[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 74 (Tuesday, May 6, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H3083-H3085]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 PROVIDING FOR COMPENSATION TO STATES INCARCERATING UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend 
the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1512) to amend the Immigration and 
Nationality Act to provide for compensation to States incarcerating 
undocumented aliens charged with a felony or two or more misdemeanors.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1512

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. ASSISTANCE FOR STATES INCARCERATING UNDOCUMENTED 
                   ALIENS CHARGED WITH CERTAIN CRIMES.

       Section 241(i)(3)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 
     (8 U.S.C. 1231(i)(3)(A)) is amended by inserting ``charged 
     with or'' before ``convicted''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Linda T. Sanchez) and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. 
King) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.


                             General Leave

  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous 
consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, today we act to restore the State Criminal Alien 
Assistance Program or SCAAP, to its original meaning, that which 
Congress originally intended it to have. Introduced by myself, H.R. 
1512 will help States obtain much-needed reimbursement for the costs of 
detaining deportable immigrants charged with or convicted of certain 
criminal offenses.
  SCAAP was created in 1994 to reimburse States and localities for 
arrest, incarceration and transportation costs incurred in detaining 
criminal aliens. From the program's inception until 2003, States were 
able to obtain reimbursement for the costs of detaining deportable 
illegal immigrants charged with a felony or two or more misdemeanors.
  In 2003, however, DOJ reinterpreted the SCAAP statute to require that 
a criminal alien be actually convicted of a felony or two misdemeanors. 
Moreover, the reimbursement must be requested in the year in which the 
conviction takes place, and is limited to that 1 year, regardless of 
how long the expenses are incurred.
  Not surprisingly, this novel reinterpretation, which contradicted 
Congress' clear intent, as well as DOJ's consistent interpretation, 
from 1994 to 2003, caused every State's reimbursement to fall 
dramatically.
  H.R. 1512 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to return 
SCAAP to its originally intended meaning. States and localities would 
be reimbursed for the cost of incarcerating criminal aliens who are 
either ``charged with or convicted'' of a felony or two misdemeanors 
regardless of when the incarceration and conviction occur.
  H.R. 1512 corrects the current administration's errant 
reinterpretation of the law and provides States and localities burdened 
by the costs of jailing criminal aliens the opportunity to apply for 
and receive much-needed reimbursement for the costs they bear from 
detaining deportable immigrants charged with crimes.
  The bill has broad bipartisan support and the support of many 
respected law enforcement groups.
  I would like to especially commend Zoe Lofgren, Chair of the 
Immigration subcommittee and Steve King, the Subcommittee ranking 
member, for their leadership in helping bring this bill to the floor 
today.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government under the State Criminal Alien 
Assistance Program, which we refer to as SCAAP, reimburses part of the 
expenses that States and localities incur in incarcerating illegal 
immigrants who have been convicted of a felony or of two or more 
misdemeanors. And, in fact, I would bring the Chamber's attention, Mr. 
Speaker, to a report that was issued by the GAO in April of 2005 that 
identifies that the Federal Government is reimbursing 25 percent of the 
cost of the incarceration of criminal aliens within the institutions in 
the United States. But H.R. 1512 expands the State Criminal Alien 
Assistance Program to compensate States for incarcerating illegal 
immigrants who are charged with, and not only convicted, which is under 
the current program, charged with a felony or two or more misdemeanors.
  I stand here, Mr. Speaker, and applaud the gentlelady from California 
for bringing this legislation because I think this is a constructive 
change to our policy, and the language very simply adds the words 
``charged with or'' to the existing language of compensation for those 
``convicted of.'' And it recognizes that there are significant costs 
involved in processing criminal aliens in the investigation stage, the 
arrest stage and the indictment stage. And as those costs mount and are 
incurred, we need to be sure that we take this position, that it is the 
Federal

[[Page H3084]]

