GAO: $1.5B to Jail Unlawful Immigrants
By Jordy Yager – 04/23/11 | The federal government is spending more than $1.5 billion each year to jail illegal immigrants throughout the country, according to a new report by the investigative arm of Congress.
[NOTE: According to FAIR: The GAO study only reflects the federal costs and NOT state and local costs.]
The GAO report summarizes the findings:
The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons in fiscal year 2010 was about 55,000, and the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails was about 296,000 in fiscal year 2009 (the most recent data available), and the majority were from Mexico. The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons increased about 7 percent from about 51,000 in fiscal year 2005 while the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails increased about 35 percent from about 220,000 in fiscal year 2003. The time period covered by these data vary because they reflect updates since GAO last reported on these issues in 2005. Specifically, in 2005, GAO reported that the percentage of criminal aliens in federal prisons was about 27 percent of the total inmate population from 2001 through 2004.
The report, issued this week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), found that over the past five fiscal years the number of incarcerated non-U.S. citizens in federal prisons has increased by 4,000, to about 55,000. In state prisons, the criminal alien population has increased by about 75,000 people, for a total of 296,000.
The federal government repays states some of the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.
Criminal aliens have consistently made up about 25 percent of the federal prison population since 2001, according to the study.
The study comes as the immigration debate heats up in Washington. President Obama ramped up efforts this week, hosting meetings with key business, faith and political officials on the issue. And Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s immigration task force, is trumpeting the need for immigration reform in speeches across the country.
Meanwhile, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) used the study to back his push for a fence and a wall that would run along the U.S.-Mexico border as a way to stop people from coming into the country illegally.
Nearly 70 percent of the criminal aliens in federal prisons and 66 percent in state prisons were born in Mexico, the report found. About 5 percent are from the Dominican Republic, and 5 percent are from Colombia.
“We have to secure our southern border with a fence, a wall and a fence,” said King, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security & International Law subcommittee.
“That would drastically reduce the ability of criminal aliens to enter the United States, providing needed relief to overburdened state prison systems and to taxpayers. We also have to do a better job of removing criminal aliens who are apprehended.”
Based on a 1,000-person sample of the criminal alien population, the study found that each non-U.S. citizen in prison had, on average, been arrested seven times over the course of their lives.
“About 50 percent of the criminal aliens in our study population were arrested at least once for either assault, homicide, robbery, a sex offense, or kidnapping,” the study reads. “About half of the criminal aliens were arrested at least once for a drug violation.”
Nearly half of the people – 173 of the 399 – that the Justice Department convicted of crimes related to international terrorism were, at the time of charging, non-U.S. citizens with or without legal immigration status, the report found.
Category: American Voice, Establishment News
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Enforcing the border is only one part of the larger problem, sanctuary cities are another, how about with-holding Federal money to cities that take such a position? Business that employee Illegals is another, how about stiff fines and Imprisonment for employers of Illegals ( I heard there is already a law concerning this, so I guess actually enforcing it would be a good idea). How about politicians that support open borders and sometimes advocate rewarding criminal actions, isn't that aiding and abetting criminal behavior? I hear there is this thing called Treason that use to get people executed for such actions.
This invasion of our country is technically an act of war and should be treated as such! We need bullets not fences! When the bodies start piling up – they'll syop coming. This is the only country in history that's been invaded without a shot being fired in defence! We need bold leaders – not pussy politicians!
Though I disagree with your bullet measure, I do agree the bold politicans would enforce our borders with every means possible, from border patrol to interior enforcement, just the presence of a large military force along the border would be a deterent, especailly for heavy armed drug runners who aren't threatened by BP agents.
Thor's hammer doesn't work unless you use it.
True, but I have feeling I, nor you, would not like prison, so us private citizens killing people isn't going to help our cause. Political force is our only real option.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson
I still can't understand this call for 'Reform' on the part of Obama and even many of those in the Republican Party, when what is clearly needed is 'INFORCEMENT'! There are plenty of laws to cover the problem, from employers hiring these people to the individuals themselves being here illegally. What is lacking is a 'National Will' ,which is exactly what the A3P represents.
The 14th Amendment has been erroneously (purposely) re-interpreted by globalists, the media, and libtards to mean that if an illegal immigrant has a child on American soil then the kid is a citizen of the U.S. Clearly this is completely against what the 14th Amendment says, but the notion is rarely challenged. The Amendment states that you have to be ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’ to be a citizen at birth, and illegal aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S.
Every illegal and descendant of illegals should have their citizenship stripped and sent packing back to their land of origin.