Some lawmakers still don’t understand why cash-strapped Michigan is keeping foreign criminals behind bars rather than handing them off to the federal government for immediate deportation.  This report from the Lansing State Journal.

Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith would let state inmates with deportation orders be moved to federal custody after serving at least half their minimum sentence. A House subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the measure Tuesday.”Why should our taxpayers be paying for the care, housing and feeding of prisoners for whom the federal government has papers sending them home?” asked Smith …

Michigan now requires all prisoners to serve their minimum term before being considered for release.  Smith’s bill would relax the law so some immigrant inmates here illegally or whose conviction requires deportation are turned over to federal authorities earlier. Murderers, rapists and habitual offenders couldn’t qualify for an early exit from the country.

The measure has hit resistance from [some] lawmakers who worry that everything from fairness issues to the complexities of immigration law make it unworkable.  Rep. John Proos said it’s unfair to release foreigners early when Americans in the state’s prisons would have to serve longer. “What is the response by the victims and their families who now see justice denied by one-half?” he asked …

As of March, Michigan had 156 inmates with final deportation orders who could be freed immediately to be shipped home by the federal government if Smith’s legislation is approved, her office said. Sixty-six were from Mexico, 17 from Cuba and 11 from Iraq.  Another 55 prisoners potentially could be handed over if a final deportation order is entered. Hundreds of other foreign nationals are serving time for murder or criminal sexual conduct, were sentenced as habitual offenders or haven’t got halfway through their sentence, so they would be ineligible for the switch …

The legislation is modeled after programs in New York, Arizona and – most recently – Rhode Island. The states work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to identify and deport convicts if their offenses are considered nonviolent. The governors of Washington and New Hampshire recently pitched similar plans.ICE says New York has saved $140 million since 1995 through its criminal deportation program. Arizona has saved $18 million in detention costs since 2005. More than 114,000 criminals were removed from the U.S. in the past fiscal year.

vericatrajkova Early Release, Economic Issues, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, Michigan

Faced with a budget crunch that forced him to lay off deputies, El Paso County CO Sheriff Terry Maketa has tapped a new source of revenue: illegal immigrants.  Report from the Denver Post.

Maketa has started leasing space in his jail to house an average of 150 immigrants a night for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also sent 17 jail deputies for training in immigration procedures so they can initiate deportations without waiting for federal agents.  ICE pays $62.40 a night for each detained immigrant, plus mileage for transport in sheriff’s vans. The arrangement pumped $3.6 million into El Paso County over the past year and now provides 10 percent of the jail’s budget.

But Maketa said the money is just one factor driving his broadening alliance with ICE.  “I feel like we’re truly contributing to (solving) a national problem,” said Maketa, one of 67 law enforcement agency chiefs nationwide who have had deputies authorized to enforce federal immigration laws … Several Denver-area sheriffs — annoyed at delays in relying on a limited number of ICE agents to handle possible illegal immigrants in jails — say they’re considering sending deputies for federal ICE training.   There’s support from taxpayers to take the next step” in immigration enforcement, Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink said …

On any given night, most jails in the Denver area and across Colorado hold suspected illegal immigrants. Under state law, jailors must notify ICE and, if ICE is interested and able, the agency places a hold on the inmate. If ICE agents fail to pick up the inmate within 48 hours, the inmate is released when local charges are resolved.  But that raises public safety concerns and is not something the public wants, said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who added that he, like other sheriffs, had previously been reluctant to take on an immigration role. “Everybody’s attitude was: ‘That’s the job of the federal government, and we’re not going to do it for them.’ Well, when the federal government isn’t doing their job, the sheriffs get frustrated and the citizens get frustrated,” Cooke said. “We’re going to do the right thing for the citizens of our counties.”

On a recent night in Maketa’s El Paso County jail, more than 200 immigrants from Mexico, Taiwan and elsewhere were incarcerated … [D]eputies immediately start federal deportation proceedings — and start billing ICE for the cost of housing those inmates.  “When county budgets are decreasing, this is a revenue source,” detention bureau chief Paula Presley said …

Denver authorities oppose any increased collaboration with federal agents, beyond the notification all counties must make, under state law, when suspected illegal immigrants are jailed for crimes.  “We don’t help out the IRS either,” said Bill Lovingier, Denver undersheriff and director of corrections. Enforcing the civil offense of being in the country illegally “is a federal responsibility. It’s a federal issue. If they want local help, they should provide us resources. We are already stretched.”   The County Sheriffs of Colorado association remains “quite strongly against doing the feds’ work” on immigration, executive director Don Christensen said. “We feel we can’t get the support from the federal government that we should have. When we do find (illegal immigrants), they don’t come and get them. They fill up our jails and we have to turn them loose,” he said.

A great deal more information and background is available in the article at Denver Post.

vericatrajkova CO El Paso County, Economic Issues, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens

An immigration status operation by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Monterey County Jail this weekend revealed that 68 inmates may face deportation after their release, officials said.

