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Money for jailing illegals at risk
By Chris McKenna

Times Herald-Record
July 31, 2007
Goshen — A federal program that provided Orange County with $257,000 last year for jailing illegal-immigrant criminals is on a seesaw in Washington after being targeted for elimination by the Bush administration.

Funding for the program was budgeted to drop to $4 million from $405 million, shriveling a revenue source that states, counties and cities have come to expect.

The money is a partial reimbursement for incarcerating illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or at least their second misdemeanor.

Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, held a news conference at the Orange County Jail yesterday to announce he had helped restore the full $405 million for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program in a massive spending bill the House approved last week. The same bill now awaits action by the Senate.

Hall argued that local taxpayers shouldn't have to shoulder the cost of incarcerating illegal-immigrant criminals. "Illegal immigration is a federal issue, not a state issue," he said.

Orange County takes in more money than most New York counties through this program because it has more alien criminals — 116 in the 2005-06 funding year and 155 in 2006-07, according to Jail Administrator Dominic Orsino.

North of New York City, only Westchester received more money than Orange for the program in 2005-06, with $541,000. Rockland got $182,000 and Ulster got $26,000 for that same year; the amount for Sullivan was unavailable.

The $257,000 that Orange took in constitutes less than 1 percent of the $46 million jail budget. But Sheriff Carl DuBois, standing with Hall yesterday, called it an important revenue source.

"It is imperative that this funding be restored," he said.

The illegal immigrants in question have been convicted of state and local crimes, not federal offenses.

Hall argued the federal government should continue to help with the jail and prison expense because it has failed to address immigration issues — and because it supports other state and local costs.


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