"Proposal would house prisoners in Mexico"

Drudge is linking to the AP article "Proposal would house prisoners in Mexico" about Arizona trying to pass a law under which illegal alien or other Mexican citizens who are in our prisons would be imprisoned in Mexico. The U.S. would, of course, continue to pay for those prisoner's upkeep:

The idea was promoted as a way to reduce the state's heavy costs in imprisoning the 3,600 to 4,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona prisons who have been convicted of crimes. Opponents questioned whether the state has the legal authority to move the foreign prisoners to Mexico.

In any event, a proposal (HB2709) to have the state seek proposals for such prison cleared its first hurdle Wednesday at the Arizona Legislature in a 4-2 vote by a House committee...

(The story is also here.)

Sounds... interesting.

But, perhaps we should look at the backstory a bit here. From Jill Stewart:

...But the Mexicans do nothing but double talk on illegal immigration. On the prisoner issue, Mexico strictly limits the number of prisoners it takes back -- yet comically insists it has no limits. Pathetic. According to the California Board of Prison Terms, "all other nations accept all of their prisoners for transfer." Except Mexico.

In 2003, Mexico took back only 109 prisoners from the U.S., even though in California alone, 17,500 prisoners are Mexican nationals -- including more than 14,000 illegal aliens. And get this: Mexico won't take back those who've been here longer than five years. Just because...

Immigration2005a · Wed, 02/16/2005 - 20:27 · · Importance: 1