The operation was part of ICE’s Criminal Alien Program, a program that identifies criminal aliens who are incarcerated in federal, state and local facilities, ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley said.   Haley said those identified will complete their sentences before they are handed over to ICE for removal proceedings. Haley said some may be eligible to take their case to immigration courts while others will be deported immediately. “This program is to enhance public safety,” Haley said …

Though ICE and the Sheriff’s Office work on these operations, the issue of immigration mainly falls on ICE, said Cmdr. Mike Richards of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office.

More detail and background in the article at The Californian.

vericatrajkova CA Monterey County, California, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens

At a time when local law enforcement agencies are being forced to cut budgets and freeze hiring, cities across Southern California have found a growing source of income — immigration detention.  This report from the Los Angeles Times.

Roughly two-thirds of the nation’s immigrant detainees are held in local jails, and the payments to cities and counties for housing them have increased as the federal government has cracked down on illegal immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders.

Washington paid nearly $55.2 million to house detainees at 13 local jails in California in fiscal year 2008, up from $52.6 million the previous year. The U.S. is on track to spend $57 million this year.  The largest federal contract in the state is with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, whose 1,400-bed detention center in Lancaster is dedicated to housing immigrants either awaiting deportation or fighting their cases in court. The department received $34.7 million in 2008, up from $32.3 million the previous year.  Some smaller cities have seen their income rise much faster. Glendale received nearly $260,000 in 2008, triple what it got the previous year. In Alhambra, last year’s $247,000 was more than double the previous year’s payments.

For some cash-strapped cities, the federal money has become a critical source of revenue, covering budget shortfalls and saving positions.  Santa Ana’s Police Department, for example, expects as much as a 15% budget cut and has had a hiring freeze since October that has resulted in more than 60 sworn and civilian positions remaining vacant, Police Chief Paul Walters said. To offset reductions, Walters plans to convert two multipurpose rooms at the 480-bed jail into dormitory rooms this spring. That will accommodate an additional 32 immigrant detainees, which he expects will bring in $1 million more in revenue each year. He also hopes to get approval to raise the nightly price per detainee from $82 to $87.
“We treat [the jail] as a business,” Walters said. “The cuts could have been much deeper if it weren’t for the ability to raise money there” …

The federal contracts cover nearly the entire cost of the jail, said Russell Davis, the jail administrator. On a recent day, the jail housed 20 Santa Ana arrestees, 283 U.S. Marshals prisoners and 165 immigration detainees. Some of the detainees, from Mexico, Vietnam, El Salvador and elsewhere, had landed in immigration custody after serving state prison sentences. Others were arrested after ignoring deportation orders or because of criminal records that made them eligible for deportation.     The contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency brought in more than $3.7 million in 2007 and $4.8 million last year.  If he had to do it all over again, Davis said, he would have built another floor on the jail.

There is a lot more detailed background in the article at the Los Angeles Times.

vericatrajkova CA Los Angeles County, California, Economic Issues, Federal Payments, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens

A new corrections audit raises questions whether Atlanta GA should continue to operate a city jail, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The report released Friday found that the city jail was over budget six of the last seven years —- despite two revenue-generating contracts to house prisoners for Fulton County and two federal agencies. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2008, the department was about $4 million over budget, the audit found.  Both deals, the audit found, actually cost Atlanta way more money than they generate.  Atlanta houses inmates for Fulton County, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at a rate of $68 per day —- a loss of about $20 a day, the auditors found.

Leslie Ward, Atlanta’s internal auditor, said the city relies far too much on overtime because of chronic absenteeism among jailers. She also found that some space inside the jail isn’t properly used.  “I’m starting to wonder why we are in the jail business,” Ward said … About 1,044 inmates are housed in the Atlanta jail every day, two-thirds of them federal or Fulton County inmates, the audit found. “We need a holding cell, not a full-blown jail,” Councilman H. Lamar Willis said.

However,

Corrections Sgt. Ellis Williams, a leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unit that represents corrections officials, criticized the audit, saying it was “willfully, deliberately and intentionally done” to encourage city leaders to close the jail.

vericatrajkova County-City Issues, Federal Payments, GA Atlanta City, ICE

After being arrested in Bucks County PA, suspects place their hands on an imaging screen that scans their fingerprints into a computer linked to a federal database.  This report from Morning Call.

Within minutes, prison officials can learn the person’s criminal record — whether he is wanted for other crimes and whether he is in the country illegally.  That’s the latest weapon the federal government uses to track people who are illegal immigrants.   The system has been in use in Bucks and Montgomery counties — the only two in Pennsylvania so far — for a couple of months. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to extend that to more than 6,000 local police booking centers and jails nationwide … in about 3 1/2 years, Thomas Decker, director of the ICE Field Office in Philadelphia, said Monday …

Criminals who are in the country illegally will be turned over to ICE for deportation proceedings only after completing their sentence in a county jail.  Bucks District Attorney Michelle Henry said people simply can’t be turned over to ICE before completing prison terms.   ”It’s important to serve whatever sentence that is,” she said …

Township police have arrested about a dozen people who, with the help of ICE, have been identified as being in the country illegally.   Bucks was able to tap into the ICE system because its computer fingerprinting system was in place and needed only upgrades — $30,000-$40,000 worth — to complete the connection, said county Corrections Director Harris Gubernick.