Government's job to guard and protect our borders. That is not the job 
of a political subdivision. It is essentially the job of the Federal 
Government.
  When we fail to do our job, when we don't have sufficient constraints 
in place at our borders or at our airports or our ports of entry, then 
the result of it is that this burden of law enforcement falls upon the 
political subdivisions, on the States, on the cities and on the 
counties to enforce the law. And when they do, they incur these costs. 
This bill, H.R. 1512, seeks to lift off some of that burden. And it 
certainly wouldn't be all of it.
  Lamar Smith, the ranking member of the full Judiciary Committee, and 
I both believe the available statistics on criminal illegal immigrants 
in the United States leave much to be desired. There is too little data 
on illegal immigrants imprisoned in the United States. We don't really 
know how many there are or what crimes they are charged with or 
convicted of or how much time they spend in our prison systems.
  And I particularly can speak to that, since I asked for the GAO study 
that was completed in April of 2005. I thought in that study I would 
get the answers to the percentages of our inmate populations that are 
criminal aliens, what crimes they might be convicted of, and quite a 
list of things that would help us establish our policy, both law 
enforcement policy and our immigration policy.
  However, that report came back not quite apples to apples. And there 
are conclusions that can be drawn. There are also gaps to their 
knowledge base. And because of the inspiration that is brought forward, 
because of this bill of Ms. Sanchez, H.R. 1512, we engaged the 
Judiciary Committee in dialogue about how we can better gather that 
information. I am really pleased that Ms. Lofgren, the Chair of the 
Immigration Subcommittee, of which I am the ranking member, and Mr. 
Smith, the ranking member of the full Judiciary Committee, have agreed 
to send a joint request to the Government Accountability Office to 
develop additional statistics on criminal alien immigrants. I look 
forward to working with Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Smith and others on this 
particular subject matter. This is something we vitally need to provide 
statistics that will help us establish a better immigration policy.
  As we move forward with this piece of legislation that I believe is a 
constructive move in the right direction that helps to compensate, and 
it won't be all, but it will at least in part help to compensate the 
political subdivisions for their costs incurred to enforce laws against 
criminal aliens, it adds to it those charged with a crime, not just 
those convicted of a crime or two serious misdemeanors.
  But into this negotiation also will be the formal request for the GAO 
study to look further at the effect of crime on the United States of 
America by criminal aliens. And the question has got to be constantly 
before us, since we are charged with the responsibility of protecting 
the American people. And it is very much a constitutional 
responsibility. We are also constitutionally charged with the 
responsibility of establishing immigration policy. The executive branch 
is charged with the responsibility of enforcing that policy, however 
aggressively or lack of aggression they might have. The result is that 
some get in through the borders, through our ports of entry. Some 
commit crimes, and some of those crimes that are committed are of a 
very heinous nature. And the cost of those crimes against this society 
can be quantified if we can identify the numbers of crimes that are 
being committed by criminal aliens and in what categories they are in, 
where they are being incarcerated, what lengths of terms they are 
serving, and especially, Mr. Speaker, when they are released, when they 
are released from a municipal jail, a county jail or a State 
penitentiary, let alone from a Federal institution, when they are 
released, we need to know if they are released into the hands of ICE, 
if they have been processed for deportation, if that happens to be the 
law, or if they are released back into the streets. And if they are, we 
need to ask the question, are they committing further crimes?

                              {time}  1515

  So what is the level of effectiveness in our law enforcement system? 
What percentage of our overall crimes are being committed by criminal 
aliens? What are those crimes? What's the price against society, and 
how does this break down into all these categories that I have 
mentioned in a fashion that will allow us, as a Congress, to prudently 
step back, take the empirical data that we are expecting to receive 
from the Government Accountability Office and after the submission of 
this request, and process that into policy that reflects the best 
interests of the people in the United States of America.
  I think this bill is a healthy step in the right direction. I think 
it's a prudent thing to do, and I think it says the right thing to the 
people in America. I applaud the gentlelady for bringing H.R. 1512, and 
I support the expansion of SCAAP funding to those who have also been 
charged with a crime.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the right 
to close.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself so much time as I may 
consume.
  Just in summation, this is a component of taking this legislation in 
the right direction, and it's important that we compensate political 
subdivisions. When the Federal Government is not doing the job they 
need to be doing, this is the natural result of it.
  I expect that this has come from a request of those political 
subdivisions. Although they aren't making this request necessarily in 
my district, there are many jails in my district that will be 
beneficiaries of this piece of legislation.
  I urge its adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, you know, 
immigration is probably the signature Federal policy issue. Try as they 
might, States simply can't fix failures in Federal immigration policy 
on their own.
  But when we fall down on the job, States, cities and counties bear 
the burden for an immigration system that simply doesn't work. While 
Congress is working on a comprehensive solution to our broken 
immigration system, we must not forget about the local governments who 
are paying an extremely high cost as a result of our inaction.
  In 1994, Congress passed the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, 
SCAAP, to reimburse States and localities for the arrest and 
incarceration and transportation costs associated with criminal aliens, 
averting a tidal wave of expenses that could have overwhelmed the State 
and local budgets.
  However, in 2003, the Department of Justice reinterpreted the SCAAP 
statute and caused a drastic drop in every State's reimbursement. Now 
States no longer receive reimbursements unless, first, the criminal 
alien is convicted of a criminal felony and two misdemeanors; and, 
second, the arrest and conviction occur in the same year.
  To add insult to injury, President Bush has zeroed out SCAAP in his 
budget proposals for the last 6 years. This means that State and local 
governments are left to pick up the tab. Every dollar reduction in 
SCAAP reimbursements means one less dollar that law enforcement 
agencies have to hire new officers, provide essential training, make 
critical equipment purchases and detain other, perhaps more violent, 
inmates.
  Following the SCAAP funding cuts in 2003, the LA County Sheriff's 
Department implemented a new early-release policy for inmates convicted 
of misdemeanors. This means the neighborhoods I represent in Southern 
California are at risk.
  Sadly, these communities are not alone. Across the country, the SCAAP 
reimbursement cuts have had a domino effect, where funding for anti-
gang activities, homicide investigations, anti-terrorism activities and 
even basic maintenance is cut to pay for expenses associated with 
incarcerating criminal aliens and suspected criminal aliens.
  As Arizona county supervisors recently stated, ``This is a huge 
problem because we can't keep up with fixing roads, the other costs of 
law enforcement, and keeping up with health agencies.''
  While this bill on its own won't solve the fiscal crisis many States 
now face, it will help in the long term by covering a greater share of 
costs that

