Thread: PA: Scott says aliens treated better than citizens

http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1617946.asp

Scott says aliens treated better than citizens
The commissioner contends that immigrants housed in the old Berks Heim get an education superior to what Reading High School students receive.
Jan 24, 2007

By Dan Kelly
Reading Eagle

Federal immigration detainees housed at the old Berks Heim have safer living conditions and get a better education than residents of Reading, county Commissioner Mark C. Scott said Tuesday, eliciting an angry response from the city school board president.
“The care that they receive there is extraordinary,” Scott said of the illegal aliens held at the county-owned facility in Bern Township.

Speaking at a commissioners work session, Scott said he has visited the facility leased to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the renovated county building on County Welfare Road.

“The education system alone is something,” he said. “They have a multi-lingual staff, new computers.

“They get a better education than students at Reading High School. They are in a more secure, more affluent environment than our citizens.”

Eighty-four detainees are housed in the facility.

Contacted after the meeting, Reading School Board President Keith R. Stamm responded angrily to Scott's remarks.

“I will put our students up against any other district in the county,” Stamm said. “We have graduates in Harvard and other Ivy League schools.”

Stamm accused Scott of electioneering at the expense of Reading schools.

“He's just saying that to get re-elected,” Stamm said.

Scott made his comments in response to a report from county Administrator William E. Dennis that the federal agency wants to lease 40 additional beds and office space in the old Heim.

“They recently restructured their Philadelphia office,” Dennis said.

Immigration officials want to be able to perform office functions at the Berks location, he said.

Dennis said the county would have to pay for the costs of additional renovations of the building. He said those costs can be recouped by incorporating them into future lease payments.

“We have made it very clear to them that we are not going to take a penny loss on this,” Dennis said.

He also said that under federal law, the county can't make a profit on housing immigration detainees. However, he said the county can make a profit leasing office space to the federal agency.

Commissioner Thomas W. Gajewski Sr. advised Dennis to build automatic annual increases into any lease the county agrees to with the immigration service.

“That way we won't have to keep renegotiating the lease if our costs rise,” Gajewski said.

Commissioner Judith L. Schwank, chairwoman, asked Dennis if leasing more space to the immigration service would interrupt the county's plan to use the old Heim building to store county records.

Dennis said it would not. He plans to meet with federal officials soon to review the request for more space, he said.

I don't know about this particular situation but I would have a tendency to believe him. Illegals are treated better than citizens IMHO.