Interactive: The Cost of Jailing Undocumented Immigrants

Reports from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards estimate that Texas county jails spent more than $218.9 million housing 181,279 undocumented immigrants with federal detainers between October 2011 and June 2014.

Total Inmates Housed Total Days Housed Total Estimated Cost
181,279 3,680,036 $218,913,314.86

Immigrants Housed Statewide by Month

Cost of Detainers Statewide by Month

A state law passed in 2011 requires Texas jails to report monthly estimates of the cost of housing undocumented immigrants. The table below shows an aggregation of the costs reported each month between October 2011 and June 2014 as well as the total number of undocumented immigrants housed and the number of days county jails housed undocumented immigrants. Each row in the table corresponds to a county jail, and jail names that include "P" represent privately operated jails.

Click here to download the reports.

Sort By

Source: Texas Commission on Jail Standards | Feedback | Follow @TribNerds on Twitter.

Comment Policy

The Texas Tribune is pleased to provide the opportunity for you to share your observations about this story. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask that you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or wandering away from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of the Tribune, and your real name will be displayed. Thanks for taking time to offer your thoughts.

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Login | Sign-Up