Posted on 06/10/2011 6:49:27 AM PDT by Kaslin
The General Accounting Office estimates that as of 2009 there were currently about 350,000 criminal aliens in U.S. prisons, “the majority from Mexico.” At $30,000 per year, per inmate, that’s $11 billion annually, with most of the costs born by the states.
While not all of the criminal aliens are here illegally, criminal illegals are putting a strain on budgets, especially in the states with large illegal immigration populations such as Arizona, Colorado, California, Florida, New York, and Texas.
Not coincidentally, many of those same states are facing the largest budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2011 and 2012, including New York and California. Some estimate state budget shortfalls of over $100 billion in 2012 across state governments in the U.S.
In California, it’s estimated that prisoners who are illegal immigrants cost the state at least $1 billion per year just to keep them in prison.
Across the country, states' governments are shouldering both the growing financial burden of keeping criminal illegal aliens in jail and the growing law enforcement burden of securing the community from the crimes of illegal aliens in the face of hostility from the executive branch of the federal government.
Corrections.com trumpets the problem as “Foreign Inmates Busting Budgets.”
"There's no question illegal immigration continues to be a large and costly problem in California and around the nation," Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from CA-22, told Bakersfield’s Eyewitness News. "The first and most important step to addressing this problem is securing our border. The federal government can and should do more to ensure our border is secure, including more physical barriers, border patrol and electronic surveillance."
The Denver Post reports that foreign-born inmates are the fastest growing segment of the prison population in the Mile High state. The number in U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers in Colorado prisons “have more than doubled in 10 years from 680 to 1,500, said Tom Clements, executive director of the state Department of Corrections,” according to the Post.
"That's huge," Clements emphasized.
As the economy continues to stumble, states are getting pinched hard by the federal government because they refuse to address immigration reform.
In Colorado, Attorney General John Suthers estimates that the cost to house prisoners in the U.S. illegally was $58 million in 2008.
“At the time, the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program reimbursed Colorado $3.3 million, or about 6 percent of the state's costs,” says the Post. “The amount has since dropped to $2.9 million even as the number of foreign inmates continues to rise.”
These costs have likely grown since 2008 even while federal assistance has dropped.
In California, both Democrats and Republicans are asking President Obama to fund what Colorado’s AG, John Suthers, decries as just another unfunded mandate by the federal government.
"To receive less than full reimbursement for the use of state facilities to house illegal immigrants is an unacceptable, unfunded federal mandate," Suthers said according to the Post.
In California, Democrat Congressman Jim Costa said that "California cannot and should not have to shoulder this burden alone," according to Bakersfield Now. He called upon the federal government to fully fund the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program to help reimburse the costs of detaining illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.
But even fully funded, the program just transfers the burden across the country into the wallets of taxpayers from all of the states rather than addressing the issue in any substantive way.
The costs are not just financial either.
In California, the feds have ordered that 33,000 prisoners be released to relieve over-crowding in state prisons. Bakersfield Now estimates that about 20,000 of the states’ 162,000 prisoners are in the U.S. illegally. In other words, they make up about 60 percent of the overcrowding in California prisons while accounting for 13 percent of the prisons’ population.
While it’s unclear how California will comply with the ruling to release prisoners, it’s clear that they will not be able to deport illegal immigrants discharged from prison under the ruling. Instead, they can either be released on parole or can be turned over to the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.
In Texas, “[l]aw enforcement and prison officials have complained that many of the convicts who are paroled to be deported are never sent home, and they end up committing new crimes and getting rearrested,” says the Statesman.com.
That’s in part because under a Supreme Court ruling Clark v. Martinez, ICE can only hold criminal illegal aliens for six months if the convict can’t be repatriated to another country.
“Because of the way current law is written, recent Supreme Court rulings have required dangerous criminal immigrants to be released into our communities,” says Lamar Smith a Texas Republican who is chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the Tea Party Caucus. “All too often these criminal immigrants have gone on to commit more crimes.”
Instead, Smith is proposing that the Department of Homeland Security be authorized to detain criminal illegal immigrants if they can’t be deported, especially if the criminal “either is an aggravated felon or has committed a crime of violence.”
“Just because a criminal immigrant cannot be returned to their home country does not mean they should be allowed back on our streets,” says Smith. “If dangerous criminal immigrants cannot be deported, they should be detained. There is no excuse for placing American lives at risk.”
There is no excuse at all.
