Secure Communities costs local goverments to house those on "immigration holds"

 

The Texas Tribune has reported that the I.C.E. Secure Communities program has been expanded to all Texas counties.

ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton said, "participation in the [Secure Communities] program comes at “little or no cost” to law enforcement partners."

It may not cost law enforcement partners to have the fingerprints of all arrestees run through the database, but what about the cost to house those arrested for low level offenses who cannot bond out because of "immigration holds?" People who would otherwise bond out must be housed until their criminal charges are resolved and they are taken into I.C.E. custody.

 

Comments

[Susan I. Nelson]

Here is an excerpt of an email from Julian Aguillar about the costs of "immigration holds:"

"I've reported briefly on some of the costs but you are correct, they are usually buried because local agencies don't want to admit how much the program costs and because the amount of time a detainee spends in detention always varies.

"This is something from a previous report of Secure Communities and the CAP.

"A study by the Community Engagement Center at the University of Texas at Austin found that taxpayers shelled out more than $1.3 million dollars in Travis County alone to house detainees in fiscal year 2008 under the Criminal Alien Program."