Response to ‘U.S. Funding for Jailing Illegal Immigrants Falls Far Short of Cost

I have attached a link to an article that appears in today’s Los Angeles Times and deals with the huge impact that the cost of incarcerating criminal aliens is having on the economy of the state of California.

Here are a couple of things to consider- First of all, we often hear the ludicrous arguments that illegal aliens are simply “law abiding” members of our communities who simply want to take the “Jobs Americans won’t do.”

I have often stated that when an alien who runs our nation’s borders he (she) circumvents the inspections process that is supposed to afford the inspectors of CBP (Customs and Border Protection) the opportunity to prevent the entry of aliens into our country whose presence would potentially do harm to our nation and our citizens. The inspection process is not a mere formality but represents a major component of a system that, when it works properly, provides a serious layer of security for our nation. Therefore an alien who enters our country without being inspected by a CBP inspector is not the equivalent of a motorist who fails to pay a toll before crossing a bridge, but is rather, the equivalent of a burglar who crawls into a home in the dead of night by surreptitiously opening a back door or window to the house he seeks to enter without attracting the attention of the homeowner.

While it is true that many illegal aliens who run our nation’s borders are simply seeking to work in violation of our laws, an illegal act in itself, many of these aliens commit other crimes in furtherance of their desire to secure illegal employment such as evading taxes, stealing identities (identity theft has been identified as being the fastest growing “white collar” crime in the United States today.

In taking these jobs these illegal aliens may well be depriving United States citizens and resident aliens the jobs they are desperate to take, especially as the unemployment rate continues to climb.

However, not all illegal aliens are simply seeking to work illegally. Many illegal aliens are involved in serious criminal activities- a fact often denied by the open borders advocates. This newspaper article makes it clear that there are thousands of criminal aliens who are incarcerated and costing our nation including local and state government’s huge sums of money to prosecute them and then incarcerate them.

This article is focused purely on the cost of incarceration. No mention was made of the harm done to the victims of the crimes that these criminal aliens commit. There was no mention of the loss of property or damage to property that additionally encumbers the budgets of the federal, state and local governments as well as companies and individuals. This also ignores the impact that occurs when members of the workforce are injured or killed by criminal aliens. Hospital bills run up by victims of violent crimes and loss of productivity of the victims of crimes also exact a financial toll and often have profound emotional as well as physical impacts on the victims of these crimes who will never be the same after those attacks.

Another issue to consider is concisely summed up by the statement in the article:

“Although the county does not know exactly how many undocumented immigrants are in its jails, McCorkle said about 3,300 inmates identify themselves as foreign-born.”

The point is that when an alien runs our nation’s border and circumvents the inspections process, that alien’s arrival and presence in our country goes unnoticed and is not recorded. No fingerprints are taken and thus if such an illegal alien is arrested and claims to be a United States citizen, it is entirely possible that the police or prison officials will not be able to determine that the criminal in custody is an alien and thus such an alien making that false claim to United States citizenship may well get away with it and upon the completion of his prison sentence following his conviction for a felony, may well be released back into the community where he committed his crime(s) that landed him in jail.

This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that employees of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) are no longer required to successfully complete a Spanish language training program or any other foreign language training program.

When I entered on duty with the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) inept and hobbled as that agency was, at least all of our officers including agents, inspectors and deportation officers were absolutely mandated to successfully complete a Spanish language training program. If an employee could not meet minimum standards in his (her) Spanish language training program, that employee was terminated. Part of the training involved ways of breaking false claims to United States citizenship by teaching idioms and unusual terminology that were typically used by residents of various countries and in Puerto Rico. (Often Spanish speaking illegal aliens falsely claim to have been born in Puerto Rico.)

Without this critical training, the likelihood is far greater that Spanish speaking illegal aliens will succeed in “getting over” with their false claims to United States citizenship.

The more that criminals get away with making false statements, the more it encourages still more criminal aliens to use this tactic to evade detection by ICE and, in so doing, avoid the specter of deportation.

I have, when I have testified before a number of Congressional hearings, raised the issue of the failure to provide foreign language training for employees of ICE and CBP who, by the nature of their daily duties are highly likely to come into contact with foreign nationals who do not speak English or, may speak English but use their foreign language skills as a way of defeating efforts those federal agents who are charged with investigating and arresting these aliens. Thus far this critical issue is being ignored- further hampering our federal agents whose job brings them into contact with aliens who don’t speak English as a matter of routine.

Another point worth making is the fact that not all criminal aliens are “undocumented” but were actually lawfully admitted into our country and given resident alien status and signified by the “Green Cards” they were issued. Their convictions for felonies, however, stripped them of their lawful immigrant status and subject them to deportation (removal) from the United States. This is why the term “Undocumented Alien” is often misleading and factually inaccurate.

The news article makes the claim that one billion dollars in costs are not reimbursed by the federal government to pay for the incarceration of the criminal aliens who were identified as being in the prisons of California. My question is how much more money is spent on the prosecution and incarceration of criminal aliens who succeeded in concealing the fact that they are, in fact, aliens and are falsely considered to be United States citizens?

The next time you hear a member of the administration or some politician claim that it would be too costly to secure our nation’s borders and enforce our immigration laws I want you to think about this article and my commentary about the huge economic impact of our nation’s ongoing failures to secure its borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job. Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the outrageous betrayal that this would represent given the national security implications that this program would have, should be shown the door at the next election!

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same.

Later this year, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. Later this year more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!

However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians. I implore you to get involved!

Any American who has lost his job certainly has enough time on his (her) hands to get involved!

Any American who fears the loss of his job must make effective use of his spare time to make certain he keeps his job! (Remember, the job save may be your own!)

If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!

You need to politely but pointedly, demand to know what they are doing to protect our nation. You need to ask them how they are protecting you and your families. You can also forward this commentary to them and ask them to watch the 60 Minutes report that served as the basis for my commentary.

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated; this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

U.S. funding for jailing illegal immigrants falls far short of costs By Anna Gorman

California is expected to get $90 million this year, but the state spends about $1 billion annually. L.A. County says it gets pennies on the dollar for its expenditures.

Michael Cutler, a former Senior INS Investigator, an expert witness in more than a dozen Congressional Hearings is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and an advisor to the ‘911 Families for a Secure America.’ He writes about the nexus between immigration and national security.