This article says that in the LA County Jail, 25% could be illegal. Orange County is at 14%, and in Costa Mesa it is 10-15%. Let me draw your attention to the statement, in the article, that "The individuals we are talking about are not day laborers". This "get tough on illegals" individual is drawing a distinction between illegals who are here to work and illegals who are here to commit crime. You, on the other hand, want to lump them all together to try to imply/mis-inform that all illegals are criminals.
This article says 25% of the LA County inmates are "foreign born" which doesn't necessarily mean illegal.
This LA County Supervisor says nearly 25%
You say 50%. Now is the time and this is this place to show your sources.
Some of you may have seen my comments stating that 50% of the Los Angeles County Jail system population were illegal immigrants. Ben and I have been going back and forth on illegal alien crime and I've blasted him using this figure a number of times. Ben did some research and found that I had grossly overstated that actual figure. Ben didn't alert you to the fact, but anyone who saw me make this claim should see what follows. Thannks.
It appears you have found sources that refute my claim that 50% of the Los Angeles County Jail inmates were illegal immigrants. Your sources show closer to 23.5%, if they are the same figures I found. Federal officials estimate that in 2003, there were 170,000 inmates that passed through the LA County Jail system. Of that, 40,000 were here illegaly.
The first link here pulls up some excerpted matrial from the LA Times, that has been posted on another site. I believe it is valid, since it conforms fairly close to figures you've already quoted.
http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000722.html
The second link here is an SFGate article that refers to the same Baca comments / efforts. It does not give the break-down as presented in the reprinted counts from the LA Times.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/01/31/jnelson.DTL
You were able to show that my claim was more than double the actual amount. I would say that appears to be a strong refutation of my claim. Lets look deeper. Before we do, I appologize for repeating something I did not take the time to look up. That was sloppy of me. I don't think it speaks well of me. I did not intend to mislead you, but in the end, I think you have a valid stake to that claim.
Ben, my premise all long was that every single crime committed on U.S. soil by an illegal immigrant, was a crime that should not have been committed here. The dead and abused, don't come back to life or feel any better knowing that most illegal immigrants don't commit crime. My premise was never that every illegal commits serious crime, but that when we allow illegal aliens in the nation, we are choosing to allow massive amounts of crime to take place as a side effect. Every crime that is perpetrated by an illegal alien is preventable. They should never have taken place. U.S. Citizens should not be losing loved ones to crime.
Although my figures were grossly inaccurate for the breakdown on illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles County jail system, the presence of illegal aliens in Los Angeles county is nowhere near 23.5% of the populace, so what you have accidently proven by outing my inaccuracy, is that illegal aliens are still vastly over-represented in the Los Angeles county jail system. Is it to the degree that I first stated? No it isn't, and that was wrong. But that's not the total story either is it Ben.
In an article called, the Illegal Alien Crime Wave, author Heather McDonald states the following.
In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide (which total 1,200 to 1,500) target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_illegal_alien.html
This appeared in a quarterly magazine of urban affairs, published by the Manhattan Institute, edited by Myron Magnet.
http://www.city-journal.org
Is the population of Los Angeles 95% illegal alien? Is it even two thirds illegal alien?
The illegal alien element is vastly over represented in the Los Angeles city and county law enforcement systems.
Should we have to overtax our law enforcement systems to clean up the criminal illegal alien element? Should we have any homicides in our nation committed by illegal aliens?
I'm going to ask you once again Ben, do you care that thousands of our citizens are being slaughtered or wounded for life by folks who shouldn't be here?
I've seen no evidence of it up to this point.
You called me on an inaccuracy and you were right. I appologize for not checking the figures out before I repeated them. That does not mitigate the problem of illegal alien crime and it's massive number of victims.