AUSTIN - Donald Trump's plan to start deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records would cover more than 6,700 convicts in Texas prisons, more than any other state, in a move that could save taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

The path for Trump to do so, however, is complicated by opposition to releasing convicts before they finish their sentences, especially if they are deported only to return to commit new crimes, officials said Monday.

"I'll put a bow on them if he'll come get them, but we've been trying to get them sent home for more than a decade without much success," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who has been among the leading legislative proponents of deporting some undocumented immigrants.

"About half of them are eligible for parole, and sending them home would not compromise public safety one iota," he said. "So, let's do it. It's nuts that we spend millions of dollars housing these people like we are."

Of the 6,761 felons in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who federal officials have determined are in the United States illegally - and already have filed paperwork to deport them when they are released from prison - almost half were eligible for parole at the end of October, state records show.

Of those who are parole-eligible, 1,903 are serving time for violent crimes. Prisoners not eligible for parole include 3,537 convicts serving long sentences for violent crimes, including murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, indecency with children and robbery. Ten of those are on death row and 54 others are serving life without a chance at parole.

If all of those eligible for parole were emptied from Texas prisons, the annual savings would be $61 million, at the official per-prisoner cost of $52 a day.

With the state facing a budget shortfall when the Legislature convenes in January, "I can promise you that this is going to be a major point of discussion," Whitmire said, echoing the sentiments of several colleagues.

An issue for decades

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, Trump said his first priority on illegal immigration is to get those with criminal records out of the country.

"What we are going to do is to get the people that are criminals and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, it could be two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of this country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump told CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl. "We're getting them out of our country. They're here illegally."

After that, Trump said, his administration will come up with a plan to deal with as many as eight million or nine million additional people in this country illegally who have not committed crimes.

More Information Undocumented immigrants in Texas prisons Number eligible for deportation: 6,761 Of those, number eligible for parole, as of end of October: 3,224 Parole-eligible include 1,903 serving time for violent crimes, 567 for drug crimes, 231 for property crimes, such as burglary, forgery and car theft, and 523 for other offenses, including escape, drunken driving and weapons crimes. Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

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For more than 20 years, Texas has worked in a partnership with federal immigration officials to hold hearings at a Huntsville prison as foreign convicts are discharged, so those who are ordered deported immediately can be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Prison officials acknowledged Monday that deportation of Texas convicts has been an issue for years.

Almost three decades ago, several lawmakers proposed building a prison on a Caribbean island and transferring the offenders there. More recently, legislative leaders have endorsed deportations to save money, as federal officials drastically cut reimbursements to cover Texas' costs. Then-Gov. Rick Perry sidelined that discussion by asserting that since the foreign convicts did their crimes in Texas, they should do their time here, as well.

In 2010, state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, said the state could save more than $100 million if as many as 5,000 foreigners were removed from state prisons. The Legislature changed state law to allow the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to approve convicts for early release on the condition that they would be deported to their home countries, for both violent and non-violent crimes.

'It gets complicated'

Even so, officials said those paroles mostly stopped over equal-protection questions - whether the parole board should parole someone just because he would be deported, and not because he otherwise qualified for early release - and because some offenders were posting immigration bonds and then disappearing to avoid deportation.

Reports of paroled convicts who returned to Texas and committed new crimes also raised the ire of lawmakers and slowed parole approvals under the law.

Marc Levin, director of the Austin-based Center for Effective Justice and policy director of Right on Crime, national conservative advocacy groups for criminal justice reform, said Trump's proposal is likely to spur new debate on the issue of deporting convicted felons.

"But, as we have seen in the past, it gets complicated," he said.

Whitmire said he believes prison officials do not want to see many of the undocumented immigrant convicts paroled and deported because they are trustees who help cook food, clean and help maintain state prisons. Prison officials have denied that.

For his part, Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints members of the parole board, on Monday seemed to be sticking with Perry's policy of requiring convicts to finish their sentences before being sent home.

"Gov. Abbott believes that criminal immigrants who have been convicted of a crime in Texas should serve out their prison sentences and then be deported," said John Wittman, his press secretary.