Wilson Files New Illegal Immigrant Suit

Once again, Gov. Pete Wilson has taken the federal government to court, filing a lawsuit Tuesday that contends President Clinton is violating a law that he signed to relieve states of the burden of incarcerating illegal immigrant prisoners.

Wilson already is appealing a federal court’s rejection of a similar suit he filed seeking reimbursement of about $400 million the state estimates it spends annually to jail illegal immigrants.

This latest action is different, the governor’s aides say, because it is the nation’s first test of a 1994 law in which Democrats and Republicans endorsed the kind of relief for states that Wilson is demanding.

“The failure to comply with federal law is a further testament to the Clinton administration’s mode of operation--that words speak louder than actions,” Wilson said in a statement Tuesday. “The taxpayers of California are being forced to spend more than $400 million a year to lock up criminals who should not even be in this country in the first place.”

The law, which was part of the 1994 federal crime bill, orders the U.S. attorney general to either reimburse states for their costs to incarcerate illegal immigrants or transfer custody of the inmates to federal prisons.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno acknowledged that federal responsibility in a letter she wrote to Wilson last January. But she pointed the finger back at the Republican-controlled Congress, charging that it has not provided the necessary funds.

“You have to understand that we are obviously restricted by the resources we have available,” Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department, said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we can only give to the states that which Congress gives to us.”

As the debate indicates, the fight over illegal immigration has become a political football that is expected to become even more contentious as the two parties compete in the presidential race in California.

Neither Congress nor the White House has offered full funding for the cost to incarcerate California’s illegal immigrant prisoners. Clinton officials point out, however, that the state has received more financial relief for such costs than it has under any previous administration.

In the past year, about $63 million has been set aside for California’s illegal immigrant prisoner costs. More is expected when a $500-million allocation is to be distributed nationwide later this year.

The 1994 measure, however, has provided Wilson with a political hammer that allows him to charge that the White House still is not living up to the law. And as the governor has indicated, he plans to seek considerable attention for that point in the upcoming election.

In January, Wilson sought to demonstrate the federal government’s position by confronting U.S. authorities at a remote California detention facility and insisting in front of television cameras that they assume custody of a lone illegal immigrant prisoner.

As Wilson officials expected, the prisoner was turned away.

“Despite my letters and requests, the Clinton administration has continually refused to comply with . . . federal law,” Wilson said Tuesday. “As a result, we have no other option than to seek a federal court order instructing the Clinton administration to comply with the very federal law that it enacted.”

Wilson filed a lawsuit in April 1994--during his gubernatorial reelection--demanding reimbursement from the federal government for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrant prisoners. The suit claimed that illegal immigration in California was tantamount to an invasion that the Constitution requires the federal government to prevent.

The case was rejected by a federal district judge in San Diego in February 1995. Wilson has appealed.

In October 1994, Clinton signed the law requiring states to be reimbursed.

But Wilson Legal Affairs Secretary Daniel M. Kolkey said that law was not considered in the state’s earlier case because it required an inventory of California’s prison population to identify each individual illegal immigrant prisoner. That inventory was completed late last year.

“This case today is really entirely different,” Kolkey said. “It focuses on a single statute that was particularly designed to address the problem of incarceration of illegal immigrants.”