Coloradans Pay Millions Annually To Jail Illegal Immigrants

Article author: 
Brian Maass and Mark Ackerman
Article publisher: 
CBS 4 Denver
Article date: 
18 May 2017
Article category: 
Colorado News
Medium
Article Body: 

Colorado taxpayers paid more than $522 million to imprison illegal immigrants [illegal aliens] convicted of crimes over the past 20 years, according to a CBS4 investigation.

The figure, which exceeds a half billion dollars, is drawn from a Colorado Department of Corrections analysis of its State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) applications, a federal grant program designed to offset some costs of incarcerating people in the country illegally. To receive SCAAP funding, state prisons and county jails provide the Department of Justice with a list of names of illegal immigrants and the number of days each served behind bars...

In fiscal year 2015... 1,992 illegal immigrants in the Colorado prison system, costing taxpayers $59.7 million, where illegal immigrants made up 7.8 percent of Colorado’s prison population.
 
  • The City of Denver listed 828 names on its 2016 SCAAP report, or 7.6% of its jail population, costing taxpayers $3.9 million.
  • Adams County listed 490 names, or 13.3% of its jail population, costing taxpayers $5.3 (after calculating the cost of incarceration at a higher rate).
  • Weld County listed 311 names, or 8.8% of its jail population, costing taxpayers $2 million.
  • Arapahoe County listed 223 names, or 4.5% of its jail population, costing taxpayers $1.4 million.
  • Jefferson County listed 100 names, or 3.1% of its jail population, costing taxpayers $1 million.
...
 
Through the SCAAP program, the federal government is reimbursing Colorado roughly 4 percent of the cost of incarcerating people...
 
The Trump Administration is proposing doing away altogether with those SCAAP reimbursements, completely shifting the entire cost to state and local taxpayers.