Time to pay the piper

According to this article:

Cash-strapped Arizona and other states soon would have to pay the full costs of jailing illegal immigrants convicted of crimes under a $390 billion budget bill for 2003 being considered by the Senate.

For fiscal 2002, states, counties and cities received $565 million for their costs of imprisoning criminal illegal immigrants, representing about 40 cents for every dollar spent. Arizona got $15.9 million, and some local governments got an additional $8.2 million, though they incurred costs of more than $305 million.

[AZ Gov.] Napolitano, a Democrat, argues that the federal government has been walking away like "a deadbeat dad" from paying its "fair share" of costs related to illegal immigration that has hit border states particularly hard.

Immigration2003 · Thu, 01/23/2003 - 12:36 · · Importance: 1