Schwarzenegger Proposes Early Release of Undocumented Inmates to Save Money

Yahoo news reports that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would like to cut costs for the state of California by commuting the sentences of thousands of immigrants currently serving time in the state's prison system and turning them over to the federal government to begin their deportation proceedings early.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page said: "Every dollar not spent to house an undocumented immigrant inmate is a dollar that can be spent on health care services and education and other important programs to Californians. These inmates are the federal government's responsibility and California taxpayers shouldn't be paying the bill."

Today, nearly 65,000 immigrants, many of which are in the U.S. legally, are serving time in prison for state crimes. Traditionally what happens is immigrants serve out their sentence in state facilities after which they are transferred into federal custody to begin deportation proceedings because they are either illegal immigrants or because they committed crimes while in the United States legally.

Such a proposal would have some serious impediments to its passage. For one, cutting short these prison sentences would require court approval. As governor, Schwarzenegger can commute the sentences of 3,200 inmates who were convicted of nonviolent, non-sex-related offenses. However, releasing the more serious and repeat offenders early requires approval from the state Supreme Court. Second, the mass release of inmates from California and other states could overload a federal system that is already functioning at capacity.

As it stands, Schwarzenegger's plan proposes to commute the sentences of as many as 19,000 undocumented immigrant inmates and transfer them into federal custody over the next 12 months which could potentially save California $182 million.

However, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice said the 33,000 federal detention centers across the country already are full, and immigration judges could be overloaded if the number of deportation cases balloons.

In an effort not to overwhelm the federal system, California Corrections spokesman Seth Unger said the state would keep its inmates behind bars until their deportation hearings were over and their appeals exhausted. This way, inmates could be deported almost immediately after being turned over to federal authorities.

Since more than 70 percent of California's immigrant inmates are from Mexico, deporting them would typically involve putting them on a bus.

Author's name: Gabriel Dorman
Author's e-mail: gabedorman@gmail.com
Author's blog URL: www.criminaldefenseduilawyer.com/blog/