Thread: CO: Sheriffs Want Federal Funds For Foreign Inmates

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...80/detail.html

Sheriffs Want Federal Funds For Foreign Inmates
Local Taxpayers Footing Bill

By Hendrik Sybrandy, 7NEWS Reporter

POSTED: 5:15 pm MST February 20, 2007
UPDATED: 5:28 pm MST February 20, 2007

DENVER -- Several Denver metro area sheriffs are demanding that the federal government help them pay for jail inmates who are not U.S. citizens. They say the government is required by law to help defray those costs but that the payments to local counties have been withheld for the past few years.

"It's just ironic," Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said Tuesday during a press conference with other county sheriffs. "At a time when the federal government continues to push more responsibility for immigration and border security on to local government, at the same time, they're cutting the funding."

It costs roughly $70 a day to feed and care for jail inmates in Colorado. Adams County currently houses an average of 200 illegal aliens who've been arrested for various crimes. For several years, counties like Adams relied on the State Criminal Aliens Assistance Program (SCAAP), but Sheriff Doug Darr said the well has now run dry.

"The fact of the matter is then it falls upon the locals," Darr said. "Local taxpayers are paying the tab and they have been for some time."

"I think that is outrageous," Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said. "And I find that absolutely incredible that they will not return the funds to Arapahoe County, to Boulder County, to Adams County."

A State House resolution demands that the government release several million dollars, about the amount Colorado received in past years.

"We incur costs borne because the federal government is not doing its job of keeping the borders secure," Rep. Buffie McFadyen (D) said. "We want to be reimbursed for doing the federal government's job."

McFadyen plans to raise the issue with Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez Wednesday during a tour of the Supermax correctional facility in Florence.



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It's time to EXTORT the money from the families of the inmates!

After all, that is exactly what happens in the Mexican judicial and medical system to U.S. Citizens who have the misfortune of being trapped there!

Put the pressure on the family members of the illegals here---extort all of their earnings to pay for the legal foibles caused by their kin!

PS---why should insurance companies be the only ones to benefit from extortion?

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=65304

State and local leaders say more immigration help needed from feds

posted by: Jeffrey Wolf , Web Producer
written by: Thanh Truong , 9NEWS Reporter created: 2/22/2007 9:51:01 PM
Last updated: 2/22/2007 9:54:46 PM



Local authorities want help from feds for the cost of jailing illegal immigrants. 9NEWS at 9 p.m. 2/22/07


KUSA - The Arapahoe County Jail is over capacity. The latest inmate count stood at 1,410. Of those inmates, 167 are foreign born and Sheriff Grayson Robinsons says nearly half of those inmates are “absolutely illegal aliens.”


The situation is a common one among other jails throughout Colorado says Robinson.

"If the border were secure, this would not be as difficult of a problem for us at the local level,” said Robinson.

Robinson is frustrated that federal government has yet to reimburse his county, and the state, for costs taken on because of suspected illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

In years past, the government would help cover such costs, but so far Robinson says he’s still waiting for $389,000 for the cost of jailing the suspected illegal immigrants in 2006.

"Not getting this reimbursement is very frustrating because it should've been in our hand,” said Robinson.

He’s not alone in his frustration.

Two state legislators are sponsoring a resolution to sue the federal government for the overdue money.

According to the resolution, Washington owes the state roughly $5 million for costs associated with jailing illegal immigrant criminals.

In addition to that, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office is expected to draft a lawsuit of its own within the next two weeks. That lawsuit will be a direct product of Referendum K which Colorado voters approved last November. That referendum, in essence, requires the State of Colorado to sue the federal government to demand enforcement of existing federal immigration laws.

Experts say lawsuits would probably not have a large impact, but they would reflect the state’s collective disapproval of the current handling of immigration violations.

Danielle Short also believes changes are needed, but for reasons much different than of state and county officials. She’s part of a group called American Friends Service Committee, which calls itself a human rights organization. On Thursday evening, dozens of members held signs denouncing illegal immigration raids.

“We think these raids are immoral and inhumane, they do not solve the broken immigration system, they only distract from the real problem which is that we need comprehensive immigration reform," said Short.

Well maybe they should follow the example of Sherrif Joe. It doesn't cost him anywhere close to $70 a day to house these criminals.

Tents, bologna sandwiches, water, pink underwear. There is the answer.