Thread: CA: County seeks reimbursement for jail costs of illegal imm

County seeks reimbursement for jail costs of illegal immigrants
James Faulk/The Times-Standard
Eureka Times Standard
Article Launched:07/17/2007 04:22:09 AM PDT



EUREKA -- County officials this week will seek to get reimbursed for a portion of the cost it takes to house and process scores of undocumented immigrants who pass through the jail each year.

In a quiet item on the Board of Supervisors agenda this week, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department is seeking to apply for a grant through the U.S. Department of Justice's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program to get some of its money back.

Humboldt County in 2006-2007 handled 103 illegal immigrants at the jail, at an estimated cost of $192 per day -- the amount of money it takes to feed, house and clothe a prisoner for 24 hours.

In 2004, the county had 131 such prisoners, and received $49,656; in 2005, the county had 103, and received $27,626; and in 2006, the county had 113 illegal immigrants go to jail and received $40,626.

The money fluctuates based on how much Congress allocates to the program -- a political debate having little to do with actual costs accrued by local governments -- and how many jurisdictions apply.

To qualify for reimbursement, the county must have held the prisoner for at least four consecutive days. While the total number of days spent in the jail by illegal or undocumented persons was not immediately available, if each of those 103 prisoners in 2006-2007 spent only the four-day minimum in jail, that bill alone would have exceeded $79,000 -- far more than any allocation made to the county by the feds in the past several years.

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The ethnicity of those he tracks is not limited to Mexican nationals, as some might think, he said. Rather, about half hail from Mexico, he said. Another 10 percent come from other Hispanic countries further south. The rest come from all over the world, he said.

thus no one is profiling...it is just a reasonable deduction

Like it has been said many times before, bill, then sue the mejican government.