EDITORIAL SLAMMING CALIFORNIA BUSH BUDGET WOULD MAKE BORDER STATES PAY FOR FEDERAL IMMIGRATION FAILURES.WITH the federal budget deficit careening The careening of a sailing vessel is laying her up on a calm beach at high tide in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance below the water line when the tide goes out. out of control, President George W. Bush is right - albeit late - to try to get rid of ineffective and duplicative programs. But he is dead wrong to include the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program among those targeted for elimination. In the proposed budget Bush released Monday, funding for SCAAP SCAAP State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (US Dept of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance) SCAAP Scranton Army Ammunition Plant (US Army) - which helps states cover the costs of jailing criminal illegal immigrants - gets wiped out. States would be on their own to cover the costs of Washington's failed immigration policies. That's unacceptable. As it stands, SCAAP was already underfunded un·der·fund tr.v. un·der·fund·ed, un·der·fund·ing, un·der·funds To provide insufficient funding for. underfunded adj → infradotado (económicamente) . Last year, Congress appropriated just $305 million for the program, but the cost for border states Border States The slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri that were adjacent to the free states of the North during the Civil War. to imprison im·pris·on tr.v. im·pris·oned, im·pris·on·ing, im·pris·ons To put in or as if in prison; confine. [Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- criminal illegal immigrants is closer to $1 billion. It's between $80 million and $100 million for Los Angeles County alone, and only $13.8 million of that comes from Washington. The White House argues that SCAAP funding is no longer necessary because it's beefing up security on the nation's borders. But that's not the point. No one seriously believes that more border agents alone will solve the country's immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. problems, and while Bush has called for overhauling the nation's immigration laws, those calls have gone largely unheeded by congressional Democrats and Republicans alike. SCAAP funding should continue for as long as illegal immigrants populate our jails - and that looks to be a long, long time. Nearly one-quarter of all inmates in Los Angeles County jails are illegal immigrants, here because Washington won't implement practical immigration policies. County jails are overwhelmed and overcrowded o·ver·crowd v. o·ver·crowd·ed, o·ver·crowd·ing, o·ver·crowds v.tr. To cause to be excessively crowded: a system of consolidation that only overcrowded the classrooms. , forced to release convicted criminals before they've served their full term. Rather than slashing SCAAP, Washington ought to give the program adequate funding, and that's what some border-state legislators - most notably California Sen. Dianne Feinstein - have demanded. The entire California congressional delegation ought to unite behind their effort. And until Bush can make some headway in cleaning up the nation's immigration mess, he has no business sticking California with the bill. |
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