Wilson Urges U.S. to Renegotiate Jail Transfer Pacts : Law enforcement: Governor says illegal immigrant inmates should not have a say in whether they are deported to serve out terms in their homelands. Comments alarm civil rights advocates.

Citing “exploding” costs of incarcerating illegal immigrant criminals, Gov. Pete Wilson called on U.S. authorities Wednesday to renegotiate treaties with Mexico and other nations so that thousands of California inmates could complete prison terms in their homelands.

The governor, unveiling a new state report on the issue, specifically called for the removal of requirements that inmates give consent before being sent home to complete their prison terms.

“The criminals should not have any say in the matter,” Wilson said during a news conference at the Department of Corrections’ regional headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. “It seems to me they have forfeited their right.”

Besides advocating renegotiation of the prisoner-transfer treaties, Wilson reiterated demands that the federal government be more aggressive in expelling deportable felons and in prosecuting criminals who return to the United States illegally after being deported. Deportees who re-enter the United States can face up to 15 years in federal prison if caught and convicted, but state authorities said they are seldom prosecuted.

“When the federal government fails to protect our borders, it also fails to protect our citizens,” said Wilson, who spoke in front of posters of a dozen wanted parole violators--all Latin American immigrants who allegedly returned to California after being deported for criminal acts.

The comments by Wilson, considered a potential presidential candidate in 1996, represent the latest thrusts in his ongoing offensive against Washington on the issue of illegal immigration. The Clinton Administration has responded by bolstering border enforcement, cracking down on asylum and visa abuse and pledging to increase the number of felons deported. The White House has also vowed to increase reimbursements to California and other states for the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants.

A Clinton Administration official dismissed Wilson’s broadsides as political posturing. “This is all becoming a part of a familiar pattern of rhetoric versus our real record on immigration issues,” the official said.

Wilson said that California taxpayers will spend about $400 million this year to house almost 20,000 illegal immigrant felons in state prisons, about 15% of the total prison population. Most illegal immigrant prisoners are from Mexico.

Immigrant advocates have called those estimates high, contending that prison officials often mistakenly consider all foreign-born inmates to be illegal immigrants. In fact, said Silvia Argueta, staff attorney for the AFL-CIO, many of the foreign-born prisoners are legal permanent residents and even U.S. citizens.

“It helps Pete Wilson’s political campaign if people think there are more undocumented people in jail than there really are,” said Argueta, who has worked on prisoner rights issues.

Civil rights advocates also expressed alarm at Wilson’s suggestion that prisoner-transfer treaties--such as the 1976 accord between the United States and Mexico--be renegotiated to make transfers mandatory. Under current treaty terms, prisoners cannot be sent back to their homelands to complete sentences without their consent and the approval of both nations involved.

Such guarantees are vital, supporters say, so that prisoners not be compelled to submit themselves to legal and penal systems lacking due process and guarantees of fair treatment.

“We, as Americans, have no control over conditions in other foreign countries, so you have to be sure that individuals who agree to be transferred are doing so voluntarily,” said Vibiana Andrade, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Renegotiating treaties is a cumbersome procedure that requires approval by Washington and by the other nations involved. Mexican officials have said their overtaxed prison system could not handle a huge, sudden influx of U.S. prisoners.

There has even been some talk of a joint U.S.-Mexico prison to be constructed in Baja California, but the idea has not advanced beyond the discussion stages.

Prisoner-transfer treaties allow U.S. citizens sentenced for crimes abroad, or foreigners sentenced in the United States, to complete the balance of their prison terms in their own countries.

The 1976 U.S.-Mexico treaty on prisoner exchanges came about not because of concern about incarceration costs. Instead, the impetus was a preoccupation in the United States about treatment of U.S. citizens being held in Mexican jails, often for drug offenses. The accord became a model for subsequent transfer treaties with other nations.

Nonetheless, relatively few foreigners being held in California prisons are willing to transfer to their homelands, according to the state report released Wednesday. Only 187 California prisoners requested such transfers between January, 1989, and June 30, 1994, the report stated.