Political Quotes

“the amendment Mr. Berman, Mr. Condit, Mrs. Thurman, and I are offering addresses the serious burden placed on States and localities by the Federal Government's abdication of responsibility for the incarceration of criminal aliens. This amendment, which is similar to legislation I introduced earlier this year with Mr. Becerra and several other Members of the California delegation, requires the Federal Government either to take custody of illegal aliens convicted of a felony, or to reimburse State and local governments for the cost of their incarceration beginning in 1998. There are between 23,000 and 35,000 undocumented aliens incarcerated in State prisons. The States which have significant numbers of criminal aliens in their prisons--that is, over 2 percent of their prison population--include not just California, Florida, Texas, and New York, as one might expect, but also Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington. At an annual cost of $18,000 or more per prisoner, this translates to a yearly financial burden of between $420 and $615 million on the criminal justice systems of affected communities. These costs, which are increasing rapidly, are the result of the Federal Government's failure to enforce our immigration laws--a failure which has resulted in the unlawful entry into the United States of millions of illegal immigrants.”