Posted on 11/02/2002 10:44:05 AM PST by Sweet_Sunflower29
Arizona taxpayers may be stuck next year with paying the full tab of jailing thousands of illegal immigrants convicted of crimes.
Members of Congress left town last month to campaign for Tuesday's elections without reaching an agreement with the Bush administration on funding a Justice Department program that provided $546 million last year to 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.
Arizona, California, New York, Texas and New Jersey got the bulk of the federal money.
California received $220 million, about 40 percent of the total. Arizona got more than $24 million.
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 2003, which began Oct. 1.
Lawmakers, especially those from border states, have long argued that it is the federal government's responsibility to reimburse states because it is charged with securing the nation's borders.
"When the federal government falls short in its efforts to control illegal immigration, it must bear the responsibility for the financial and human consequences of this failure," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
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."
Kyl and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who are leading the Senate fight to increase funding, said states are spending $1.6 billion to keep criminal illegal immigrants behind bars.
What frustrates lawmakers most is that state and local governments are not being reimbursed enough to cover the full cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants.
Justice officials estimate localities receive an average of 40 cents for every dollar spent.
In border communities such as El Paso and in Arizona, the disparity is worse. El Paso gets back an average of 10 cents on the dollar, while Arizona averages about 33 cents, according to local officials.
The sharp rise in illegal immigrants nationwide who are jailed for committing crimes has prompted more states and localities to ask for federal money.
More than 400 state or local governments nationwide filed claims last year, up from 10 in 1995, according to the Justice Department.
A recent report by the Justice Department's inspector general's office won't help either side in the debate.
It found that 30 percent of those jailed in county facilities in southern Florida and Fresno, Calif., were legal, not illegal, immigrants.
The same report, however, faulted Immigration and Naturalization Service officials for failing to keep track of foreign-born inmates.
"As a result, many foreign-born inmates who are deportable aliens pass through county facilities virtually undetected," the report concluded.
Earlier this month, the program got a strong endorsement from Congress when lawmakers approved legislation to keep the illegal immigrant assistance program operating through the next two years. But the legislation did not allocate funding, which must be approved in a separate spending bill.
That won't happen until next month when Congress returns for a lame duck session to finish work on 11 of 13 remaining spending bills that keep the government in business.
Much of the government has been operating under a stopgap spending bill, which expires Nov. 22.
He is an enemy combatant out of uniform which eliminates Geneva Convention protection and is subject to immediate execution by the state militia ;-)
No the sheriff shouldn't. If someone is driving recklessly or drunk, lacks insurance, lacks a driver's license and can't prove he is an American then the sheriff should call INS. If someone breaks a law and doesn't appear to be an American, the same thing. Sheriffs shouldn't try to be like border patrol and stop people to check.
In other words, more Democratic bilgewater.
I don't know. It looks to me like bipartisan policy.
Yikes. I used to agree with some of his ideas. Now I think he's just insane and unrealistic. OTOH, the immigration problem couldn't get much worse.
Everything else gets too complicated. If you have citizens involved in stopping illegals, they're going to make mistakes. Same thing with local law enforcement, they shouldn't look for illegals but keep looking for other types of law breakers and call the proper agency when one of those is an illegal.
AFP - 10/31/2002
WASHINGTON - One of two illegal migrants picked up by police on suspicion of being the Washington-area sniper has been set free, a U.S. immigration official announced.
Edgar Rivera Garcia, a Mexican, was released from an Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center in Philadelphia after Mexican diplomats intervened. Rivera and a friend from Guatemala were arrested in an operation involving hundreds of police at a gas station in Richmond, Virginia, south of Washington D.C. on Oct. 21.
Police believed Garcia and his friend, who were driving a white van when they were arrested, might have been snipers who were terrorizing the area because their vehicle matched witness descriptions.
An immigration judge granted Rivera the right to leave the country voluntarily by January 2003 and set a 3,000-dollar bail, INS spokesman Nicky Edwards said.
The INS released no news on the Guatemalan also arrested.
The Mexican consul in Philadelphia, Juan Zavala, said his government put up the bail and has funds to hire lawyers for cases like this.
Rivera, a 24-year-old carpenter, lives in Virginia with his wife and three young daughters, Zavala told AFP.
He will return to Mexico in December, but it is unclear if his family will follow, Zavala added.
John Allen Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, 17, were arrested on Oct. 24 and charged in the sniper attacks that killed 10 and wounded three in the Washington region.
That is a key, for sure. I'd even go for heavy fines without the arrest. Make them pay for deficits to schools, hospitals, and prisons. Let the business survive, but force them to hire citizens or legal guest workers. If that's not "compassionate" enough for our guv, or Prez Fox, let them eat cake. Asking for Fed $$$ to cover the cost of illegals, as Kyl is doing, is a band-aid, as you know. AZ is going bankrupt, and the illegals problem isn't helping. It's nuts.
Do the right thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.