Illegal immigrants want to come back to the U.S. after depor
Until we meet again
Illegal immigrants want to come back to the U.S. after deportation, and local sheriffs want the money they can make by holding them in jail
Monday, April 6, 2009 3:08 AM
By Stephanie Czekalinski
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STEPHANIE CZEKALINSKI | DISPATCH FRONTERAS PHOTOS
U.S. officials in Texas search illegal immigrants being deported to El Salvador. This flight returned 120 men and women, but many say they will return to the U.S. despite the risks. The federal government pays county jails millions of dollars to house the immigrants after arrest.
Registered nurse Jay Oxner, 34, left, reviews the passenger list with ICE agent Manuel Fernandez, 31. Oxner has a contract to provide medical care to detainees on the flight; 10 needed medication.
STEPHANIE CZEKALINSKIDISPATCH FRONTERAS
Deportees file off the plane in El Salvador and head toward customs. They are not searched because they have not broken laws in their home country.
A cheer went up in the cabin when the plane touched down on the steamy airstrip near the capital city, San Salvador.
Passengers chanted: El Sal vador! El Sal vador!
For all the excitement at returning to their homeland, the 120 passengers were on the plane because they were being deported after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement caught them entering or living in the United States illegally.
For some of the detainees on Flight 9351, the landing marked an end to the deportation process. For others, it was the beginning of a roughly 1,500-mile trip back to the United States.
"I don't plan to say goodbye to America," said Nadia Morena Cruz, a 27-year-old deportee on the flight. "Rather, 'Until then.' "
That attitude might help some Ohio county and city jails deal with budget cuts and recession-related belt-tightening.
Central Ohio jailers are counting on keeping the illegal immigrants from the time they are arrested to the moment they board the plane. The federal immigration agency budgets $281.4 million a year to send them home; local jails are paid millions to house them while they're here.
The sheriff's offices in Butler County to the southwest, and Delaware and Seneca counties to the north, rent beds to ICE to house immigrants awaiting deportation. That revenue is being used to maintain staffing levels, complete expansion projects and offset the cost of jailing local prisoners.
Delaware County will use the money from holding detainees to complete the unfinished second story of the jail, said Sheriff Walter L. Davis III.
"It would be very difficult to do without" the ICE contract, said Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones, an outspoken critic of illegal immigration. "I would, but I'd have to lay people off. And I'd have to cut my prison population."
The number of ICE detainees in the Butler County jail fluctuates, as does the duration of their stays. But the jail holds roughly 200 ICE detainees a day, according to a sheriff's office report.The financial benefit to the Seneca County jail is a matter of economies of scale, said County Commissioner Ben Nutter.
Because the county is reimbursed for the federal detainees in its jail population, it costs less to house the local prisoners. Seneca housed 1,426 ICE detainees in 2008 -- an average of 105 men and seven women a day, but 472 less than in 2007.
"If I have a local average of 100 prisoners, instead of $7,000 a day, it's $5,800 because I have the ICE prisoners to lower my average daily cost," he said.
He estimated that the savings to local taxpayers is roughly three-quarters of a million dollars a year, which is important in tough economic times. This year, Seneca County's jail is cutting its budget by 5 percent.
But not everyone is comfortable with county jail systems using dollars gained by detaining illegal immigrants.
"It's hypocritical," said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. "It's a two-faced approached to justice. On one hand, these men and women put up a big face about immigrants not coming into our country. And on the other, their pockets are filling up with money."
Last year, the Butler County sheriff's office billed ICE about $3.2 million to house and transport detainees. Seneca County charged ICE about $2.1 million.
Federal authorities expect to deport about as many illegal immigrants from Ohio and Michigan this year as they did in 2008, said Corey Price, assistant field office director in Columbus.
Butler and Seneca counties also house federal prisoners for the U.S. Marshals Service. Delaware County commissioners approved a contract to rent beds to the marshals starting this month.
Earlier this year, Jones trimmed $1.4 million from his budget by asking local law-enforcement agencies to be more judicious about whom they brought to jail, using court summonses instead of arrests and asking courts for shorter sentences and probation rather than jail time.
The jail population in Butler Country dropped by 200 inmates since last year, Jones said.
"I'm not letting locals go so I can bring in illegals and people from other jurisdictions," he said. "If it wasn't for the contract prisoners that I bring in from other jurisdictions, I wouldn't be able to afford to house as many of the nonpaid."
Still, the cost for deportations is eventually paid by the public. It costs about $2,850 to house a detainee for the average 30-day stay, and the bill to fly a deportee home is about $670 each.
Other cash-strapped jail systems are trying to get in on the opportunity for more money.
State Sen. Karen L. Gillmor, a Republican from Tiffin, the Seneca County seat, is proposing a contract with ICE to house detainees at the Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility after it closes in July. Then, state employees who will lose their jobs could be rehired to manage the jail.
Local jails' use of ICE funds to offset costs "does not bode well for Latinos who live in those communities," said Ricardo Meza, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "The need to obtain federal ICE funds will no doubt increase unlawful targeting of Latino drivers and persons by local police, thus leading to racial profiling."
Jones said he's aware of the criticism. "You get the typical complaints: 'You're a racist. You're a bigot. You're profiling,' " the sheriff said. "I've sent out a memorandum. If (the deputies) were doing that, I'd fire them."
The solution for illegal immigrants is simple, he said: "Come here legally. Don't violate the law. Become a U.S. citizen."
But he understands why people are frustrated by the current immigration policy.
"And I can complain about it because I'm a U.S. citizen. And even if you are not a U.S. citizen, you can complain," he said. "But you need to be careful; you may be arrested."
ICE deported 288,663 people in fiscal year 2007. About 5,000 of those were removed from Michigan and Ohio. In fiscal year 2008, the number of deportations across the country jumped nearly 21 percent. In Ohio and Michigan, nearly 2,500 more people were deported in 2008 than in 2007, said ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls.
As the plane descends in El Salvador, the detainees smile and chat. They cheer as the aircraft breaks through the cloud cover and they see the mountains. The plane banks left and circles out over the ocean. The passengers sound as if they're on a roller coaster -- many are enjoying their first time on an airplane.
"My country!" someone yells from the back of the plane.
Morena is exhausted.
"I'm going to spend a week sleeping. They wake you up really early to eat" in detention, she said. Her family was expecting her in her hometown near the northern border.
Morena left El Salvador on Nov. 7 and was stopped somewhere along the Mexican border Dec. 19.
Then she spent a month and nine days in jail.
Still, she wasn't angry.
"It was an adventure for me. It was my first time out of my house, out of my country," she said. "Now I know for the next time."
sczekalinski@dispatch.com
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