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  1. #1
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    Az: Feds let migrants pile up in prisons at $28K a day

    Az: Feds let migrants pile up in prisons at $28K a day
    http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... 5a1_deport



    SUSAN CARROLL and JUDI VILLA The Arizona Republic



    Arizona taxpayers are paying more than $28,000 a day to incarcerate hundreds of illegal immigrants because the federal government hasn't filed the paperwork to deport them to Mexico, state prison officials say.



    Arizona Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro said deporting such criminals should be a "no-brainer" given the money that could be saved and the beds that could be freed in the state's overcrowded prison system.



    Formal deportation orders for 46 of the 526 eligible inmates have been on file for several months, but state prison officials can't get Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick them up, Schriro said.



    "I don't know why it's not getting done anymore, but it's not getting done," she said.



    At the same time, ICE officials held a news conference Wednesday to tout a record number of deportations in January - 766 - from a federal prison in Eloy, further angering state officials who say taxpayers are unfairly getting the bill for the criminals that remain in state custody.



    ICE officials said they knew of no such problem.




    The drain on the state's prison system prompted Gov. Janet Napolitano to send an invoice to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, requesting compensation for more than $118 million over the past 18 months. Napolitano demanded that the federal government pay up or take custody of the thousands of criminal illegal immigrants housed in Arizona prisons.



    Each inmate costs the state $53.44 per day to house. The state recoups $17.12 of that through the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP.


    At the ICE news conference, Phillip Crawford, Phoenix director of detention and removal operations for ICE, said the record-setting number shows the agency's "continued commitment to removing criminal aliens from the United States." The deportations include illegal immigrants convicted of crimes ranging from sexual assault to drug trafficking.



    He wouldn't comment on the inmates still in state custody.



    Russ Knocke, an ICE spokesman in Washington, D.C., said immigration officials would have to review the cases individually to see if there is a delay in processing criminal immigrants for deportation.



    He said ICE officials in Arizona have not received complaints or questions from state prison officials and have a system in place that rapidly and efficiently deports immigrants as they finish their sentences.



    "If they have any instance where they have an alien who is eligible for removal and not being removed, I would encourage them to communicate with us," Knocke said.



    Cam Hunter, a state prisons spokeswoman, said ICE officials were notified about a month ago about 400 inmates eligible for deportation but have not yet responded. The other, more than 100 inmates have been identified within the last month, she said. By the end of the year, the state expects to have 590 additional inmates who could be deported to Mexico, where ICE drops them at the Nogales border crossing.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
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    Az: Feds let migrants pile up in prisons at $28K a day

    Az: Feds let migrants pile up in prisons at $28K a day
    http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php? ... 5a1_deport



    SUSAN CARROLL and JUDI VILLA The Arizona Republic



    Arizona taxpayers are paying more than $28,000 a day to incarcerate hundreds of illegal immigrants because the federal government hasn't filed the paperwork to deport them to Mexico, state prison officials say.



    Arizona Department of Corrections Director Dora Schriro said deporting such criminals should be a "no-brainer" given the money that could be saved and the beds that could be freed in the state's overcrowded prison system.



    Formal deportation orders for 46 of the 526 eligible inmates have been on file for several months, but state prison officials can't get Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick them up, Schriro said.



    "I don't know why it's not getting done anymore, but it's not getting done," she said.



    At the same time, ICE officials held a news conference Wednesday to tout a record number of deportations in January - 766 - from a federal prison in Eloy, further angering state officials who say taxpayers are unfairly getting the bill for the criminals that remain in state custody.



    ICE officials said they knew of no such problem.




    The drain on the state's prison system prompted Gov. Janet Napolitano to send an invoice to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, requesting compensation for more than $118 million over the past 18 months. Napolitano demanded that the federal government pay up or take custody of the thousands of criminal illegal immigrants housed in Arizona prisons.



    Each inmate costs the state $53.44 per day to house. The state recoups $17.12 of that through the federal government's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP.


    At the ICE news conference, Phillip Crawford, Phoenix director of detention and removal operations for ICE, said the record-setting number shows the agency's "continued commitment to removing criminal aliens from the United States." The deportations include illegal immigrants convicted of crimes ranging from sexual assault to drug trafficking.



    He wouldn't comment on the inmates still in state custody.



    Russ Knocke, an ICE spokesman in Washington, D.C., said immigration officials would have to review the cases individually to see if there is a delay in processing criminal immigrants for deportation.



    He said ICE officials in Arizona have not received complaints or questions from state prison officials and have a system in place that rapidly and efficiently deports immigrants as they finish their sentences.



    "If they have any instance where they have an alien who is eligible for removal and not being removed, I would encourage them to communicate with us," Knocke said.



    Cam Hunter, a state prisons spokeswoman, said ICE officials were notified about a month ago about 400 inmates eligible for deportation but have not yet responded. The other, more than 100 inmates have been identified within the last month, she said. By the end of the year, the state expects to have 590 additional inmates who could be deported to Mexico, where ICE drops them at the Nogales border crossing.

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    Efficiency at it's worst, which is of course, just what we expect from the Federal security and immigration operations.

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Posts
    130
    Efficiency at it's worst, which is of course, just what we expect from the Federal security and immigration operations.

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