Perry claims Feds owe Texas $350 million for incarcerating illegal aliens

[peejay 327]

Perry claims Feds owe Texas $350 million for incarcerating illegal immigrants

By Joe Holley

Houston Chronicle Staff Writer

The man whose disdain for the federal government is a keystone of his presidential campaign billed Washington earlier this month for $349 million to cover the costs of detaining illegal immigrants.

In an Aug. 10 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Gov. Rick Perry blamed the federal government for failing to secure the border and burdening county jails and state prisons with the costs associated with housing illegal immigrants.

“Therefore, on behalf of all the taxpaying citizens of Texas, I am respectfully submitting a reimbursement request in the amount of $349,283,453 for state and local costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants who are in the United States as a result of the federal government’s failure to properly secure our international borders,” Perry wrote.

Perry, who contends that Texas border communities are under siege from spillover drug violence and illegal immigration, declared his presidential candidacy three days after he wrote the letter.

He included in the letter the formula his office used to determine the costs and included a memo from state Comptroller Susan Combs supporting his figures.

“Your staff has used conservative estimates in arriving at that amount; the actual costs are much higher,” Combs wrote.

The total cost to Texas counties, Perry claims in the letter, was $94.4 million for fiscal 2009-10. He also includes more than $254.8 million in costs to the state to incarcerate illegal immigrants in Texas prisons.

In the letter Perry mentions the Justice Department’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, noting that “SCAAP does not begin to compensate the entirety of Texas’ financial burden.”

Established in 1994, the program was set to be eliminated earlier this year amid federal budget cuts, but an amendment sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, led to an Appropriations Committee decision to restore $136 million in funding.

Perry told Napolitano that during the past several years, Texas has spent more than $400 million for border security, including new technology, improved communications equipment, law enforcement personnel and other items.

Perry spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said the governor hadn’t received an official response from Napolitano.

http://www.chron.com/#

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Old story for the border governors:

Illegal Immigration Costs California Over Ten Billion Annually

State's "cheap labor" costs average household $1,183 a year

Dateline: December, 2004

In hosting America's largest population of illegal immigrants, California bears a huge cost to provide basic human services for this fast growing, low-income segment of its population. A new study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) examines the costs of education, health care and incarceration of illegal aliens, and concludes that the costs to Californians is $10.5 billion per year.

Among the key finding of the report are that the state's already struggling K-12 education system spends approximately $7.7 billion a year to school the children of illegal aliens who now constitute 15 percent of the student body. Another $1.4 billion of the taxpayers' money goes toward providing health care to illegal aliens and their families, the same amount that is spent incarcerating illegal aliens criminals.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/immigrationnaturalizatio/a/caillegals.htm

Edited August 28, 2011 by Crusty Old Perv

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The federal teat aka the stimulus is drying up. Perry sees his house of cards come crashing down as the budget they just passed will result in less government employment. You see, recent growth in government employment in TX being the only thing that kept TX from shedding net jobs from 2007 - 2011.

[luckytxn 2,263]

Sic em Perry.

[mawilson 2,133]

The man whose disdain for the federal government is a keystone of his presidential campaign billed Washington earlier this month for $349 million to cover the costs of detaining illegal immigrants.

I like it.

Edited August 28, 2011 by mawilson

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

This coming from a man that signed a bill to allow illegals into universities and who was against any type of border wall.

Sorry, sounds like another illegal supporter.

[luckytxn 2,263]

This coming from a man that signed a bill to allow illegals into universities and who was against any type of border wall.

Sorry, sounds like another illegal supporter.

He is.

[Danno 1,228]

This coming from a man that signed a bill to allow illegals into universities and who was against any type of border wall.

Sorry, sounds like another illegal supporter.

Yet Obama is wrong on this same issue and so many more too...... what's a voter to do?

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Yet Obama is wrong on this same issue and so many more too...... what's a voter to do?

Your opinion of course.

[Danno 1,228]

Your opinion of course.

Why don't you offer your opinion and give a list of "Where obama is right"?

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Why don't you offer your opinion and give a list of "Where obama is right"?

Lets see - his stance on Israel for one.

His support for the 4 trillion cut plan with tax increases

On taxes - his general tax reforms including subsidies.

His Afghan policy of a Bush-like surge. (I would not have announced a troop draw down mind you.)

[scandal 951]

Lets see - his stance on Israel for one.

His support for the 4 trillion cut plan with tax increases

On taxes - his general tax reforms including subsidies.

His Afghan policy of a Bush-like surge. (I would not have announced a troop draw down mind you.)

- He is relentlessly pursuing al Qaida, and under his leadership we got bin Ladin and now Atiyah Abd al-Rahman.

- With no US losses, we undertook a policy of limited US support for the international NATO effort to successfully oust Khadaffi.

- He reversed Bush's executive order on embryonic stem cell research. We now have a policy in place that may lead to untold lives saved due to new medicines and therapies.

- The stimulus spending when he took office in 2009 tapered off the massive monthly hemorrhaging of jobs in Jan, Feb, March of that year, and accelerated the economic recovery. People will scoff at this but it is a fact that we have a much lower unemployment rate than we would have had otherwise.

- Along with Bush, he saved the auto industry in America by extending help to GM and Chrysler.

- He has brought in a plan to provide health insurance to millions of Americans who never had it. The plan is imperfect and highly criticized from all sides but it remains a vast improvement over the shameful state of tens of millions of uninsured Americans we've had till now.

- He's made genuine efforts to change the tone in Washington and to seek bipartisan solutions. While he's underestimated the entrenched inertia of the partisan rhetoric, he truly does believe in solving problems with Congressional leaders.