Thread: CA - Benoit reintroduces undocumented immigrant prisoner

Benoit keeps trying, he's pushed this before too. Seems like a no brainer to me but then common sense seems lacking today in government.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.d ... E/61204036

Benoit reintroduces undocumented immigrant prisoner measure
Bill would require federal government to take custody of undocumented immigrant inmates, or fully compensate California for their costs



The Desert Sun
December 4, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assemblyman John Benoit today reintroduced legislation aimed at pressuring the federal government to reimburse California for the full cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants.

“California prisons are severely overcrowded and the situation is only aggravated by the presence of thousands of illegal immigrant prisoners," said Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes.

"If the federal government won’t take custody of these prisoners, it should at least have the common courtesy to reimburse California taxpayers for their costs."

Assembly Bill 39 is identical to an earlier measure authored by Benoit. That measure did not receive a hearing prior to the Legislature’s adjournment at the end of August, prompting Benoit to seek reintroduction of the bill today as the newly-elected 2007-08 Legislature was sworn into office.

Benoit’s bill seeks a dual approach: requiring the state to ask the federal government to take undocumented immigrant prisoners into federal custody, and to annually bill the federal government for the full cost of incarcerating any undocumented immigrants it refuses to accept.

Should the federal government fail to take custody of or fully compensate California for the incarceration of undocumented immigrants, the California Attorney General would be required to use all available legal recourses to compel the federal government to fulfill its obligations under federal law.

Currently, the federal government provides only a partial,“take it or leave it” payment, Benoit said. This payment, through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, leaves Californian’s paying 84 percent of the costs to imprison undocumented immigrants.

“The pittance California receives from the federal government for housing illegal immigrant prisoners doesn’t even come close to covering the cost to California taxpayers,” Benoit said. “The federal government must be brought to task.”

United States Code requires the U.S. Attorney General to either “enter into a contractual agreement which provides for compensation to the State … with respect to the incarceration of the undocumented criminal alien; or … take the undocumented criminal alien into the custody of the Federal Government and incarcerate the alien.”

If the Federal Attorney General elects to compensate the State, the statute requires him to determine the compensation based on the “average cost of incarceration of a prisoner to the relevant State.”

Undocumented immigrants comprise 10.9 percent of California’s prison population. Each inmate costs California taxpayers an estimated $34,150. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spent $662.4 million housing undocumented immigrants in the 2005-06 fiscal year. Under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) California will receive federal reimbursement for $107.1 million, only 16 percent of its actual costs.

In the 2006-07 fiscal year, costs are expected to rise to $722.7 million, a 9.1 percent increase. The federal government’s reimbursement, although expected to grow by $7 million, will fail to keep pace with the state’s rising costs; as a result overall federal reimbursements will likely fall below 16 percent.

I would suggest California not be given a damn thing. Well, maybe some cheese to go with that whine may be acceptable. Why should the rest of the nation pay for a problem California has increasingly made worse!

California needs to wake up and quit electing Pelosi's, Box's, Villaraigosa's, etc. and start electing more Billbray's and Hunter's to political office.

Originally Posted by MW

I would suggest California not be given a damn thing. Well, maybe some cheese to go with that whine may be acceptable. Why should the rest of the nation pay for a problem California has increasingly made worse!

California needs to wake up and quit electing Pelosi's, Box's, Villaraigosa's, etc. and start electing more Billbray's and Hunter's to political office.

Ah, come on, we're not all bad and some of us have to live here.

And don't blame all our problems on our state elected officials but the FEDS! It is the federal government's fault mostly that we're in the state we are here so don't be blaming all of our problems on our state officials, sorry as some of them are.

I'm fortunate enough to live in Hunter's district btw.

The states are lucky to get anything at all from Bush, he actually wanted to end the whole SCAAP program, but was met with such a huge outcry from Congress, forcing him to add back some funding to the, although nowhere near the total cost of incarcerating the masses of honest, law abiding, good hearted, family values type heroes Bush loves so much.

Just watch, the next time the budget comes up for review, Bush will try once again to cancel the program, and Congress will complain, and Bush will pay out a small amount and the states will cave in and be grateful to get whatever amount he is willing to fork over rather than get nothing at all.

But it's the state taxpayers who put up the rest so it's not like the politicians really care, if they really did they would also go after the feds for the costs of educating the litters of the illegals, the costs of their healthcare, welfare, etc., which adds up to billlions the states have to pay every year, especially in Mexifornia.

I think all states should introduce the same law as California. This maybe the wake up call the government needs to see the magnitude of the problem and look at other options of solving it such as deportation of illegals. Just think how smaller the prison population would be in if they deported them not to mention the increased safety for the prison guards as the gang members cause large fights in prison where often the prison staff get injured. I just went online to find out about illegals in prison and found 2 frightening things. According to Lou Dobbs 33% of our prison population consists of non citizens. On V Dare there was a article on race and crime and at towards the end it there author stated that if immigration continues as it is that in a decade the legal and illegal Hispanics will be the highest percentage of the three races in prison.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.d ... E/61205006

Benoit reintroduces plan to force feds to fund state imprisonment of criminal aliens

Desert Sun File Photo
Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Palm Desert

Marie McCain
The Desert Sun
December 5, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assembly Bill 39 is identical to an earlier measure Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Palm Desert, proposed last term.

However, legislators failed to considered the proposal before the end of the session.

Benoit, following yesterday's swearing-in ceremony in Sacramento, reintroduced the proposal, which seeks to force the federal government to pay for the incarceration of criminal aliens in state prisons.

"California prisons are severely overcrowded and the situation is only aggravated by the presence of thousand of illegal immigrant prisoners. If the federal government won't take custody of these prisoners, it should at least have the common courtesy to reimburse California taxpayers for their costs," Benoit said.

"In light of California's rising inmate healthcare costs and its $5 billion budget deficit, it's high time we gave this issues serious, focused attention," he added.

According to Benoit, costs associated with this issue are expected to increase to more than $772 million, up more than 9 percent in fiscal year 2006-07. The federal government's reimbursement of those costs has grown by $7 million, he said.

However, that increase still fails to keep pace with state's costs and reimbursements are expected to fall below 16 percent, Benoit added.