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Exclusive: Cost of Illegal Alien Crime Far Outweighs Benefits
Michael Cutler
Author: Michael Cutler
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: February 22, 2007



As the immigration crisis continues in America, the cost of locking up the worst of the illegal aliens in our midst continues to rise, leaving many states struggling to find ways to deal with their criminal populations. And money’s not all we’re losing in the deal, as FSM Contributing Editor Michael Cutler explains.

Cost of Illegal Alien Crime Far Outweighs Benefits

By Michael Cutler

Our dysfunctional immigration system has repercussions that reverberate through many aspects of our nation today. Illegal immigration impacts everything from health care, education, the environment, and the economy to criminal justice and national security.

This fact is illustrated by the crisis confronting the prison system of the State of California, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. In a desperate attempt to offset costs associated with incarcerating illegal aliens, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger declared a state of emergency and tried to transport prisoners to prisons in other states. However, his action was ruled illegal, leaving the Governator with a continuingly horrific situation on his hand.

While the article does not disclose the percentage of deportable aliens who are incarcerated in that state's overcrowded prisons, I have found a report that was issued by the Government Accountability Office in response to a request from Representative John Hostettler, then Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Representative Steve King, then a member of that subcommittee and currently the Ranking Member of that subcommittee and Representative Melissa Hart who also sat on that House Subcommittee, to attempt to determine the magnitude of the impact of criminal aliens on the prison system.

The GAO issued a report on March 29, 2005 entitled, "Information on Criminal Aliens Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and Local Jails." The report can be found at:

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05337r.pdf

I have attached an excerpt of that report immediately below that show just how costly it is to incarcerate criminal aliens. The costs noted in the report are those borne by the federal government and do not include additional expenses for which the local governments do not receive reimbursement. Also, the costs noted in the report are purely pecuniary costs directly associated with the incarceration of criminal aliens and do not take into account the financial costs attributable to the crimes that these aliens committed in the first place.

In addition, these figures do not deal with the human factor: Behind these cold numbers are murders, rapes, assaults, burglaries and other heinous acts. Numerous victims of these criminals have lost their lives or had their lives turned upside down and inside out, condemned forever to suffer as a result of the violence visited upon them, their family members or friends.

It is also extremely important to note that as the illegal alien population continues to grow rapidly, the number of criminals entering our country has also steadily increased, costing us ever more money and inflicting ever more suffering. It is this influx that has contributed greatly to the severe overcrowding of California jails that Governor Schwarzenegger is trying desperately to solve.

According to the GAO’s report:

Generally, criminal aliens are considered to be non-citizens who are residing in the United States legally or illegally who have been convicted of a crime.

The federal government bears the total cost of incarcerating all criminal aliens in federal prisons and reimburses state and local governments for portions of their incarceration costs for certain criminal alien populations through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).

Any costs related to incarcerating criminal aliens not reimbursed by the federal government are borne by state and local governments.

Definitions of Terms Used in This Report:

Term: Criminal aliens;
Definition: Noncitizens who are residing in the United States legally or illegally and convicted of a crime.

Term: SCAAP criminal aliens;
Definition: A subgroup of criminal aliens: noncitizens illegally in the United States at the time of incarceration for whom state and local jurisdictions received federal reimbursement through SCAAP; the aliens must meet specific legal requirements.

Term: Alien;
Definition: Any person who is not a citizen of the United States.

Term: Foreign-born individuals;
Definition: Any person who is not born in the United States; includes
individuals who may be naturalized United States citizens.

Source: GAO.

[End of table]

Objectives:

For criminal aliens incarcerated in federal prisons and for SCAAP criminal aliens incarcerated in state prisons and local jails:

For recent years, how many criminal aliens were incarcerated?

What is the country of citizenship or country of birth for these criminal alien inmates?

What are the estimated costs of incarcerating criminal aliens?

Results in Brief-Federal Prisons and Reimbursements:

How many incarcerated:

* Criminal aliens incarcerated increased from about 42,000 at year-end 2001 to about 49,000 at year-end 2004.

Country of citizenship:

* For 2004, the majority of incarcerated criminal aliens were identified as citizens of Mexico.

Costs of incarceration:

* We estimate the federal cost of incarcerating criminal aliens totaled about $5.8 billion from 2001 through 2004:

-direct federal costs ($4.2 billion) and:
-federal reimbursements to state and local governments ($1.6 billion).

