Specter speaks at county prison
Senator promoting immigration bill Intelligencer Journal
Published: Sep 16, 2008
00:05 EST

By DAVE PIDGEON, Pennsylvania's senior senator, the 78-year-old Republican Arlen Specter, slowly walked to where a female prisoner sat, her right leg bouncing nervously.

The prisoner, a Vietnamese woman with long black hair and wearing faded royal-blue prison garb, looked up at Specter, who stood before her, official-looking, with arms folded.

"Why are you in here?" Specter asked, more curiously than reproachfully, his voice echoing off the drab walls of Lancaster County Prison's gymnasium. Specter had come Monday to talk about the impact of immigrant prisoners — documented and undocumented — on county budgets in Pennsylvania.

"Forgery," the woman said.

"Are you a citizen?" he asked.

"No," she said, "immigrant."

"If they drop the charges against you, would you be willing to go back to Vietnam voluntarily?" Specter asked.

"No," she said. "My children and husband are here."

Hers was a typical answer as Specter talked to a dozen immigrant prisoners Monday morning at Lancaster County Prison, part of an effort by the senator to draw attention to a bill he's trying to push through Congress.

Specter's bill proposes to cut off foreign aid to countries such as Vietnam, Laos and Iran for refusing to repatriate their citizens if they're deported by the United States after being convicted of a crime. The bill also calls for suspending the issuing of visas to people from those countries.

"If Guatemala won't repatriate their criminals, we ought not let their citizens come into this country," Specter said during a news conference.

His bill is similar to one co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, a Chester County Republican who represents Lancaster.

Pennsylvania has 2,130 immigrants in prison, half of which are estimated to be undocumented, according to Specter's office. Specter said Monday the daily cost to the county for housing a prisoner is $50, with the federal government paying $15 of that.

As the discussion was concluding, Lancaster County Commissioner Scott Martin, who attended Specter's event, referred to one of the convicts who had attended. The man, a Dominican, had been in and out of the local criminal justice system since he was a juvenile.

"In the end, we've invested half a million dollars in this young man," Martin, a Republican, said. "And that's costing the taxpayers."

Some countries, like Vietnam, are major exporters of goods to the United States, but Specter said trade relations ought not stand in the way of America's battle against illegal immigration.

"Any country that wishes to have good relations with the United States ought to take back their citizens who are convicted of crimes here," he said. "I want to have good relations with all these countries, but I want it to be on a fair and equitable basis. A criminal element comes from Vietnam, they ought to take them back, and if that strains our relations, well, I still want them to take them back."

Andrew Cole, a spokesman for Pitts, said getting a bill passed before the current Congress adjourns and is replaced by a new one in January would be extremely difficult.

"It looks like only the highest-profile issues will see legislation on the House floor," Cole said, citing energy proposals and appropriations to "keep the government running."

E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/227388