Cost of keeping illegals out takes toll

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Elected officials in the two dozen counties along the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas say the cost of apprehending, arresting and convicting illegal immigrants is crippling their courts and the region's entire criminal justice system.

The U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, in a report released yesterday, said border county leaders are "well past the national debate on immigration reform" and simply want to be reimbursed for the burden illegal immigration places on their criminal justice systems — to the tune of about $200 million a year.

The report said that from 1999 through 2006, the 24 counties spent a "staggering" $1.23 billion on services to process criminal immigrants through the law enforcement and criminal justice system. In fiscal 2006 alone, it said, the cost was $192 million.

"It's all about the criminal justice costs associated with criminal aliens," said Kent Evans, the coalition's immediate past president, who also is a commissioner in Dona Ana County, N.M. "Any way you look at it, border counties spent more than one billion dollars in less than a decade."

"That's a lot of money, money that should have been used to improve schools, roads and public safety in our communities," he said.

The report, which included the findings of a 12-month investigation by the University of Arizona and San Diego State University, said the 24 border counties in Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico are spending "a disproportionate amount of local tax dollars" to provide law enforcement and criminal justice services to "apprehend, transport and convict" criminal immigrants.

"This updated study effectively illustrates that until our borders are secure and our immigration laws are adequately enforced, many states and localities, particularly in border states like Arizona, will continue to incur overwhelming costs to process those illegal immigrants who commit crimes, or who, sadly, die trying to come to the United States," said Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, who secured funding to produce the report.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said the study underscored the "unfair and unacceptable fact that border residents continue to pay for our broken immigration policies."

"The current approach reflects a lack of understanding of border communities," said Mr. Reyes, a 26-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol.

The coalition wants the federal government to cover three major costs associated with illegal immigrants who commit state felonies or multiple misdemeanors by fully funding the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative and county law enforcement and criminal justice services.

"We are not asking for a handout," said Manny Ruiz, the coalition's chairman and a Santa Cruz County, Ariz., supervisor. "When federal lawmakers fail to secure our borders, our local taxpayers should not have to pay for the skyrocketing costs."

The report said the costs had hamstrung the counties, considering their rural nature and poverty levels. It also noted that when he was governor of Texas, President Bush harshly criticized the federal government for failing to reimburse states and localities for costs of imprisoning illegal immigrants and supported a lawsuit that sought restitution.

Yet in each of his first six years as president, the report said Mr. Bush has proposed to eliminate the program established to reimburse states and localities and that the last chance to adopt an immigration-reform bill faded in June when the reform proposal failed to pass a critical procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate.