This immigration bill makes sense for state
Monday, April 07, 2008
Palm Beach Post Editorial
At least a half-dozen bills on immigration are being circulated in Legislature. All except one are examples of political grandstanding that would force the state to take on responsibilities that rightly belong to the federal government.
The one good bill is a proposal that could save taxpayers millions by allowing the deportation of illegal immigrants in Florida’s prisons. Cosponsored by Sens. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, Senate Bill 1086 would require state prison officials to work with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport illegal immigrants who had served at least half of their sentences. The offenders would have to agree to be deported, and their home countries would have to agree to take them.
Former Gov. Lawton Chiles did something similar in 1994 when he worked with federal authorities to send hundreds of illegal immigrants - most of them convicted on drug charges and nonviolent offenses - from prisons in Florida to their homelands. Cubans were exempted because the United States has no formal diplomatic relations with the Castro government.
About 5,000 illegal immigrants are believed to be in Florida prisons, representing about 6 percent of the inmate population. About 61 percent of the illegals were convicted of violent crimes. Cuban nationals still make up the largest percentage of those incarcerated, followed by Mexicans and Jamaicans.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections, it costs the state about $20,000 annually to incarcerate an inmate, so the potential savings in a tight budget year could be substantial. New York saved about $150 million last year with a similar measure, and Arizona also has freed up prison cells through deportation.
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the legislation last week. The bill could come up for discussion in the House this week. Unlike the other immigration bills in the Legislature, the prisoner deportation measure does not encroach into federal enforcement responsibilities and put more burdens on the state. Even most immigrant advocates and defense lawyers have no objections because inmates would have to accept deportation voluntarily. Many of them are more than ready to leave the country, and it makes no sense for the state to pay to keep them here.
