Illegal immigration costs border counties millions, universi
Published: 03.04.2008
Illegal immigration costs border counties millions, university study finds
DIANA MARRERO
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON — Illegal immigration is costing border counties millions a year for law enforcement and criminal prosecutions - diverting money away from parks, libraries and other law enforcement efforts, according to a study to be released Wednesday.
The costs totaled $192 million for the nation's 24 border counties in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas in fiscal year 2006, researchers at the University of Arizona and San Diego State University found.
The study was commissioned by the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, a nonprofit group of border county officials who want the federal government to reimburse their county jails and prosecutors' offices for those costs.
"As immigration policy is a federal responsibility, the federal government should bear these costs," Tanis Salant, a public policy lecturer at the University of Arizona and the study's main author, wrote in the report.
The coalition, which has been studying the impact of illegal immigration on border counties since 1999, paid for the study using a Justice Department grant. Researchers estimate the costs of illegal immigration on county law enforcement at $1.2 billion in the past eight fiscal years.
Researchers examined county budgets, court records and crime statistics and interviewed hundreds of county officials for the report. The report did not look at the impact of illegal immigrants on cities, states or Indian tribes.
The coalition wants Congress to spend more federal dollars on the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which gave border counties a total of $4.7 million in reimbursements last year. The money was less than a tenth of the actual costs the counties bore for detaining illegal immigrants, according to the report.
The group also wants more funding for the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, among other federal programs.
The costs of illegal immigration are placing "undue burdens" on people who live in border counties, the report says. Urban counties bore the highest costs, with San Diego County in California spending the most at $77.1 million, followed by El Paso and Hidalgo counties in Texas and Pima and Yuma counties in Arizona.
Residents of three Texas counties, Hudspeth, Terrell and Zapata, carried the costliest per capita burden, costing each resident about $378, $126 and $112 last year.
The costs came at the expense of other county services such as libraries, jails, courtrooms and parks, according to the report.
Officials in Presidio County, Texas, for example, say they don't have the money for a new ambulance they need; officials in Santa Cruz County, Ariz., say they need more money to offer better amenities at their local parks; and officials in Imperial County, Calif., want to enhance other law enforcement efforts.
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