Obama SCAAP Cut Closes Jails,Frees Criminals
One of programs that President Obama wants to end is the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program(SCAAP). Cutting this program could potentially release thousands of illegal alien criminals on the streets of America.
The SCAAP program reimburses states and localities for a portion of the cost of incarcerating illegal aliens who have committed crimes. These aliens are incarcerated for local crimes not because of criminal violations of the U.S. Code or immigration status. In fiscal year 2008 the State of Texas received $18,074,866.00 in reimbursement for this program. The Hidalgo County jail received $474,146.00 which placed it at just behind Harris and Dallas Counties in reimbursement for the incarceration of illegal aliens. South Texas may have to choose between suddenly being flooded with illegal aliens who have committed crimes or cutting costs at the jail.
The Obama administration says the program needs to be cut because
Reimbursements do not reduce the incidence of crime committed by criminal aliens. The program lacks goals and cannot measure such an outcome
The immigration status of many suspected aliens cannot be verified. Neither states and localities nor the Federal government can easily determine the citizenship or immigration status of suspected aliens.
Payments made for inmates of unknown nationality create a risk of overpayment to States and localities for costs that are legally ineligible for reimbursements
Cutting this program could result in putting on the street thousands of criminals who would have remained in jail if the program remained in place.
There has been much attention lately to tragedies involving criminal illegal aliens who have been involved in a crime and yet still remain in the United States. Many critics have pointed fingers at state and local governments rather than the Federal government. However, investigations into the facts reveals that more often than not the Federal government was not taking custody of these illegal aliens because there was no housing available.
In 2004, the Inspector General’s Office Report of January 2007 reported that 262,105 illegal aliens were incarcerated in the United States. Out of that group nearly 73 percent would be arrested again with a six time average rate of re-arrest. SCAAP from the Federal government assists state and local governments which were spending about 287 million dollars a year as recently as 2004. SCAAP provides federal payments to states and localities that incurred correctional officer salary costs for incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens who have at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions for violations of state or local law, and who are incarcerated for at least 4 consecutive days during the reporting period. Currently SCAAP does not reimburse local jails for the detentions of illegal aliens charged and pending trial but not yet convicted.
The report mentioned above found that between 2001 and 2004 about 8 percent of criminal illegal aliens were released by local authorities who should have been put in federal custody. Most critically the report noted that the majority of those released from local jails or state prisons was not because the local agency had a lack of resources.
The DHS Inspector General went on to state, “additionally, DRO’s (DRO stands for detention and removal operations) ability to detain and remove illegal aliens with final orders of removal is impacted by:
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the propensity of illegal aliens to disobey orders to appear in immigration court
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the penchant of released illegal aliens with final orders to abscond
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the practice of some countries to block or inhibit the repatriation of its citizens
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two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions which mandate the release of criminal and other high-risk aliens 180 days after the issuance of the final removal order except in ‘Special Circumstances.’
Collectively, the bed space, personnel and funding shortages coupled with the other factors, has created an unofficial ‘mini-amnesty’ program for criminal and other high-risk aliens. It is estimated that DRO would need an additional 34,653 detention beds, at an estimated cost of $1.1 billion, to detain and remove [them]”
Thus the real problem to this issue is not that local and state communities are not enforcing the law but that the Federal government has no place to put them up to now. This is the same issue that was brought up by a guest writer for Contempo Magazine, Darryl Rambo, a retired Border Patrolman of 20 years service , and author of A Life on the Line, who said the real issue with illegal aliens was housing.
Local jails and prisons may not like to house Federal prisoners because this makes them come under another more stricter sets of rules and regulations. In addition most correction facilities receive a fixed per diem funding from the state for their population which does not include Federal prisoners who have completed their local or state sentences. Clearly these criminals need to go to Federal detentions facilities before they are released back into society after completing their sentence.
Repatriation of criminal aliens is not a speedy process. False identity and false claims of country of origin are very common and hard to verify. Most countries are not anxious to have a criminal returned. There is no international database available for identifying many of these individuals. Mexico’s southern border is more porous than the northern border so thousands of illegal Central and South Americans transit through Mexico before entering the United States. Many times no legal documents exist proving they are a citizen of any country. Cutting this program would release the aliens of unknown country of origin back into the population.
Law enforcement officials are concerned that the Obama proposal would force local law enforcement rather than the Federal government to determine if criminals were aliens or not and if so from what country. The Obama plan is calling for requiring States and localities to report claimed nationality reimbursement to help screen potential ineligible costs and conducting a program evaluation for a sampling of states to examine the accuracy of cost data submitted and the uses of these reimbursements.
There is no easy answer to this problem. Certainly illegal aliens who commit heinous crimes should receive the full punishment available under the law. Many fear that too rapid a deportation without full investigation of illegal aliens will allow them to escape prosecution for other crimes they may have committed . Amnesty International in 2007 declared that the Mexican justice system was so severely flawed that “criminals are rarely punished”. Therefore potentially dangerous criminals unfortunately are best tried and incarcerated in the United States if we want to make sure they are off the street.
At the same time, illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes should not be allowed to be released back into the general population upon fulfillment of their sentence. Unfortunately, due to difficulties in identifying their true country of origin or in getting that country to accept them they will have to be put in a detention facility until they can be deported. This will require significant funding and cost the American taxpayer.
This program was deemed to be very important by many border state Congressional representatives and Senators. A 2005 Government Accountability Office study that found local governments get only 25 percent of their costs reimbursed through the program. The SCAAP Reimbursement Protection Act of 2009 (S.168) would have for the first time reimburse states and localities for the costs of incarcerating criminal aliens either charged with, or convicted of, one felony or two misdemeanors.
These legislators wanted the program increased rather than scraped. The legislation was co-sponsored by Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Arlen Specter (D-PA), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.),), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
Some have found it odd that Obama while a Senator supported the program. In fact he even co-sponsored a bill with then Senator Hillary Clinton to increase spending for the program.
The program has received support from the Hispanic Caucus of the Congress. Congressman Joe Baca (D-CA), the Chairman, has said this
“Although securing the border is the responsibility of the federal government, states and localities have had to bear the costs associated with incarcerating aliens should they enter the criminal justice system.
SCAAP is a vital reimbursement program for states like California that assist in the significant cost of incarcerating criminal aliens”
Killing the SCAPP would save $400 million, according to Obama’s budget for fiscal 2010. It’s one of the largest non-defense discretionary cuts proposed in the president’s budget as reported by the website The Hill.
Border state members of Congress from both parties are urging the House Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to restore funding for the SCAAP program.
The Obama administration is making a poor choice cutting a program that is vital to safety of the public especially in the border states. Enforcement of the border and the handling of illegal aliens rightfully should come under Federal reimbursement rather than local communities. The cost that these criminals could potentially do to life and property by ending the SCAAP far exceeds $400 million.
Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Review. Follow him on twiiter http://twitter.com/contempomagazin
