Perry bill Feds for cost of jailing illegal alien criminals

Houston Chronicle:

The man whose disdain for the federal government is a keystone of his presidential campaign billed Washington this month for nearly $350 million to cover the costs of detaining illegal immigrants.

In an Aug. 10 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Gov. Rick Perry blamed the federal government for failing to secure the border and burdening county jails and state prisons with the costs associated with housing illegal immigrants.

"Therefore, on behalf of all the taxpaying citizens of Texas, I am respectfully submitting a reimbursement request in the amount of $349,283,453 for state and local costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants who are in the United States as a result of the federal government's failure to properly secure our international borders," Perry wrote.

Perry, who contends that Texas border communities are under siege from spillover drug violence and illegal immigration, declared his presidential candidacy three days after he wrote the letter.

He included in the letter the formula his office used to determine the costs and included a memo from state Comptroller Susan Combs supporting his figures.

"Your staff has used conservative estimates in arriving at that amount; the actual costs are much higher," Combs wrote.

The total cost to Texas counties, Perry claims in the letter, was $94.4 million for fiscal years 2009-10. He also includes more than $254.8 million in costs to the state to incarcerate illegal immigrants in Texas prisons.

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It is a way to put pressure on the Obama administration for their policies that have not deterred illegal immigration. They have instead had policies that tend to reward illegal immigration and ignore the rule of law. Texas also passed a law to deport illegal alien criminals in its prison system, but there is little confidence that the Federal goverment will actually do the deportations.