of almost $475 million for “the financial impact borne by Oklahoma taxpayers for education of illegal immigrant children.”
“Under your supervision, the costs in education due to illegal immigration have risen astronomically,” Walters wrote in the letter, zeroing in on how President Joe Biden tapped Harris in 2021 to address the root causes of the border crisis. Next to the economy, immigration continues to poll as one of the most important issues to voters this election.
“Your failed oversight and efforts are a direct cause of the current crises Oklahoma and other states now face,” added Walters, a former Education Secretary in Oklahoma who has faced scrutiny from Democrats for being a “firebrand” conservative. “Oklahoma taxpayers, schools, teachers, and parents should not bear the burden of your failings. They deserve better.”
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The letter, which comes just one week before the 2024 election between Harris and former President Donald Trump, illustrates how some Republicans on the state level are seeking monetary relief for, in their telling, the Biden-Harris administration’s mishandling of the border crisis. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) issued an order in August aiming to seek federal reimbursement for illegal immigrant healthcare costs. In April, House Republicans impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who insisted the DHS does not “bear responsibility for a broken system” to handle the influx of illegal immigrants.
Walters said in his Tuesday letter that the staggering $474.9 million number that he cited is “an estimate because only your administration knows the true number of illegal immigrants crossing this nation’s borders and the actual costs of illegal immigration.”
In March of last year, the Federation for American Immigration Reform published a report that said the cost of 183,000 illegal immigrants and their children ran taxpayers more than $782 million in Oklahoma.
“The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered close to half a million unaccompanied, alien children since you and President Joe Biden assumed office,” Walters told Harris in the letter, which cited federal data showing around 3,000 unaccompanied immigrant children were sent to sponsors in Oklahoma between 2021 to 2023.
“Educating these children imposes a significant financial burden and presents additional obstacles that your administration seems to ignore,” Walter said. “For example, greater challenges now exist in the areas of English proficiency, tutoring ESL students, classroom management, transportation, and budgeting for future costs.”
It’s unclear through what mechanism the federal government would approve the reimbursement Walter is requesting, but one conservative lawyer, Jeff Clark, pointed to the appropriations process. Clark, a former top Justice Department official under Trump, said an avenue would be the president issuing a specific funding request to Congress.
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“It kind of only underscores how important it is for not only Trump to win but for us to take back both the House and the Senate,” Clark told the Washington Examiner.
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not reply to requests for comment.