Posted on 01/01/2005 1:04:26 AM PST by nanak
SACRAMENTO — Can Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger squeeze an extra $1 billion out of the Bush administration? That's what some Democrats are asking as they step up pressure to get more money to cover the costs of jailing illegal immigrants who commit felonies.
State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, held a hearing in December to try and determine how much it costs California taxpayers to imprison and supervise once paroled all foreign nationals, particularly those here illegally.
"This administration has got to step up to the plate," Romero said. "The clock is ticking and the dollars are slipping away."
Romero says Schwarzenegger isn't necessarily to blame for the federal government's failure to adequately reimburse the state, but she clearly believes he hasn't applied enough pressure on his fellow Republicans at the White House and in Congress at a time when a dollar-for-dollar reimbursement could shave up to 15 percent from next year's projected budget deficit.
The California Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, an agency run by the governor, said 28,672 of its 164,834 adult inmates have identified themselves as foreign-born, with 17,684 originating from Mexico. Of the 3,679 imprisoned juveniles, 412 are foreign-born.
"It's safe to say a large majority came here illegally or overstayed their visas," said spokesman J.P. Trembley.
It costs taxpayers $31,000 per year to house a prisoner, so the bill comes to about $750 million for illegal-immigrant felons and $900 million for all foreign nationals.
Last year, Washington allocated $300 million to partially reimburse all 50 states that incarcerate foreign nationals, with $109 million going to California, which gave $31.6 million to cities and counties.
The Schwarzenegger administration wants Washington to cover the full cost since immigration, particularly illegal immigration, is a federal responsibility.
"This governor will continue to work on a bipartisan basis to secure a more fair share of federal dollars for the costs we are forced to bear in this area," Schwarzenegger's chief budget spokesman H.D. Palmer said.
Schwarzenegger has worked with other border states to get more federal money and has lobbied Congress aggressively.
But it remains an uphill struggle, as it has for previous governors both Democrat and Republican regardless of who was president or which party controlled Congress.
"It is absolutely true the California taxpayer should not be carrying the burden for a federal responsibility," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora.
Dreier, chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee, said California's congressional delegation regularly battles with influential senators who would rather not appropriate any money for prisoner reimbursement. In fact, the Senate allocated just $50 million for the program in 2001 and no money for it in 2003.
Despite the fact that Bush was governor of a border state, Texas, Dreier is not optimistic that much more money will be coming California's way.
"The White House has not been as supportive (of reimbursement) as I would like. This is a struggle with them as well."
I should think this won't be too hard to do --- it was nothing getting $1 billion tacked on to the recent Medicare bill for the free health care of foreigners coming here illegally to obtain it. Bush knows full well that the importation of massive levels of poverty from Mexico will cost the taxpayers billions --- but saving the oligarchs from their certain fate means more to our elites.
So many people are completely ignorant of that fact. Mexico is in fact a very very wealthy nation --- where all the ex-presidents receive 10 times what American ex-presidents do --- $5 million a year --- that's what Fox will receive also. How much does he pay the campesinos working at his ranch? Probably not even $30 a week.
Yes, they are and they are stunned when you tell them how wealthy Mexico is. We all assumed that the entire country must be terribly poor to send their citizens here.
"it costs taxpayers $31,000 per year to house a prisoner, so the bill comes to about $750 million for illegal-immigrant felons and $900 million for all foreign nationals."
.....
wouldn't it be cheaper if we outsourced this to some third world country?
haitians are in desperate need of an economy and livelihood.
haitians are in desperate need of an economy and livelihood.
You CORRECTO, Me AGREEDO.
it's called "privatization".
and, it would work.
build prisons on haiti, staff them with haitians, and if the mexicans escape, where would they go? to the dominican republic? who cares.
plus, it would reduce the labor union that controls the prisons in california. they are very powerful.
every once in awhile i have a moment of brilliance.
you'd better come look at #24 and 26.
because i've spent my brilliance for the year 2005! (/s)
Yes that is brilliant --- we're outsourcing everything else we can think to outsource. It would help the Haitians --- who don't have the types of natural resources the Mexicans have -- quite a lot. Just like we need to outsource the health care and education of the immigrants --- send them back home to get it --- that would be outsourcing.
People don't realize. They are hard at work paying their escalating taxes --- they don't realize how decadent the lifestyle of the oligarchs and other elites of Mexico is. For some reason, because they're servant class is far outnumbering them now, they believe we're the easy quick solution to the problems that's creating them.
it's fun idea!
15 and 10 years ago i was much more optimistic.
i assumed that the vast experience that mexican immigrants gained in the states would be transferred back to mexico by those who go home to live after they've made money here. thus, mexico would eventually change.
wrong.
there does not seem to be the social ingredients necessary for change in mexican society at the bottom, middle, or top.
in contrast, look at china. vast numbers of people make substantial changes to their lives daily.
Yes --- there's no reason to go back --- not when minimum wage in Mexico just went up to the equivalence of $4.15 a day and inflation there will quickly eat up any gains. There's nothing to go back to for the majority who come here --- and many areas of the USA have been turned culturally theirs --- their language, their music, traditions --- but with free health care and free Head Start programs --- why ever go back?
..."It is absolutely true the California taxpayer should not be carrying the burden for a federal responsibility," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora.
And herein lies the rub. Yes, failure to secure our borders is a federal problem, and a big one. But once that first line of defense has failed, California has to ask itself why we then proceed to treat illegal aliens the way we do. It makes California a magnet to these people, and when "the people of California" do speak (e.g. Prop 187) the liberal activist judges have shot them down.
But what do "the people of California" expect? For the most part, California as a whole continues to elect strong liberal majorities to both state and federal office, so while ballot props often paint California as being more conservative on many issues, the truth is that a majority of Californians are apparently getting what they want, since they keep sending these same idiots back into power again and again.
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