Wilson Steps Up Pressure for Inmate Funds : Government: He threatens to escort an illegal immigrant prisoner to an INS facility unless U.S. releases money for reimbursement of state costs.

Gov. Pete Wilson tried to embarrass President Clinton on Wednesday, warning that if the federal government does not pay California for incarcerating illegal immigrant criminals he would deposit a shackled inmate on the doorstep of a federal jail in the next few weeks.

Wilson aides said the governor may do the job personally, seeking maximum media coverage of his symbolic escort of a prisoner in state custody to the holding facilities of a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service office.

If the inmate is turned away, Wilson aides said, the prisoner would be returned to state authorities and the governor would consider legal action against the federal government. Officials said the lawsuit would seek reimbursement of about $400 million that the state estimates it spends annually to incarcerate more than 16,000 illegal immigrant prisoners.

California has about 140,000 prisoners in custody at an annual cost to the state of about $21,885 each.

“The intent of federal law is unequivocal,” Wilson wrote Wednesday in a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. “The federal government must either reimburse the state at a fair rate for the incarceration of any undocumented inmate which it identifies or . . . take the burden of incarceration off the state’s hands.

“As a show of good faith on your part, I request that the federal government take custody of an undocumented inmate within the next few weeks whom we plan to transport to an INS holding facility,” he added.

Wilson’s demonstration opens another front on the governor’s attempt to pick a fight with the Clinton White House.

Wilson already lost a federal court decision on a suit he filed seeking reimbursement for the state’s cost of providing services to illegal immigrants, including incarceration of prisoners, education and health care. The ruling is on appeal.

And on other issues--such as education, welfare, voter registration and affirmative action--he has challenged federal rules.

Last spring, Wilson appealed to sympathetic House Republicans for money to help pay the state’s cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants. Congress subsequently passed an amendment that included about $280 million for California, about $120 million short of the state’s estimated need.

Earlier this month, Clinton vetoed a $27.3-billion appropriations bill that included the state reimbursement for illegal immigrant inmates. White House officials said the appropriations bill for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State was almost $4 billion less than Clinton requested and it ordered deep cuts in programs he favors, including U.N. peacekeeping missions.

House officials said the bill is expected to be resubmitted to the White House with the state reimbursement.

A Wilson press release Wednesday said the governor was outraged that Clinton vetoed the funding and insisted that Reno’s office respond by scheduling a negotiation with California representatives.

White House and Justice Department officials were unavailable to comment on Wilson’s statement.

In his letter to Reno, Wilson included a list identifying 16,030 illegal immigrants currently serving time in California prisons. He said authorities estimate the total illegal alien population is more than 20,000, large enough to fill nine new prisons.