[[Page H3085]]

properly belonged to the Federal Government.
  H.R. 1512 amends the SCAAP statute so that States and localities can 
be reimbursed for the cost of incarcerating aliens who are either 
charged with or convicted of a felony or two misdemeanors, just like it 
was before the DOJ's reinterpretation in 2003. This Federal investment 
will allow State and local law enforcement agencies to devote more 
resources to important public safety programs.
  Law enforcement agencies and coalitions from all over the country, 
including the U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition, the National 
Association of Counties, the California State Association of Counties, 
the Sheriffs' Association of Texas and the Virginia Sheriffs' 
Association support this bipartisan legislation.
  Lastly, I want to offer thanks and gratitude to my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle for passing this bill unanimously through the 
Judiciary Committee and for bringing it to the floor today without any 
amendments. We may not agree on many aspects of immigration policy, but 
this bill accomplishes a larger goal, making our community safer. For 
that reason, I appreciate your support.
  I urge my colleagues to support their local law enforcement agencies 
by voting for this bill.
  Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Speaker, thank you Congresswoman Sanchez. I 
appreciate your tireless work for ensuring that the Criminal Alien 
Assistance Program, or SCAAP, is a strong, fully-funded, functional 
program.
  SCAAP is vital to my district in Southern Arizona. There, along 114 
miles of our 2,000 mile boundary with Mexico, Federal, State, county 
and local law enforcement are on the frontlines defending our border.
  Last year, 387,000 undocumented immigrants were apprehended in 
Arizona. And an average of 1,000 illegal immigrants per day were 
arrested and deported from Tucson. This year, over 180,000 have been 
apprehended.
  The Tucson Sector, which includes my district, is the most porous 
section of the entire U.S.-Mexico Border. More than 48 percent of the 
Nation's drug traffic enters our country through Southern Arizona.
  Securing our Nation's borders is the Federal Government's exclusive 
jurisdiction. However, communities through Southern Arizona and the 
Nation face extraordinary costs from incarcerating undocumented 
criminals.
  SCAAP reimburses States and localities for costs associated with 
illegal immigrants who commit crimes in our communities.
  I am pleased to be a cosponsor of H.R. 1512. This legislation would 
expand SCAAP's scope. It will ensure that states are more appropriately 
compensated for the high costs of incarcerating undocumented aliens.
  Please join me in supporting our State and local law enforcement by 
voting to responsibly expand SCAAP by passing H.R. 1512.
  Mr. BISHOP of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support 
of H.R. 1512, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) 
Reimbursement Protection Act.
  SCAAP is vital to my district on eastern Long Island by providing 
much needed assistance to municipal governments that incur the large 
cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants. In fact, in my district 
of Suffolk County, officials estimate that 10 to 12 percent of those 
incarcerated are undocumented individuals with a cost to the County of 
approximately $12 million in 2006.
  Unfortunately, SCAAP does not reimburse States for all of the costs 
to incarcerate undocumented individuals. Presently, the only funding 
that SCAAP provides is the cost of incarcerating undocumented 
immigrants who have been convicted of a felony or two or more 
misdemeanors.
  This legislation will reimburse States incarcerating undocumented 
individuals charged with a felony or two or more misdemeanors. This 
small change will greatly assist local governments who are overburdened 
by recent escalating costs.
  While my district and many others across the Nation have greatly 
benefited from SCAAP funding, the Bush administration continues to 
eliminate funding for the program. I was proud to cosign a bipartisan 
letter to House appropriators asking that they reject the President's 
short-sighted elimination of the program and increase SCAAP funding.
  I am a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform and as 
Congress continues to debate immigration reform, we cannot deny that 
State and local governments are on the frontlines of immigration 
enforcement. I will continue to work to ensure that they receive 
adequate funding and resources for the important role they play.
  I want to thank my colleague, Congresswoman Sanchez, for introducing 
this much needed legislation.
  Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of California. I yield back the remainder of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Linda T. Sanchez) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 1512.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground 
that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum 
is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

                          ____________________