AUSTIN — Instead of sending more troops and police to the border, Democratic lawmakers are calling for Texas to provide aid for the migrants seeking asylum who are being placed in detention centers here, and the communities that surround them.

The state has budgeted $800 million for border security over the next two years. Some of that funding could provide additional law enforcement for border cities and social services in reaction to a surge at the border that has filled the detention centers and swamped aid agencies from San Antonio to El Paso, said Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas. Over 23,000 migrants have passed through San Antonio’s migrant resource center since the end of March.

Reports of abhorrent conditions in detention facilities along the border have led to a national outcry from members of both political parties. Asylum-seekers have alleged in court documents that they didn’t have access to necessities such as beds and soap while awaiting their day in court. Five infants were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit after a doctor visited a detention facility in McAllen, the court records say.

Though caring for migrants apprehended at the border is the responsibility of the federal government, Anchia says it is up to Texans to ensure no children die here after being taken into custody.

“We want to make sure that doesn’t happen on our watch,” said Anchia, one of two Democrats who will convene a legislative hearing Friday to explore the state’s options.

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But while Gov. Greg Abbott pledged last month to send 1,000 additional Texas National Guard troops to the border to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection, it seems unlikely that he or the Republican-led Legislature would divert funding from border law enforcement efforts that they say are more important now than ever. Policing the border is also a federal responsibility, but Texas has spent over $1.6 billion on supplemental security measures since 2015.

Abbott did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Even if other funds were available, state agency officials and advocates for the migrants agree there is little that state government can do to help people being detained.

“The children in detention centers are under federal jurisdiction, not state. Those facilities are not in our regulatory jurisdiction,” said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for Texas Health and Human Services.

If conditions inside detention facilities are “not in line with Texas priorities and values,” the state’s hands are often legally tied, said Sara Ramey, an immigration attorney and executive director of the San Antonio-based Migrant Center for Human Rights.

“People are very concerned about children being detained and the conditions in which they’re being detained. I don’t think there’s much the state can do about that,” she said.

Anchia insists the state has the responsibility to watchdog the care of children in facilities located in Texas.

“Can we have asylum hearings? No. But if the state is going to be involved in housing these asylum seekers, a majority of whom are women and children who are turning themselves in at the border … then we need to be able to enforce the standards on the proper care of these asylum seekers,” said Anchia, chair of the House International Relations & Economic Development Committee.

House lawmakers will hear testimony Friday from the top brass in the state’s public safety, military and health services agencies, local officials and community leaders from border counties as well as nonprofit organizations that assist migrants.

Rep. Poncho Nevárez, a Democrat from the border town of Eagle Pass, calls sending 1,000 National Guard troops to the border a waste of money. What’s needed “is more human than law enforcement,” such as health care screenings, staffing call centers where unaccompanied minors can try to make contact with family, or providing staff to change diapers and care for the children, he said.

“These children aren’t any less children than the children who live here already,” said Nevárez, who chairs the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee wthat will meet jointly with Anchia’s committee Friday.

The Democrat-led Committee on Oversight and Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives will also host hearing about conditions in detainment facilities along the border Friday.

Also Friday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican will join Vice President Mike Pence in the Rio Grande Valley, as Cornyn pitches legislation he said would “help stanch the flow of humanity across the border.” One proposal would close a loophole in current law exploited by human smugglers, and another would provide resources to local governments to identify the remains of people who have died during their trek to the border.

“We need to pass legislation here in Congress that makes lasting changes to our immigration system, particularly our system whereby people apply for and receive asylum, so we can prevent this humanitarian crisis from becoming the norm,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor Thursday.

Silvia Foster-Frau contributed reporting from San Antonio.