Up to 10% in Virginia jails illegals

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RICHMOND — Illegal aliens comprise between 6 percent and 10 percent of Virginia's jail population and about 2 percent of the state's prison population, according to a report released by the state crime commission yesterday.

The 13,735 illegal aliens in jail committed 27,148 offenses in fiscal 2007, according to the report. The majority of offenses for which illegal aliens are held in the state's jails involved alcohol or the possession of fake identification documents.

There were 3,064 illegal aliens in prison from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2007, according to the report. The top offenses committed by illegal aliens in state prisons involve alcohol, drugs and theft. The report did not indicate the number of offenses committed by illegal aliens already in prison.

The statistics were released at the third meeting of the Virginia State Crime Commission's task force on illegal aliens. The task force was convened to study the effects of the estimated 250,000 illegal aliens in Virginia on the state's criminal justice system.

"We are light-years ahead of where we were last [General Assembly] session," said Virginia Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, co-chairman of the task force. "Most of the questions that we initially had have been answered."

Of the 215,769 inmates in jail in fiscal 2007, 13,735 — or 6 percent — were found to be "proxy illegal immigrants," which crime commission senior methodologist Christina Barnes called "the most conservative estimate."

Of the 129,876 inmates in state prisons from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2007, 3,064 — or 2 percent — were found to be "proxy illegal immigrants."

The number of illegal alien inmates in the jails could be as high as 10 percent if the report includes inmates who were born in a foreign country and have unknown citizenship status, and inmates with an unknown birth country and citizenship status.

The crime commission chose to use the 6 percent estimate because it "did not want to appear to inflate the number," Miss Barnes said.

The cost of housing an inmate in a local or regional jail varies by facility, Miss Barnes said.