Texas Bill Requiring Hospitals To Ask Citizenship Killed

It's one of the hottest topics in Texas right now, and has been really since the top of the year.

Citizenship not only in Texas, but the United States. There has been quite a crackdown on making sure you have proper citizenship if you're living in the country and state.

There have been many reports in Texas of ICE being out and about doing stings to send people back to their home country if they are here illegally. Just a couple of weeks ago, I saw someone post that they saw a lot of unmarked vans coming through the Texas Panhandle, and they thought it might be ICE, but that was unconfirmed.

Executive Order In Texas To Announce Citizenship

It was announced back in August 2024 that Governor Abbott had issued an executive order for hospitals that accepted Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Plan to ask about citizenship.

This was not an unprecedented move, as Florida had begun to do the same already. There was quite a bit of backlash when it was announced, and doctors were coming out of the woodwork saying that patients did NOT have to answer that question.

Bill Proposed For Hospitals In Texas To Report Citizenship Status

Once the executive order was announced, a bill was put in front of Texas lawmakers requiring hospitals to declare how many undocumented patients they had treated or had come through the doors.

According to the Amarillo Globe-News, House Bill 2587 would've given us an annual report of the estimated cost of hospitals providing care to immigrants who were illegally residing in the state.

Read More: Gov. Abbott Threatening To Defund A Children's Hospital

Proposed Bill Blocked In Texas

On May 14, 2025, House Bill 2587 was killed before even making it to a vote after state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer challenged the validity of the bill.

He was successful in his argument, stating that the caption describing the bill didn't reflect what the bill was actually about.

What Caption In The Bill Did Martinez Fischer Challenge

There was one caption he brought up specifically was the bill “relating to an annual report on the financial impact on hospitals for providing certain uncompensated care.”

However, the bill had nothing to do with anything about uncompensated care, it was about requiring hospitals to start asking if they were a lawful resident of the United States.

Does That Mean The Bill Is Dead In Texas

Not necessarily. State Rep. Mike Olcott, who is the lawmaker who proposed the bill, could simply amend the bill to either remove that language or change how it relates to the overall bill.

As of this writing, there was no word as to what Olcott would do with it.