Thread: Governor bills U.S. $50 mil over illegals

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Thursday, July 20, 2006


INVASION USA
Governor bills U.S.
$50 mil over illegals
Washington chief wants reimbursement
for holding onto 'undocumented' felons

Posted: July 20, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire says her state has imprisoned almost 1,000 felons who also are illegal aliens, and she wants the U.S. to send a check for about $50 million to cover the costs of keeping them.
Along with the invoice for Fiscal Years 2005 and 2006, she told U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a letter that the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government "exclusive jurisdiction" over immigration, so the federal government also has the responsibility for criminal immigrants.
Gregoire notes in the letter obtained by WorldNetDaily that her state held an average of 995 criminal illegal aliens at a cost of $74.44 per person per day for Fiscal Year 2005. That totals more than $27 million. For Fiscal Year 2006 she expects the cost to rise to $76.75 per inmate per day, for a cost of more than $24 million, based on a slightly lower average inmate population.
So far, she says, the state has gotten $1.7 million for 2005, a payment of $4.75 per day per prisoner, under the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. That program pays states to hold federal prisoners, and is an alternative to having the federal government actually take physical custody of every prisoner.
"I am confident you will agree with me that the discrepancy in the 2005 figures is unacceptable and cannot be repeated for FY 2006," she said.
The invoice is an expression of Gregoire's frustration over the issue, and is just a symptom of the problems now facing the United States over illegal immigration. National Guard troops have been dispatched to the U.S.-Mexico border to halt the undocumented flow of people northward and local governments are reacting in multiple ways to the prospect of additional millions of immigrants in coming years.
Colorado just last week approved new requirements for immigrants to document their legal status with a driver's license or another official document in order to receive public benefits. Sandwich, Mass., town officials went one step further than Colorado. They agreed to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants, as WorldNetDaily reported.
Gregoire spokeswoman Althea Cawley-Murphree told WorldNetDaily yesterday that the invoice is symbolic and more.
"She (Gregoire) does not naively expect she's going to send the letter and the check's going to come tomorrow," Cawley-Murphree said. However, her governor has discussed the problem with Arizona and California officials.
"She met recently with Gov. (Janet) Napolitano of Arizona and Gov. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger of California. They discussed if several western states all asked, all mobilized, there would tend to build a momentum," Cawley-Murphree said.
"If she does not receive a response by Aug. 1, then she will go to the (Washington) congressional delegation and ask them to push this at the congressional level," she said.
Pati Urias, the deputy director of communications for Arizona's governor, said that state has been sending similar invoices for several years. The most recent was sent in May, and totaled more than $279 million.
That's a cumulative total for housing illegal aliens who are criminals from 2003 through April of 2006. And it's an issue that will keep growing until it's resolved, she said.
Victor Joecks, a policy analyst for the Economic Policy Center of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a nonpartisan, public policy watchdog group focused on individual liberties, said Gregoire's move is a good beginning. "Based on this effort, the next logical step is for Gregoire to ensure the state isn't subverting federal immigration law and wasting state tax dollars in other areas by eliminating state services and benefits for non-legal individuals," he wrote in an opinion piece.
Colorado is trying to address its estimated illegal immigrant population of a quarter-million by requiring a valid Colorado driver's license, state ID card, a U.S. military card or another official document for anyone to get taxpayer-funded benefits. Verification would not be required for emergency disaster relief or emergency medical care. However, it penalizes, with fines of $500, only the individual, not company officials who would hire an illegal alien.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said his state's move also was a "good first step." But he said limiting public benefits to illegal aliens does not finish the march. "Anyone who seriously wants to end illegal immigration knows that it is the jobs magnet that drives the vast majority of illegals into our state. By giving employers a free pass, the governor (Bill Owens) and the Democratic legislature failed to address the most critical component of our illegal immigration problem."
Leaders in Sandwich, a Cape Cod town of 23,000, have approved plans to fine businesses $1,000 for employing undocumented workers and revoke their licenses if they do it repeatedly. The proposal will not take effect until a town meeting, expected this fall.
Federal law requires employers to check employees' citizenship status using an I-9 form.
However, as WorldNetDaily has reported earlier, the nine-year-old program allowing employers to use the Internet to verify instantly prospective hires' legal status is used by less than 1/10 of 1 percent of the nation's companies because it is voluntary, under-publicized and puts its users at a competitive disadvantage to firms that continue to hire illegal workers.

Can you see NC's Mike "don't bother Me" Easley doing something like that. If you don't know he's in training to be like Fox and Bush and doing real good at it.

Nope, I sure can't see Easley doing anything CLOSE to that. He's too busy letting them all have drivers licenses on a silver platter
I am willing to bet you that over half the illegal population in the US has a NC drivers license