Money Grab on Prisoners

Washington still doesn’t get it. When the feds fail to control the border, state taxpayers pay. That’s why a proposal to reduce federal reimbursement for the cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants in state prisons and county jails is punitive and unfair.

The money grab was made by Sen. Judd Gregg, a Republican from New Hampshire, a state so small that it has a single area code and only 2,254 inmates in the state prison system. Gregg had nothing to lose when he went after $550 million in the Justice Department budget that was intended to fund the so-called criminal alien assistance program.

California stands to lose plenty. The state’s current reimbursement is more than $180 million a year, and that covers only one-third of the cost of incarcerating more than 22,000 illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes in the United States. California’s county jails get a separate $60 million, $20 million of which goes to Los Angeles County. In fairness, both the state prison system and the county jails should be getting much more from Congress, not much less.

What happened? When Gov. Gray Davis went to Washington shortly after he took office, he lobbied the White House and Congress for an increase in these funds. Now, he is fighting to eliminate the cut proposed by Gregg, who chairs the Senate appropriations subcommittee.

Davis is not alone in this battle, first fought and partially won by his predecessor, Pete Wilson. The governors of Texas, Washington, New York and Florida are protesting because their states also have large illegal immigrant prison populations.

Politics could play a decisive role in whether this injustice is reversed. California, home to 54 electoral votes and an important March primary, is counting on help from the front-runners for the Democratic and Republican nominations. Vice President Al Gore was campaigning in San Francisco when the governor reminded him of the importance of these funds to the state. Texas Gov. George W. Bush needs no reminding. He knows firsthand about the growing financial burden of illegal immigrants on his state prison system.

The proposed $550-million cut is not a done deal in Congress. When the House takes up the federal budget for the Justice Department, a united California delegation, Democrats and Republicans together, can go far toward restoring the funds.