Specter decries cost to hold deportable alien criminals

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, February, 2008 | by Michael Matza and Kathleen Brady Shea Inquirer Staff Writers

Up to 1,000 deportable aliens are incarcerated in Pennsylvania lock-ups on any given day, costing $20 million a year - which could be saved if the offenders were efficiently expelled, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter said yesterday during a visit to the Chester County jail to spotlight the broader national costs of illegal immigration.

While states are federally reimbursed for the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants, the toll ultimately is borne by all taxpayers. "The financial burden is very substantial," Specter said yesterday at the Chester County Prison in West Chester, where he met with Warden D. Edward McFadden and officials from the Department of Homeland Security's office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We have an enormously serious problem at the...