Study: Latest figures show cost to Az $26.6M for jailings, prosecutions

DIANA MARRERO

WASHINGTON - Illegal immigration is costing Arizona border counties millions of dollars a year for law enforcement and criminal prosecutions - diverting money from parks, libraries and other law enforcement efforts, according to a study to be released Wednesday.
The costs to the four border counties in Arizona have increased by 39 percent from $19.2 million in 1999 to $26.6 million in fiscal 2006, researchers at the University of Arizona and San Diego State University found.
Costs totaled $192 million for the nation's 24 border counties in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas - more than double the costs in 1999.
The study was commissioned by the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, a nonprofit group of border county officials who want the federal government to reimburse their county jails and prosecutors' offices for those costs.
"The study is important because for the most part, these border counties are small, they're rural, they're very poor and this is a tremendous hit to their county budgets," said Tanis Salant, a public policy lecturer at the University of Arizona and the study's main author.
The coalition, which has been studying the impact of illegal immigration on border counties since 1999, paid for the study using a federal Justice Department grant. Researchers estimate the costs of illegal immigration on county law enforcement at $1.2 billion in the past eight fiscal years.
Researchers examined county budgets, court records and crime statistics and interviewed hundreds of county officials for the report. The report did not look at the impact of illegal immigrants on cities, states or Indian tribes.
The coalition wants Congress to spend more federal dollars on the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which gave border counties $4.7 million in reimbursements last year. The money was less than a tenth of the actual costs the counties had for detaining illegal immigrants, according to the report.
The group also wants more funding for the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, among other federal programs.
The costs of illegal immigration are placing "undue burdens" on people who live in border counties, the report says. Urban counties bore the highest costs, with San Diego County in California spending the most at $77.1 million, followed by El Paso and Hidalgo counties in Texas and Pima and Yuma counties in Arizona.
Residents of three Texas counties, Hudspeth, Terrell and Zapata, carried the costliest per capita burden, costing each resident about $378, $126 and $112 last year.
The costs meant the counties had less money available for libraries, parks and other services.
Officials in Santa Cruz County, Ariz., for example, say they need more money to offer better amenities at their local parks; officials in Presidio County, Texas, say they don't have the money for a new ambulance they need.

additional information
    Costs to border counties by state
    California (2 counties) $82.6 million
    Texas (15 counties) $75.4 million
    Arizona (4 counties) $26.6 million
    New Mexico (3 counties) $7.3 million
    ON THE WEB
    U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition: www.bordercounties.org

Source: U.S./ Mexico Border Counties Coalition