Thread: San Bernardino County fights for alien prison funds

San Bernardino County fights for immigrant prison funds

Joe Nelson, Staff Writersbsun.com
Posted: 06/27/2012 04:31:59 PM PDT
June 28, 2012 4:49 AM GMTUpdated: 06/27/2012 09:49:01 PM PDT

A new policy that could slash the amount of federal funding San Bernardino County receives for housing illegal immigrants at its jails has the Board of Supervisors fighting mad.

On Tuesday, the board authorized a request for funding from the federal government to cover at least part of the costs for incarcerating illegal immigrants suspected of criminal activity, which cost the county more than $17 million last year.

The U.S. Department of Justice has adopted a new policy that prohibits the use of State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) funds to reimburse costs to counties nationwide for the housing of illegal immigrants suspected of crimes.

"This is a persistent failure at the federal level and it directly affects our taxpayers," Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said in a statement Tuesday.

The Sheriff's Department budgeted $1.5 million in SCAAP reimbursement for the 2012-13 fiscal year. To date, the county has received reimbursements totaling $14.9 million over a 14-year period, according to Mitzelfelt's office.

The county sent a letter to Congress on June 10 seeking assistance in overturning the decision of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Officials for the Department of Justice could not be reached for comment.

For the last three years, the county has fought an uphill battle to get the government to pick up more of the jail costs, only to have funding dwindle due to budget woes.

In 2006, the county began a program in which sheriff's custody specialists screen Latino inmates and placing federal holds on them if they are found to be in the country illegally. They are turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials upon conclusion of their criminal cases and the completion of their sentences.

A provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 2002 - Section 287 (g) - authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to enter into written agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to perform certain functions of an immigration officer, including the screening of inmates for citizenship.

Under the program that began in 1996, ICE provides specialized training to state and local law enforcement agencies in the identification and detention of suspected criminal illegal immigrants.

Since the program began, more than 1,300 law enforcement officials have been trained and certified, and ICE has 68 active Memorandum of Agreements with local law enforcement agencies in 24 states, according to the ICE website.
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San Bernardino County fights for immigrant prison funds - ContraCostaTimes.com

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http://www.alipac.us/f12/capps-fight...rogram-260294/