The report from the University of Arizona may be found at the source link.
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Border wants D.C. to repay it

Web Posted: 03/07/2008 11:12 PM CST

Hernan Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer

As a voice for one of the poorest areas in Texas and the nation, José Vela dreams of telling his constituents that soon dirt roads will be paved and sewer and water lines installed in myriad colonias dotting the landscape.
That day will never come, he lamented, as long as the federal government continues to expect border counties to do its dirty work, dealing with crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants without compensation.

"Our regional jail is constantly filled to capacity," said Vela, a Zapata County commissioner and president of the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition. "We're overburdened on the account of criminal aliens, and the federal government is not doing its duty by reimbursing us."

A study the coalition released this week found that costs absorbed by border counties for arresting, jailing and prosecuting unauthorized immigrants have skyrocketed because of the federal border security clampdown after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As a result, the report states, the 24 counties bordering Mexico took a $1.2 billion hit from 1999 to 2006 and were reimbursed for just $55 million. South Texas counties, from Cameron to Val Verde, spent $196 million and got $6 million.

Reimbursement to the counties trickles down from the yearly chunks of money the Justice Department returns to states for dealing with criminal immigrants. Dubbed the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP, it has been accused of failing to pay its entire bill since it began in 1999.

All that border counties demand is to be directly and fully reimbursed, particularly as they face shrinking budgets and increasing costs, Vela said. He was echoed by the 155-page report.

The Justice Department, which funded the report with a $150,000 grant, didn't respond to a request for comment.

President Bush, who as governor of Texas backed SCAAP, has sought to ax the program every year of his presidency, but border state congressional delegations have worked to keep funding it.

These politicians, who have long pressed the administration to address the issue, pounced on the new report to remind their colleagues they could ensure funding by passing pending bills.

"Texas taxpayers and border law enforcement officials should not have to foot the bill for this unfunded mandate," said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who's a co-sponsor of two bills that would require reimbursement within four months after counties meet their annual SCAAP application deadline.

Currently, reimbursement is limited to convictions, and there's no requirement on how fast it should arrive.

Tanis Salant, a public administration professor at the University of Arizona, was the lead researcher on the study, which updated and expanded a similar look taken in 1999.

The earlier report indicated border counties incurred costs of $89 million for processing criminal immigrants in 1999, a price tag that had more than doubled to $192 million in 2006.

Salant, who visited all South Texas counties for the report, was startled by the changes she noticed after returning to the area seven years later, particularly the bulked-up federal border protection forces.

The border has become much more volatile and violent now, said Salant, putting more pressure not just on federal agents but also on local law enforcement, which essentially acts as a second line of defense.

County jails are full, and local prosecutors are so overwhelmed they're refusing to take state criminal cases from their federal counterparts, she added.

Bottom line: If the picture was ugly seven years ago, now it's downright scary, she said.

"Things have definitely changed for the worse," Salant said. "County costs keep going up, reimbursements keep going down. Not surprising that they're having to forgo basic services."

The trend can only be reversed with full reimbursements through SCAAP and the related Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, another Justice Department program that provides funding to state and county prosecutors for taking on federally referred cases, the report said.

Better yet, it added, leaders in Washington should create a new program that would reimburse counties directly and not through state governments.

For Vela in Zapata County, it doesn't matter how the program works — as long as he can finally promise his neighbors their dusty streets will be paved.

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