Benoit keeps trying, he's pushed this before too. Seems like a no brainer to me but then common sense seems lacking today in government.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.d ... E/61204036

Benoit reintroduces undocumented immigrant prisoner measure
Bill would require federal government to take custody of undocumented immigrant inmates, or fully compensate California for their costs



The Desert Sun
December 4, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assemblyman John Benoit today reintroduced legislation aimed at pressuring the federal government to reimburse California for the full cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants.

“California prisons are severely overcrowded and the situation is only aggravated by the presence of thousands of illegal immigrant prisoners," said Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes.

"If the federal government won’t take custody of these prisoners, it should at least have the common courtesy to reimburse California taxpayers for their costs."

Assembly Bill 39 is identical to an earlier measure authored by Benoit. That measure did not receive a hearing prior to the Legislature’s adjournment at the end of August, prompting Benoit to seek reintroduction of the bill today as the newly-elected 2007-08 Legislature was sworn into office.

Benoit’s bill seeks a dual approach: requiring the state to ask the federal government to take undocumented immigrant prisoners into federal custody, and to annually bill the federal government for the full cost of incarcerating any undocumented immigrants it refuses to accept.

Should the federal government fail to take custody of or fully compensate California for the incarceration of undocumented immigrants, the California Attorney General would be required to use all available legal recourses to compel the federal government to fulfill its obligations under federal law.

Currently, the federal government provides only a partial,“take it or leave it” payment, Benoit said. This payment, through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, leaves Californian’s paying 84 percent of the costs to imprison undocumented immigrants.

“The pittance California receives from the federal government for housing illegal immigrant prisoners doesn’t even come close to covering the cost to California taxpayers,” Benoit said. “The federal government must be brought to task.”

United States Code requires the U.S. Attorney General to either “enter into a contractual agreement which provides for compensation to the State … with respect to the incarceration of the undocumented criminal alien; or … take the undocumented criminal alien into the custody of the Federal Government and incarcerate the alien.”

If the Federal Attorney General elects to compensate the State, the statute requires him to determine the compensation based on the “average cost of incarceration of a prisoner to the relevant State.”

Undocumented immigrants comprise 10.9 percent of California’s prison population. Each inmate costs California taxpayers an estimated $34,150. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spent $662.4 million housing undocumented immigrants in the 2005-06 fiscal year. Under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) California will receive federal reimbursement for $107.1 million, only 16 percent of its actual costs.

In the 2006-07 fiscal year, costs are expected to rise to $722.7 million, a 9.1 percent increase. The federal government’s reimbursement, although expected to grow by $7 million, will fail to keep pace with the state’s rising costs; as a result overall federal reimbursements will likely fall below 16 percent.