s of September 1, 2011 a new Texas law will allow foreign prisoners to be paroled, and whisked away to the country of their birth. The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) has been given the authorization to grant parole to foreign nationals who are now incarcerated in the Texas prison system - as long as they are deported. The BPP looked for assurance from officials at the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency that the foreign prisoners would be sent back to their country, and not let loose in America, as happened in the past. BPP has complained that several hundred released foreign inmates who were paroled and supposed to be deported never made it out of Texas, and that Texas taxpayers ended up footing the bill for the cost of parole for these individuals.
According to the Austin America- Statesman, Senator Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, claims that Texas would save $100 million a year if 5,000 foreign-born prisoners were deported, and if every one of the over 11,0000 foreign inmates was sent back to their countries, the state would save over $213 million annually. The 112 Texas state prisons hold 11,395 foreign prisoners, 8,5000 of which come from Mexico. Most countries will accept a prisoner back into the country, but Cuba and Vietnam will not. Over half of foreign-born Texas prisoners have a deportation order already pending against them, the American- Statesman claims.
Both violent and non-violent inmates will be deported, with 6,727 of the foreign inmates in Texas convicted of a violent offense. Texas citizens are looking for answers on how this deportation program will work, and what measures are in place to make sure the prisoners leave the US. ICE officials will not give specifics at this time, but claimed the agency is “prepared” to handle the influx of deportees.
The debate over what to do with foreign-born criminals has been raging in Texas for two decades. Prior to passing the new law Texas legislators have offered novel ways to remove foreigners from Texas prisons. Failed bills included sending all foreign prisoners to islands in the Caribbean, or relocating them to private prisons in Mexico.
Some states have already begun removing foreign prisoners from their states. California and Florida have parole-to-deportation laws on the books, and even Oklahoma paroled 176 foreign prisoners.
Ordinarily, a foreign-born person who is convicted of a crime can, and will, be deported. Although some states refuse to deport aliens charged with minor crimes, claiming that court and detention costs are prohibitive, most states will parole and deport a non-citizen convicted of a crime in the U.S. The Federal Bureau of Prisons deports the majority of foreigners convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison. Most federal prisons have a large population of non-American citizens. Foreign-born inmates have a right to have an immigration hearing that will decide if the inmate can stay in the U.S. or be deported. Some Americans believe that it will save the American government millions of dollars annually if someone caught trying to transport drugs into the U.S. from another country, for example, is detained briefly and sent back to the country of their origin, with stiff penalties awaiting them if they ever return. Others argue that foreign citizens who violate American laws must be imprisoned, just as American criminals are.
What all seem to agree on is that the U.S. is looking for ways to reduce the criminal justice budget, which seems to be hemorrhaging taxpayers dollars at a time when Americans can least afford it.
Source: Statesman.com 8/24/11
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