No progress in RI immigrant prison release program

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal program allowing illegal immigrant inmates to get out of prison if they agree to be deported was trumpeted by Rhode Island's governor as a sensible way to save money in his cash-strapped state, which was already saddled with costs blamed on such prisoners.

After all, such early deportation programs have saved millions of dollars in states like Georgia and Arizona, resulting in thousands of illegal immigrants being sent home before they completed their sentences.

But a year and a half after Rhode Island signed up for the initiative, not one person has been deported early and the program hasn't saved any money. That's because of the relatively small population of illegal immigrants at the state prisons - called the Adult Correctional Institutions - and the strict criteria required of inmates to participate.

Regardless, state officials say the Rapid REPAT program, under the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, remains sound public policy - even if it's untested here.

Some advocates for illegal immigrants' rights say the lack of early deportations suggests the problem of illegal immigration has been exaggerated in the state by Gov. Don Carcieri and others.

"To the extent that it dispels myths about the ACI being overrun with illegal immigrants, it's a good thing," said Steven Brown, executive director of the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Illegal immigrants accused of crimes are sometimes deported before trial in instances where they're picked up by federal immigration authorities.

Some local law enforcement agencies around the country are trying to speed the removal process by using fingerprint technology to check both the criminal background and immigration status of arrestees during the booking process.

Rapid REPAT, however, focuses on illegal immigrants already convicted and imprisoned.

Proponents say it spares states the cost of incarcerating inmates who'd probably be deported anyway, allowing illegal immigrant inmates to return to their home countries without completing their sentences.

To qualify, inmates must be nonviolent offenders who have received final deportation orders and who have exhausted or waived appeals of their criminal convictions and agree not to fight their removal.

They cannot return to the United States after deportation. Inmates must volunteer to participate in the program.

"To us, if we identify one person, one criminal alien, and get him off the streets and out of the country, we're happy," said Todd Thurlow, assistant field officer for ICE's Boston field office.

ICE touts major cost-savings in other states that use Rapid REPAT or similar programs.

In Georgia, the bureau says Rapid REPAT and a predecessor program had saved $204 million and removed 3,612 criminal aliens as of August 2009. And ICE says its Phoenix field office has removed nearly 2,700 people since 2005 under a program that authorizes the deportation of some foreign-born inmates who have served half their sentences.

But in Rhode Island, where suspected illegal immigrants account for fewer than 5 percent of the state's roughly 3,700 inmates, the stringent criteria have winnowed the already narrow pool of potential participants.

Patricia Coyne-Fague, chief legal counsel for the Department of Corrections, said she had identified only one inmate who satisfied the criteria, but the prisoner had either already completed his sentence or was about to.

Prisoners who are illegal immigrants are still being deported upon completing their sentences, just as they were before Rapid REPAT. And the number of participants would clearly be bigger if the criteria were broadened to include violent criminals like Marco Riz, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala sentenced last year to 30 years for rape.

"It's not that it doesn't work, and it's not that we don't have a system in place," Coyne-Fague said. "We just haven't had that person yet."

U.S. immigration authorities signed the first Rapid REPAT deal with Puerto Rico in July 2008. Rhode Island signed on the following month, followed by Georgia. The program is modeled after similar efforts in New York and Arizona.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year proposed commuting the sentences of thousands of immigrants in state custody to save more than $180 million, though he has not released any inmates to the federal government for deportation. Oregon this month signed an agreement with ICE to remove some undocumented prisoners who are within six months of completing their sentences.

Rhode Island's involvement was an outgrowth of Carcieri's 2008 executive order cracking down on the state's illegal immigrants, which the Pew Hispanic Center estimates at between 20,000 and 35,000.

At the time, he said the state could not "afford to bear the financial burden of providing housing and rehabilitative treatment to inmates who committed crimes while here illegally."

His spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, said the administration remains committed to Rapid REPAT.

"If there are criminals residing in our prisons who are here in this country illegally ... the state of Rhode Island should not be picking up the tab for their incarceration," she said.

David Quiroa, president of the Guatemalan-American Alliance in Rhode Island, said he supports the concept of Rapid REPAT. But he thinks the governor's crackdown sparked unnecessary fear and used illegal immigrants as a scapegoat for the state's fiscal woes. He said it's misleading to focus on the minority of illegal immigrants in the state who are imprisoned.

"I'm sure we have criminals, if you will, but I think the majority of the community are just trying to do their best for their families and are just trying to be part of the larger communities in a positive way," he said.

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/2468739.html