Outgoing Texas Comptroller Don Huffines is calling on President Donald Trump to send federal immigration officials into every government agency in Texas after an internal review uncovered decades of failures to comply with federal employment verification requirements.
The announcement came after Huffines was defeated by Democrat Sarah Eckhardt in Tuesday’s statewide Democrat sweep.
According to Huffines, an agency-wide performance review uncovered systemic failures involving federal Form I-9 requirements, which require employers to verify the identity and work authorization of employees.
The problems may date back 20 years and could expose Texas taxpayers to approximately $5 million or more in federal civil penalties, according to a preliminary internal assessment.
“This is what decades of neglect and weak leadership from the mushy middle look like,” Huffines said. “Our officials were desperate to stay in power and desperate for the approval of elitists and lobbyists, so they never looked under the hood, and taxpayers are left holding the bag.”
Huffines, who took office in August, said the findings suggest government officials were aware of the failures and concealed them.
“This was not ignorance. The early findings suggest people inside government knew about these failures and hid them,” he said.
The comptroller’s office has retained outside legal counsel to investigate the findings, with corrective action already underway.
Huffines is now urging Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand the investigation across Texas government.
“I invite President Trump and ICE to review the employment eligibility of every government employee in Texas,” Huffines said. “The state of Texas needs to pay its fines for violating federal I-9 requirements, just like every business has to. And every government entity out of compliance should be audited and pay up too.”
Huffines is set to leave office in January, when Eckhardt takes over as comptroller.
