[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 77 (Tuesday, May 19, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5769-H5770]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            FOREIGN NATIONALS IN STATE PRISONS COST TOO MUCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we have talked a lot about the 
different entities that don't pay their bills, but the U.S. Federal 
Government is also a culprit that does not pay its bills. Let me 
explain.
  The 9/11 Families for a Secure America Organization say that 32 
percent of all people incarcerated in the United States for crimes 
other than immigration violations are in the United States illegally! 
With Texas being a border State, we get a lot more of these criminals 
in our jails than the rest of the country.
  The administration wants to eliminate a program that helps Texas pay 
for keeping these criminals in jail. It's called the SCAAP program. We 
have porous borders because the Federal Government does not secure 
those borders. When a criminal alien sneaks into the United States, 
commits a crime, the State government must be financially responsible 
for the capture and trial of that individual, not the Federal 
Government, even though border security is a Federal responsibility. 
That forces Texas to foot the bill for their medical care and feeding 
them and housing them in jail. Sometimes Texas taxpayers are on the 
hook for paying for their lawyer and other related costs.
  The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the SCAAP Program, 
doesn't even come close to covering the cost of keeping these criminal 
aliens in Texas prisons, but it helps. However, the administration 
wants to take away what little the Federal Government does send to 
Texas and other border States, thus making the cost of border crime the 
responsibility of State governments rather than the Federal Government.
  Texas Governor Rick Perry today sent a letter to the President asking 
him to reconsider cutting the SCAAP program. As a practical matter, I 
side with the notion the Federal budget should be cut. There's enough 
waste in the budget this year to keep the bureaucrats busy for years 
trying to weed it all out. But this is not an example of wasteful 
spending, far from it. This expense is because the Federal Government 
refuses to secure the borders and, thus, border States are stuck with 
the cost of crime created by foreign nationals and housing them after 
they are convicted.
  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice reports it cost Texas 
taxpayers $143 million to keep over 13,000 criminal aliens in Texas 
prisons just last year. These are major crimes. These are felonies. The 
SCAAP program the bureaucrats want to eliminate only paid $18 million 
of these costs. These criminal aliens serving time in Texas are not 
there for an overnight stay. They are in prison for violent crimes like 
rape, murder, kidnapping, and child abuse. Instead of eliminating the 
Federal program that helps pay for these costs, it ought to be 
expanded, or the Federal Government should take these prisoners.
  Here's an idea. How about we send these criminal aliens to the 
Federal facility in Gitmo? I hear there may be some room in that 
facility soon. It's a nice place as far as Federal prisons go. I've 
been there and have seen it for myself. They play soccer. They have hot 
meals that are fit for a Sunday dinner table. There's plenty of 
sunshine and fresh air, quite a step up from the overcrowded prisons in 
Texas and other border States.
  Or we should charge foreign countries the costs of housing their 
citizens that are illegally in the United States that have committed 
felonies. If they won't pay up, we can cut off their visas until they 
do pay up. Or, in most cases, we should just deduct the cost of housing 
these criminal foreign nationals from the foreign aid we send that 
country.
  State citizens have paid enough to a system that houses foreign 
nationals in our prisons that have committed crimes in the United 
States. Foreign countries should pay for the crime of their nationals, 
or our Federal Government should pay. And since we're strapped right 
now because of the Federal tax and borrow and spend and spend program, 
we should even consider deducting our cost of the annual dues to the 
United Nations to pay for incarceration of foreign nationals that have 
committed crimes in the United States. Now, there's a plan that might 
work.
  And that's just the way it is.

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