Kendra S. Horn: “This bill suggests that an integrated approach to border management is needed. This legislation includes the improvement…”

“This bill suggests that an integrated approach to border management is needed. This legislation includes the improvement of drug interdiction, controlling illegal immigration and stopping other illegal cross-border activities in California and elsewhere. The recent election in California made one issue very clear: Taxpayers are fed up with paying for the enormous costs associated with illegal immigration. It is especially disconcerting that the incarceration of criminal aliens is running up a nationwide tab of approximately $1.2 billion annually. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports that noncitizens make up approximately 24 percent of the 91,000 total Federal prison population. The average cost per inmate in the Federal prisons is $20,803 per year. In California, the Governor estimates that we spend over $350 million a year incarcerating aliens in our State prisons. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, about 4 percent of the inmates in our State prisons are not U.S. citizens. The estimated cost to California, as I said, is several hundred million dollars.”