vericatrajkova ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, PA Bucks County, PA Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Criminal Alien Program has led to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants being detained in jails across the country. The program identifies illegal aliens that come through jails and then detains them until their sentences are served, at which time they are deported.  Reporters were invited to Lake County IL Jail to see the work.  This report from the Waukegan News Sun:

With immigration officials flanking them, two men shuffled toward a waiting vehicle at Lake County Jail.   Once inside the low-profile Chevy Trailblazer, the two Mexican nationals were whisked away by immigration officials, possibly never to return to Lake County again.   It’s a scene that has been repeated dozens of times a month at the jail …

Since the program began in September 2007, roughly 260 inmates at the jail have had detainers placed on them. And a majority of them were eventually deported, said Gail Montenegro, a public affairs officer with ICE.  Lake County was praised Tuesday as one of the jails that works well with ICE officials. James McPeek, a field office director from ICE’s Chicago office, said the dedication shown by Sheriff Mark Curran and his staff is vital to the program’s success.

McPeek said Lake County has among the greatest number of detainees for Chicago’s collar counties. According to Curran, 152 of the jail’s 655 inmates are foreign born. And of those 152, roughly 90 percent are illegal aliens … Though all of the men interviewed Tuesday were of Mexican descent, not everyone detained is Hispanic. While the number is much lower, the jail also has illegal European immigrants, said jail chief Jennifer Witherspoon.

vericatrajkova ICE, IL Lake County, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens

The Northwestern Virginia Regional Jail faces cuts in next year’s budget due to less money from the state and a loss of federal inmates.  Superintendent Bruce Conover said that “This budget is austere,” according to NVReport.

The proposed $17.2 million fiscal 2010 budget assumes the jail will receive approximately $1.5 million less in revenue than it saw in the current year, including a gap of $717,000 due to a lack of inmates from outside agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Prince William County. Another $506,000 shortfall is due to a 7 percent reduction in state per diem and salary assistance, and another $270,000 is from the implementation of an aid-to-locality reduction for 2010 …

Inmate population has an impact on the jail in both its expenses and revenue. According to Conover, the jail population has stayed around 525 for months.  “We all kind of anticipated that when the economy had gone bad that we’d see an increase in the inmate population,” Conover said. “It hadn’t happened yet.”  The jail saw its average daily population rise to 598 in fiscal 2007 and 623 in 2008. The facility returned a number of inmates to Prince William County’s jail when its facility completed an expansion …

The draft budget includes an overall 9.1 percent reduction in spending and seeks to cut operating expenses by 11 percent. The assistant superintendent position remains frozen and unfilled; a nurse and two administrative positions also will not be funded through attrition. Conover said the jail anticipates a reduction of 12 positions in the next year.

vericatrajkova Economic Issues, ICE, VA Northwest Regional Jail

County commissioners on Monday unanimously voted to approve a resolution declaring an intent to finish the second floor of the Delaware County OH Jail.  The Delaware Gazette reports:

The language of the resolution referenced that money for the construction would be raised by renting out space in the jail to house federal prisoners. Delaware County Sheriff Walter L. Davis III said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was also interested in paying the county to hold illegal aliens. In addition to finishing the jail, federal dollars would also pay for an additional 12 correctional officers and three school resource officers, he said … U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would provide $65 a day for each one of its prisoners housed at the jail, Davis said. The federal agencies would also cover medical expenses.

Davis said on Monday that the prisoners from the U.S. Marshals would “white-collar, non-violent” criminals. He also said 90 percent of the illegal aliens ICE handles are not criminal offenders beyond their illegal status in this country.   They would only be in the jail a short time while awaiting deportation.   “They’ll be in and out,” Davis said.   ICE is interested in renting 15 beds in the jail immediately, pending an inspection of the facility …

Costs of finishing the jail were not discussed at the meeting, although in November, Davis asked the commissioners at his year budget hearing for about $1,000,000 for the project.  To raise that amount without using local taxpayer money, the jail would need to house about 42 federal prisoners and/or illegal immigrants at $65 a day for one full year.

vericatrajkova Federal Payments, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens, OH Delaware County, Prison and Jail Construction

Federal immigration officials flagged for deportation 915 foreign-born inmates at the Gwinnett County GA jail during a 26-day surge that ended on Thursday.

Of the inmates identified as being in the country illegally, 489 had a previous criminal history, said Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway … Federal immigration officials worked in 15-person teams from 6 a.m. to midnight during[from 12 January] that time frame to interview all the inmates and determine their immigration status. The inmates were charged with a range of offenses including murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, theft, traffic violations, and probation violation, said Larry Orton, assistant field officer director for the ICE Criminal Alien Program in Atlanta … “I would like to see a program like this 24/7 at the Gwinnett County jail,” Conway said. “Gwinnett County is safer today because of this operation and the work these ICE agents did.”

There is a great deal more information on this in the article at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

vericatrajkova GA Gwinnett County, ICE, Immigration Issues / Illegal Aliens