thedenverchannel.com
DENVER, Colorado -- Several Denver metro area sheriffs are demanding that the federal government help them pay for jail inmates who are not U.S. citizens. They say the government is required by law to help defray those costs but that the payments to local counties have been withheld for the past few years.
"It's just ironic," Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said Tuesday during a press conference with other county sheriffs. "At a time when the federal government continues to push more responsibility for immigration and border security on to local government, at the same time, they're cutting the funding."
It costs roughly $70 a day to feed and care for jail inmates in Colorado. Adams County currently houses an average of 200 illegal aliens who've been arrested for various crimes. For several years, counties like Adams relied on the State Criminal Aliens Assistance Program (SCAAP), but Sheriff Doug Darr said the well has now run dry.
Posted by tyne at February 21, 2007