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Monday, 01/08/07
U.S. pays $450K to house illegal immigrants in Tennessee jails and prisons

By MICHAEL A. WEBER
Staff Writer

A federal government program provided Tennessee communities $450,000 to house jailed and imprisoned illegal immigrants in 2005.

A report released today by the U.S. Department of Justice’s inspector general’s office said the federal government provided $287 million to offset the cost of holding illegal immigrants across the country. However, localities with large numbers of jailed immigrants on average received less than 25 cents on the dollar from the federal government.

The only communities who received money in Tennessee other than the state were Metro Nashville and Shelby, Hamilton and Knox counties.

Nashville received the second-largest amount, a little less than $160,000.

To read the full report, go to http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/OJP/a0707/final.pdf.

For more on this story, pick up tomorrow’s print edition of The Tennessean.