Jailed immigrants cost county $50M

Maricopa County has paid more than $50 million in the last seven years to jail illegal immigrant inmates as federal reimbursements have dwindled.

Illegal immigrants make up at least 8 percent of inmates in the county’s five jails, statistics show.

Some of those are released into the community, some end up in state prison. But most are deported to Nogales, Mexico, after — or sometimes before — their court proceedings.

"We are telling people — ‘You better behave better than Mother Teresa, because if you go to county jail you’re going to end up in Nogales,’ " said immigrant advocate Elias Bermudez, director of Centro de Ayuda in Phoenix.

While in county jail, illegal immigrants cost the county about $47 a day, slightly less than the $53.44 for state prisoners, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The county, which has the third largest jail system in the United States, has housed an average 720 illegal immigrants each day in recent months out of its total inmate population of more than 9,000, he said.

Arpaio said the federal government’s failure to pay back fully the cost of housing illegal immigrant inmates was a "slap in the face" to taxpayers.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office records show the county has received less money from the federal State Criminal Alien Assistance Program while the number of inmates has grown over the years. Reimbursements since 1998 ranged from a high of $5.5 million in 2002 to a low of $922,938 in 2004.

"It’s going to disappear," Arpaio said of the program’s funds.

Arpaio’s complaint comes a month after Gov. Janet Napolitano sent a bill for $118 million to the federal program, which refused to pay it.

The program, which repays Arizona less than 10 percent of the cost of housing state inmates, has done better by the county, paying about 30 percent of those costs for the jails since 1998.

On Tuesday, the county jail population included 694 inmates tagged by federal authorities as immigration "holds," records show.

Of those, 26 percent had been charged with "serious or violent" felonies like murder, rape or robbery, with the rest charged with minor drug offenses, forgery, criminal damage or other less serious crimes. Some are serving minor sentences in the jails, but most are awaiting trial or sentencing.

When Valley law enforcement officers book a noncitizen into jail, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is notified electronically.

The information first goes to an ICE support center in Williston, Vt. There, ICE special agents search eight large databases to figure out the person’s immigration status, said Michael Gilhooly of the support center. The Williston center receives about 670,000 such inquiries each year, he said.

If agents decide the immigrant threatens public safety or has outstanding criminal warrants, the center places an immediate immigration hold on that person, Gilhooly said.

The hold status means the person can leave jail only in the custody of an immigration agent.

Local ICE officials then place additional holds on other inmates eligible for deportation, including greencard holders or other immigrants charged with certain crimes. The Phoenix ICE bureau removes between 30 and 50 people from Maricopa County jails every weekday.

Russell Ahr, spokesman for the Phoenix ICE office, said Friday that many illegal immigrants avoid prosecution because they make bail and are subsequently deported by ICE.