Mike Honda: “As a member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, I would like to thank our chairman, Mr. Wolf, Chairman…”

“As a member of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, I would like to thank our chairman, Mr. Wolf, Chairman Aderholt and my friend, Judge Carter, for speaking on this important issue today. The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, SCAAP, is a bipartisan issue and a bipartisan effort to address it. California jurisdictions already receive 10 percent of the total cost of reimbursement because of the drastic cuts this program has received over the past few years. The recent funding solicitation change that would stop reimbursements for all ``unknowns'' by the Department of Justice has the potential to worsen the situation. It will devastate county budgets at a time when they are already feeling the pinch of State and Federal cuts. As a former member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, I know firsthand how terrible the impact of this change will be on our counties. It is undisputed that the vast majority of the undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. are unknown to the Federal Government. Therefore, the unilateral decision by DOJ to only provide SCAAP funds for those criminal undocumented that are known to the Federal Government is deeply troubling and is a back-door attempt to kill the SCAAP program. As my friend, Judge Carter, has noted, counties in particular will be hit by this change the hardest because of the inability for ICE agents to be present at all times to process unknowns in county jails.…”