The violations of law and trust by King George III in Parliament pales in comparison to the loss of trust as a result of the non-enforcement of immigration laws, especially as it relates to criminal illegal aliens.
If we can't get the government to agree that at a minumum we shouldn't be releasing criminal illegal aliens back into our communities, I have no idea why we have a federal government in the first place.
This fellow Californian says amen!!! Thanks for a great post.
Being an illegal alien should be a MAJOR aggravating circumstance to any crime.
The feds do seem to be working against the states, more and more lately. I wonder what can really be done about that - especially since all the fed revenue comes from the states?
tent cities should be established all along the border. Sheriff Joe can explain how to set it up.
You make some interesting points ...but still, I have little sympathy for Californians. (I lived in CA from 1965 to 1975 ..and don’t want to go back!).
Consider how the Indiana Supreme Court - under INTENSE pressure will reconsider its STUPID decision that is a clear violation of the 4th amendment (homeowners have no legal right to resist an improper or illegal home invasion of police storm troopers.) The public outcry awoke the justices that there was a tremendous over-reach.
Had the people of the state of CA “revolted” when the 9th Circus had ruled the Prop. 187 to be unconstitutional ...and when Governor Gray Davis decided to stop appeals to the Supreme Court ...basically letting him know he would be impeached/tarred and feathered for his decision - then maybe Prop. 187 would have been held constitutional. If enough taxpayers had done everything possible to “go on strike” such that state revenues dried up - then the message might have gotten out. If the taxpayers had gone “Alinksy” on the 9th Circus judges ...picketing the court, picketing their houses, threatening all sorts of legal civil disobedience ...maybe they would have gotten the message.
But - CA slept and allowed it to happen. The 9th Circus meets in SF, and the judges live in the area. Make it hurt them. The Governor should have been pressured too. So - CA lost the battle by not engaging in the battle. Makes it tough every where else too.
And it is still not too late for CA residents to “Go Galt” or “Go Alinsky” - leave the state, go “underground” as much as possible to starve the beast....to let it be known - “no business as usual” until they fix the F’d up system!
You’re saying Californians are suckers for not taking up arms against the state and illegally assuming the immigration enforcement duties of the Federal Government. Thanks for the great advice I’m sure you would have followed under similar circumstances!
You lived here. How do you not understand that the citizen electorate of California has no power. We can’t help ourselves. We. Are. Occupied. By. A. Foreign. Country.
“California lost the battle by not engaging?” Really? States are forbidden to wage war or conduct foreign policy — both of which are the only ways to repel a foreign invasion. “Picketing the court?” Do you have any idea how fatuous and lame that sounds?
I love that the very states who never acknowledge their complicity in the unchallenged annexation and colonization of an American state are always full of sage advice about what to do now. Go Galt. Just leave our state to the invaders. Smirk, shrug, screw California, you slept and did nothing, ha ha ha, etc.
Well, get this: it’s your fault. I don’t care what state you live in now. We made a deal, a compact, in 1776 and you and rest of the states have reneged. You’ve utterly betrayed California by not fulfilling your Constitutional mandate to repel foreign invasion and in short have each other’s back. Thanks! And thanks for the advice to picket judges and the governor’s office! That’ll get ‘er done!
I say screw deporting criminal aliens. Make the punishment for felonies committed while illegally in the US, life in prison at hard labor, with no possibility of parole.
See how fast the illegals self-deport back to Mexico.
Until we make the punishment much, MUCH worse than the crime, this behavior will just continue. If our state and federal governments don’t do something effective to put a stop to this invasion, human nature will. And it ain’t gonna be pretty.
While you and others in Alabama were gawking, years ago CA overwhelmingly passed prop 187 which was to put a stop all tax paid/supported benefits to illegals.
Your Federal government in concert with their state government co-conspirators, declared CA free election illegal and burned the ballots.
The direct results of that massive government control and intrusion can now been seen coast to coast.
It was the last President, supported by Alabama, that called Americans who with a belly full of lawless borders, "Vigilantes".
I support Alabama's recent endeavors regarding illegals, but the record needs to be set straight here.
Great post, Blue. As a native Californian, I can vouch for everything you said.
We the people did everything we could, short of full-scale rebellion, to push back against being colonized, but our will was overturned by our betters in the federal government, again and again.
Now the invasion has reached epidemic proportions all across the US. We’re long past the pot calling the kettle black. Our nation needs to unite against this scourge, and put an end to it.
