El Paso taxpayers may have to pay entire bill to jail illegal immigrants

El Paso Times ^ | Friday, October 25, 2002 | By Sergio Bustos

[FITZ]

WASHINGTON — El Paso taxpayers may be stuck next year with paying the full tab of jailing thousands illegal immigrants.

Congress left town last week to campaign for the Nov. 5 elections without reaching an agreement with the Bush administration on funding a Justice Department program that provided $546 million last year to the states.

All 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, including Guam, have shared in the federal dollars distributed through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program since 1995.

California, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Arizona got the bulk of the federal money. California received $220 million, about 40 percent of the total. El Paso got more than $772,000.

Congress and the administration are far apart on a compromise. The administration wants to kill the program. Lawmakers want the funding increased to $750 million for fiscal year 2003, which began Oct. 1.

“State and local governments should not have to bear the high costs of incarcerating criminal aliens who are in the country illegally and who cannot be sent back to their countries of origin,” said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso. But Bush administration officials argue that the program is not directly related to fighting crime and doesn’t “advance the core mission of the Justice Department.”

Full story in tomorrow's El Paso Times

[FITZ]

It's not possible for the few taxpaying border residents to pay the costs involved. Besides the high costs of prisons, there are the costs of providing free health care and free education.

There's no benefit to the economy because there isn't that much lettuce or apples to pick in the desert. Not too many of the illegals are coming to work in this region, some are ---but the majority come for the hand-outs.

[norton]

The basic equation here is simple: where the federal government requires that illegals be treated as a special interest group - the federal government should carry the costs.
Not that it works in any other matters concerning special inerest groups.
But,
What would DC do if the border states simply started to round up illegals on their own and kick their butts back into Mexico...?
What would they do if the States called up the Guard and started rounding them up and dumping them over the border into the next most northern states...?
[I'm sure that the cross-national chicano movement could come up with some claim on Nebraska or Minnesota if they tried.]

[FryingPan101]

"Full story in tomorrow's El Paso Times"

Yea! Can't wait! LOL I can't wait to get up every day to find out how El Paso is going to continue taking our money.

[janetgreen]

Pssstt, Rep. Reyes, federal money is also provided by taxpayers, you need to know that.

[FITZ]

Pssstt, Rep. Reyes, federal money is also provided by taxpayers, you need to know that.

That's true but the tax burden for illegals is extreme in some places because the government isn't protecting the borders, businesses have left the area because of high taxes and NAFTA, someone has to pay the cost and the local taxpayers no longer can. People in areas without extremely high immigration don't see the problem, they will when they too have to pay for it.

[FITZ]

None of the jokers I see in LA are picking lettuce.

Not many of the immigrants (legal or illegal) are coming to pick lettuce and keep food prices down. Besides I've seen lettuce costing over $1 a head which isn't exactly cheap. I could see a temporary guest worker program for the handful of immigrants who come to do farm work if that really is needed but we don't need all the ones coming to fill the prisons, schools, hospitals, housing projects etc.