Results in Brief-State Prisons:

How many incarcerated:

* Fiscal year 2002-SCAAP reimbursed all 50 states for incarcerating about 77,000 criminal aliens.

* Fiscal year 2003-SCAAP reimbursed 47 states for incarcerating about 74,000 criminal aliens.

* 5 state prison systems incarcerated about 80 percent of these criminal aliens in fiscal year 2003-Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Texas.

Country of citizenship:

* Data on citizenship of criminal aliens reimbursed through SCAAP not available.

* In mid-2004, most of the foreign-born inmates for the 5 state prison systems with the most criminal aliens were born in Mexico (60 percent).

Costs of incarceration:

* We estimate that 4 of these 5 states spent a total of $1.6 billion in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 to incarcerate SCAAP criminal aliens and were reimbursed about $233 million through SCAAP.

Results in Brief-Local Jails:

How many incarcerated:

* Fiscal year 2002-SCAAP reimbursed 752 local jurisdictions for incarcerating about 138,000 criminal aliens.

* Fiscal year 2003-SCAAP reimbursed 698 local jurisdictions for about 147,000 criminal aliens.

* 5 municipal and county jails incarcerated about 30 percent of these criminal aliens in fiscal year 2003-Los Angeles County, California; New York City, New York; Orange County, California; Harris County, Texas; Maricopa County, Arizona.

Country of citizenship:

* Data on citizenship of criminal aliens reimbursed through SCAAP not available.

* In fiscal year 2003, most of the foreign-born inmates from these 5 jails were born in Mexico (65 percent).

Costs of incarceration:

* We estimate that 4 of these 5 local jails spent a total of $390 million in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 to incarcerate SCAAP criminal aliens and were reimbursed about $73 million through SCAAP.

Another factor that must be considered is that many criminal aliens commit multiple offenses. Therefore it is likely that each has injured and/or killed multiple victims, be it physically, financially or emotionally.

The next time members of Congress refuse to fund a fence for the Mexican border, claiming it would be too costly, I suggest that they show some real courage and say it in front of the victims of criminal aliens or their surviving family members. The fence by itself would not solve our illegal alien crisis, but it can be a significant component of a multi-faceted approach to securing our nation's borders and restoring integrity to the immigration system. Other measures that should be taken include hiring more special agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more Border Patrol agents, more Customs and Border Protection inspectors and adjudications officers for US Customs and Immigration Services. In addition, we should provide these new employees with excellent training, particularly foreign language training for the special agents at ICE, resources such as more detention space and leadership training they need to be truly effective in carrying out their duties each day.

Also, all efforts aimed at creating a Guest Worker Amnesty Program for illegal aliens must end. Such plans encourage massive waves of illegal aliens who believe that if they can manage to enter our country they will be able to participate in that program. And why shouldn’t they? Consider the travesty that was the Amnesty of 1986.

Consider also that there is, at present, virtually no integrity to the system by which various immigration benefits, including the conferring of resident alien status and United States citizenship, are often approved because there is no time or resources to screen the applications. When the previous administration embarked in a massive effort to naturalize as many aliens as possible under the aegis of a program known as "Citizenship USA," thousands of criminal aliens who should have been deported were instead, naturalized! Incredibly, last year USCIS "lost" 111,000 alien immigration files and went on to naturalize 30,000 aliens without having their critical files to review in conjunction with that naturalization applications.

Simply stated, our nation cannot afford not to effectively address this crisis. Dead is dead! Whether a person is slaughtered by terrorists or by drug dealers engaged in a shoot-out, the motivation behind the act of violence that took that life is but a footnote to a tragedy that might have been prevented but for the refusal of politicians to do the work Americans pay them to do.

Pandering and corrupt politicians claim we need illegal aliens to do the work American's won't do. I disagree vehemently with that assertion. If Americans will work in coal mines, steel foundries and construction sites; if Americans will drive garbage trucks and go in harm's way as firefighters and law enforcement officers; I believe that there are few, if any, jobs Americans won't do, as long as they will be able to support themselves and their families when they get their paychecks at the end of the week.

If your political representative won't do the job we pay them to do, replace them at the next election with an elected official who will represent the best interests of our citizens, our communities and our nation.

Lead, follow or get out of the way!


FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a well-respected authority on immigration and border security issues.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of The Family Security Foundation, Inc.