Thread: AZ: Funds for illegal criminals easy issue to resolve

Funds for illegal criminals easy issue to resolve

July 12, 2010 10:23 PM

A meeting with Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Sunday must have seemed like deja vu for Napolitano.

The reason is that Brewer was talking to the nation’s top security official about some of the same immigration issues that had plagued Napolitano when she was Arizona governor. Brewer took over as governor when Napolitano resigned to accept the post from President Barack Obama.

The meeting between the two involved a request by the homeland security director to get Brewer’s support for border funding the president wants from Congress and a request from Brewer to Napolitano for help in getting funding from the federal government to cover the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants in Arizona.

The Brewer request is one Napolitano should be familiar with since Napolitano made the same request of the federal government repeatedly when she was governor.

What is involved is the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program which is supposed to require the federal government to reimburse states for the cost of imprisoning illegal immigrants convicted of state crimes.

One in seven inmates in Arizona prisons is an illegal immigrant, so the cost is significant for the state. Yet, the federal government covers only a tiny portion of that amount. Brewer says the total unpaid amount for Arizona since 2003 is $700 million.

While Napolitano cannot directly get the money paid — that requires Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, which it has not been willing to do — she certainly could be an advocate on Arizona’s behalf. She, after all, knows the situation perhaps better than anyone else in the Obama administration.

Some aspects of immigration are controversial, but this issue should be something both Democrats and Republicans can agree on.

There is a law that says states must be reimbursed, so Congress needs to appropriate the full amount of the needed funds and the Justice Department needs to distribute them.

Problem solved.

www.yumasun.com

the only problem is,. that as governor she didnt care, and as DHS leader she still does not care and thinks amnesty is the only answer