When irate citizens challenge their state and local officials to come
clean on just how much it is costing us to jail criminal aliens a common
refrain is, "It's not in our mandate to determine a criminal's
legal status. That is a federal issue." Most major media organs
are accommodating of this position and claim that hard numbers on this
issue are "difficult to determine."
However, when federal taxpayer-financed subsidies become available, the
magic of "free money" fills the air. Formerly incapable local
prison bureaucrats suddenly gain the ability to reliably identify the numbers and
costs of criminal aliens in their systems.
This magic has been provided for several years now by the State
Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) administered under the
U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau
of Justice Assistance. The program was originally created to assist
border states (rather than, as the name might imply, criminal aliens) with
the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants who went on to violate
local laws against drug running, theft, assault, murder, etc.
As anyone who has studied the nature of government could have guessed,
the SCAAP program has expanded across the nation right along with waves
of illegal immigrants. This is in spite of being designated
in 2003 by the White House's Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) ExpectMore.gov program as a non-performing program that should
be terminated.
Apparently, someone in the OMB discovered that it was too easy for state
and local governments to cheat on their numbers since,
"Neither states and localities nor the Federal government can
easily determine the citizenship or immigration status of suspected
aliens."
Remember now, this is coming to you from the same federal government
that is claims to be protecting us from known terrorists. (Note: Since
no one seems to be listening to the ExpectMore.gov people, we should
wonder how they rate themselves.)
The SCAAP program is quite simple: Fill out some Federal forms listing
your total costs associated with incarcerating those you have identified
as likely criminal aliens in your jail system. (If you need help, there
are plenty
of consultants willing to help you along for a cut of the take.) File
your results. Get money from the Congressionally established criminal
alien assistance kitty based on your percentage of the total claims submitted.
In fiscal 2005, 758 participating state, county and city jails divied
up almost a $300 million dollar pot. In 2006 the pot expanded to over
$400 million dollars. Some states like North Carolina doubled their
year-on-year take to over $4 million dollars. Select counties did even
better. Forsyth County, North Carolina jumped up from raking in a paltry
in $69,000 in 2005 to over $264,000 in 2006. Was this a crime wave of
illegals, or just more accurate accounting? Local taxpayers and journalists should
be asking their sheriff.
Certainly, the federal paperwork on this type of program should be
accessible to the public. To generate further interest, local citizens should keep
in mind that the SCAAP payments from the federal government cover only
a portion of the costs incurred by all the participating local
jurisdictions.
Wouldn't you and your neighbors like to know what your local jailer
submitted to the federal government as the total cost criminal aliens
were costing you? You can start your citizen investigation process by
checking the federal awards for 2005
and 2006
(These are listed in alphabetical order by state zip code.)
After you get done with your local law enforcement officials, you can
organize with fellow citizens you meet along the way to start asking
your local school boards to report on the growth in costs of their English
as a second language program in your public school systems. It's
a great way to become a notable figure in your local town.
Addendum:
A recent addition to the SCAAP
homepage includes this notification:
NEW! Use of SCAAP Awards:
The Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-162,
Title XI) included the following requirement regarding the use of
SCAAP funds: "Amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization
of appropriations in paragraph (5) that are distributed to a State
or political subdivision of a State, including a municipality, may
be used only for correctional purposes." Beginning with
FY 2007 SCAAP awards, SCAAP funds must be used for correctional purposes
only. Jurisdictions receiving SCAAP awards will be asked
to report the projected use of these funds at the time the award is
accepted.
We imagine the 2005 act mentioned in the announcement is in lieu
of terminating the program as recommended
by the OMB. How about that though? Local sheriff and police
departments take subsidies from the federal government and the Feds
start requiring they report what they are going to do with the money. Like
the ICE
program that federalizes local law enforcement personal
to help catch illegals, the SCAAP program is also about to become another
tentacle of the central government wrapped around our formerly independent
local law enforcement agencies.
