Mexico Prison Deal Is Linked to NAFTA Votes

As they search for votes for the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement, Administration officials have accelerated efforts to strike a deal with Mexico that would permit the deportation of thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants serving U.S. prison terms.

“We believe we’re well on our way toward an agreement,” said a senior White House official. The Justice Department has been actively negotiating with the Mexican government over the issue in the last week.

But it remains unclear whether the Administration’s efforts will be enough to placate angry officials in California and other states who complain that the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants has become burdensome for state taxpayers. Nor is it clear whether the Administration’s efforts have been enough to sway several members of Congress who have tied the issue to their support for the proposed trade agreement with Mexico and Canada--an initiative on which Clinton badly needs every possible vote.

At least two California congressmen, Democrat Gary A. Condit of Ceres and Republican Jay C. Kim of Diamond Bar, have publicly linked the two issues and several others have raised the question in talks with Administration officials.

The proposal was greeted warmly in Orange County, where jail resources are so overcrowded that a federal court limits the population of the men’s jail.

Hard numbers of exactly how many of those in the county system are undocumented are difficult to come by.

In September, Diego Ruiz, district director for Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), estimated that about a third of the Orange County Jail population, which includes both those awaiting trial and those serving sentences, are illegal immigrants.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates told county supervisors last year that among the inmates housed in county jails are between 100 and 200 illegal immigrants awaiting extradition by the federal government.

A yearlong study conducted by Superior Court Judge David O. Carter in 1989--considered a landmark survey--found that 35% of the 2,366 probation violators who passed through his Orange County courtroom were what he termed “illegal immigrant felons.”

Carter, who has testified on the subject before legislators in Sacramento and Washington, hailed the Clinton proposal, saying it could result in “significant cost savings” to the county’s taxpayers.

More important, he said, the proposal would greatly reduce the caseload of probation officers supervising those on probation and parole.

“By doing that, you could materially increase the security of the people of Orange County,” he said.

However, Carter cautioned that the proposal would work best if it excluded those convicted of the most serious felonies, like murder or rape, because serving time for those offenses in Mexican jails might be preferable to American prisons for felons.

The larger number of people convicted of small-scale drug-dealing would be better candidates, Carter said, as long as the federal government agreed to prosecute any of those deported who tried to return later.

Clinton has pressed the matter at several meetings with senior Administration aides and he discussed it last week with Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, according to officials familiar with the meetings. Associate Atty. Gen. Webster Hubbell, a close friend of Clinton, has been overseeing the department’s efforts on the issue, officials said.

Administration officials are considering a proposal that would allow states to return at least some prisoners to Mexico against their will. The law now allows only voluntary repatriations and almost no illegal immigrants ever volunteer.

So far, the U.S.-Mexican negotiations have focused on a pilot program in which first offenders with good prospects for rehabilitation could be returned to half-way houses or similar programs in Mexico after serving a part of their sentences here. It is unclear, however, whether such programs exist in Mexico that would meet U.S. standards.

Members of Congress have pushed for a broader program under which nearly all illegal Mexican immigrants convicted of crimes would be sent to Mexico to serve sentences there.

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Under that proposal, the United States would continue to pay the costs of incarceration but would save substantial sums because imprisonment is far less expensive in Mexico than in the United States. Officials estimate that a year in an American prison costs $15,000.

Administration officials, after initially resisting, are considering that option but several potential problems could prevent it from going further. First, adopting a mandatory repatriation plan would require a new treaty with Mexico--something that would not be needed to implement the pilot rehabilitation program. Even if Mexico agreed to the idea, a treaty could not be completed for months, officials said.

A program to send nonviolent, short-term first offenders to rehabilitation programs in Mexico could be done under existing treaties and agreements, according to Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern, who added that even a limited program could involve thousands of prisoners.

In addition to the treaty delay, a mandatory return program might raise constitutional problems, both under the 8th Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment, and under the 14th Amendment’s requirement of equal protection under the law, officials said.

Although federal immigration authorities have the power to deport illegal immigrants--and deported 18,375 criminal immigrants last year--people who have been convicted of crimes must now serve their sentences in the United States before deportation. Moreover, state and local officials, who have custody of most prisoners in the country, do not always notify the federal government of a prisoner’s immigration status.

The burden of paying to imprison illegal immigrants convicted of crimes has become an increasingly controversial issue in several states, particularly California. According to federal officials, at least 10% of all California prisoners are illegal immigrants--the majority from Mexico. New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois also have large numbers of illegal immigrants in custody, although far fewer than California.

The National Institute of Corrections reported in 1992 that 10,575 illegal immigrants were housed in California state prisons. Gov. Pete Wilson, counting a wider universe that includes local jails and youth offender programs, puts the number at more than 16,000 and says that the annual cost to the state of incarcerating illegal immigrants is more than $490 million.

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Times Staff Writer Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this story.