Free Republic

WASHINGTON – The next time a San Diego sheriff's deputy arrests a man who tries to steal a car, hauls him to a county detention center, starts asking questions and discovers he's in the country illegally, here's what will happen: The tax-supported district attorney's and public defender's offices will handle his case, a tax-supported judge will preside if it goes to trial, he'll spend an average three weeks in the local jail at $100 each day, a state prison could house him for years at $121 a day, and tax-funded probation officers will follow his progress. Only after that will...

EDINBURG — Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño had a new dilemma on his hands last week — where would he get $725,000 to make up for funding President Bush has proposed to cut from a federal program. In fiscal year 2005, the federal government reimbursed the county almost three-quarters of a million dollars for housing illegal aliens accused of committing crimes. And the president didn’t request any new funding for those State Criminal Alien Assistance Program reimbursements in the fiscal year 2008 budget he recently submitted to Congress. "One of the major fronts we need assistance in is helping us...

PHOENIX: Governors of nine states, including California, are asking President George W. Bush for full federal reimbursement of what states are spending to imprison illegal immigrants. The list includes Washington state, whose governor in July sent an invoice for nearly $50 million (€39 million) to the Justice Department for unreimbursed costs. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano's office said she and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are leading the effort to increase funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program administered by the U.S. Justice Department. The states want Bush to include the reimbursement money when he submits his proposed federal budget next...

(CNSNews.com) - When illegal immigrants, who are in violation of U.S. law by virtue of crossing the border, find themselves in prison for committing subsequent crimes, like robbery or murder, it isn't the federal government that picks up the cost in most cases. Instead, it's the state and county officials in places like Southern California, Washington State and Colorado. A provision in a 1996 immigration reform law, which has been used only in the last several years, is helping to offset the funding crisis in some states. The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), in place since 1994, is designed...

Within the last month, close to three dozen illegal immigrants have been injured or killed in three Southern Arizona accidents. The first happened April 19 near Elgin in Santa Cruz County, the second on April 30 near Tangerine Road and Interstate 10 and on May 3 at Interstate 19 and Pima Mine Road. Often, hospitals foot the bill to care for illegal immigrants injured here in the U.S. Those costs are then passed on to the taxpayers. Smugglers use older vehicles, cramming as many people as possible inside and taking extreme measures to get their cargo across the border. In...

More than $1 million spent to help incarcerate, investigate rising number of illegal aliens who commit crimes in area McALLEN - Federal and state governments have funneled more than $1 million into Hidalgo County over the past three months to help incarcerate and investigate the rising number of illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the area. Hidalgo County is so inundated with undocumented immigrants who commit felonies and misdemeanors that more money came in from Washington last year than it did for some entire states so local authorities could get a handle on the costs associated with their incarceration. The...