Thread: Jail cost for holding illegal immigrants is $1.4 million a y

This is OUR money folks! Where does the government get THEIR money? OUR TAXES! REMEMBER THAT!


http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/307476592433505
Published on Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Jail cost for holding illegal immigrants is $1.4 million a year

By CHRIS BRISTOL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

It costs more than $1.4 million a year to hold criminal undocumented immigrants in the Yakima County jail, a cost that should be borne by the federal government but isn't, Department of Corrections chief Steve Robertson said Tuesday.

Robertson estimated the feds paid a little over $100,000 last year for 642 prisoners, nowhere close to the real cost shouldered by the county.

"That's just the tip," he added. "That's not counting the rest of the system * the police, the prosecutors, the courts, probation. That's just the Department of Corrections."

Robertson's comments came a day after Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire sent the federal government a symbolic invoice for nearly $50 million to reimburse the state for the cost of housing criminal undocumented immigrants in state prisons.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, Gregoire accused the federal government of forcing states to pick up more and more costs of federal programs like Medicaid while shirking its responsibility to incarcerate undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.

The governor said the state paid more than $27 million to house 995 prisoners from July 2004 to June 2005. The U.S. Department of Justice reimbursed the state only $1.7 million and still owes $25.3 million.

That's just for state prisons, not county jails and other local lockups. Robertson said the Yakima County jail housed 642 prisoners over the same period at a cost of $1.44 million but received only $100,000 in reimbursement under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP.

According to Robertson, the federal government budgets only $450 million a year in reimbursements for the entire country. Gregoire, along with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano recently asked the feds to boost the SCAAP fund to $850 million.

"I'm about $1.5 million a year just by myself," Robertson said, referring to the county's cost. "How many jails our size are out there? You can eat up $450 million in a big hurry."

But Bush has a North American Community to think about, incarcerating illegal aliens is just the cost of promoting free trade, as far as he's concerned. I guess he's just getting us accustomed to footing the costs for all these felons, because as soon as he gives them all amnesty, then citizenship, there won't be any distinction between illegal alien and legal prisoners, so there won't be any need for a SCAAP program.

To think this stated cost is just in one little corner of the world for one service. It would be billions if all the costs were added up.