BTW, I couldn't help notice you said nothing about states such as Texas, where Parkland Hospital in Dallas is home to nearly 1000 anchor babies per MONTH...All on the tax payers dime. That's just one single hospital in Texas.
cry me a river
cry me a river
Blue Ink attemtped to educate you. You're just too ignorant to realize it, or for whatever your motive, you simply refuse to acknowledged the facts.
YOU elected Davis, Brown, Brown again, Brown again and Arnold. You got what you voted for. You legislature is dim dominated. You got what you voted for. Don’t like the results? Move.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The Federal government claims as its sole purview everything that would have helped California defend herself: internal deportation, closing the border; ending birthright citizenship; citizenship requirements for welfare benefits; citizenship requirements for public schooling; and workplace citizenship verification.
Californians enacted EVERY SINGLE ONE of those things early on in the invasion, either administratively or at the ballot box, and the Federal Government slapped them all down. Court verdicts were clear: the Federal government won’t deport them, so California MUST support them. And we have. And it’s bankrupted us.
Meanwhile, the rest of the American states yawned. THEIR states weren’t on the front lines of the invasion, so let California twist in the wind.
Now we’ve been thoroughly colonized, and the invaders and second generation spawn control the state government through ballot box numbers. Is it still our fault?
I don’t understand why so many Americans are petulantly and childishly okay with surrendering an American state to a foreign country. It’s craven and shameful. Does it make you feel better to blame Californians for your abandoning us? Are you jealous of our weather? I just don’t get it.
Please report back to FR after your home state of Alabama gets dragged into court over your immigration self-defense measures — you know, the ones California enacted twenty years ago — and your self-righteous, historically ignorant fat head is handed to you by your Federal government.
BTW, I couldn't help notice you said nothing about states such as Texas, where Parkland Hospital in Dallas is home to nearly 1000 anchor babies per MONTH...All on the tax payers dime. That's just one single hospital in Texas.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
A response the moron lobby would be proud of.
1 While this expansion may not have received much publicity, it could potentially change the face of U.S. immigration law enforcement. Under the new RICO provisions, a violation of certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) meets the definition of racketeering activity, also known as a "predicate offense,"
2 and an entity that engages in a pattern of racketeering activity for financial gain can be held both criminally and civilly liable.
3 Among other things, the INA makes it unlawful to encourage illegal immigration or employ illegal aliens,
4 which violations were included as predicate offenses under RICO.
The 1996 law changes in the INA made hiring illegal aliens a predicate act of racketeering activity under RICO, but illegal hiring wasn’t the only violation of the INA made a predicate act. Other INA prohibitions made RICO predicate acts were encouraging or inducing illegal immigration, smuggling, and harboring illegal aliens.10 Together, these additions make the RICO Act potentially a very strong new tool in the hands of private parties against persons and companies that profit by violating U.S. immigration law.
Additionally, the RICO provision regarding the unlawful encouragement of illegal immigration could justify a suit against a private entity, such as a bank, that accepts foreign-issued identification cards that are only needed by illegal aliens. One example of this, of course, is the matricula consular issued by the Mexican consulates in the United States. Since both the supporters of the matricula and those who oppose its acceptance agree that only illegal aliens have need to rely on the card, acceptance of the card knowingly encourages illegal immigration. Part of the legislative intent of the RICO laws in general was to afford private citizens a remedy for lawbreaking when authorities normally charged with such enforcement became derelict in their duties.
For example, in a town in which political corruption and racketeering activity have combined to the detriment of law-abiding citizens and the rule of law, the RICO Act was intended to provide private citizens the ability to initiate court action to compel enforcement and respect for the law.
illegals cannot be much of problem in Calif.They went ahead and passed their own dream act offering illegals in state tuition. Calif can now reap what they sowed. They wanted illegals there and now they got them and I don’t feel sorry for them at all. They should be careful what they wish for.
Please explain in detail how the CA governor and legislature are empowered to repel a foreign invasion (hint: they’re not.)
Look, I get it. You illogically and mistakenly blame CA state elected officials for the colonization and annexation of a sovereign American state because you can’t handle the fact that this is the fault of whatever state you live in, as well as the other 49. YOU got what YOU voted for: the Federal government of the United States of America. Your Senate and your House of Representatives sat back and did nothing. Your military had their hands tied.
Deal with it. We have to.
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