Speech #1040005019

Mr. Speaker. today. I am introducing. on behalf of myself. as author. and the gentleman from Indiana . the gentleman from California . the gentleman from California . and the gentleman from Michigan . as coauthors of the Criminal Transfer and Border Enforcement Act of 1995. H.R. 552. This bill suggests that an integrated approach to border management is needed. This legislation includes the improvement of drug interdiction. controlling illegal immigration and stopping other illegal crossborder activities in California and elsewhere. The recent election in California made one issue very clear: Taxpayers are fed up with paying for the enormous costs associated with illegal immigration. It is especially disconcerting that the incarceration of criminal aliens is running up a nationwide tab of approximately $1.2 billion annually. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports that noncitizens make up approximately 24 percent of the 91.000 total Federal prison population. The average cost per inmate in the Federal prisons is S20.803 per year. In California. the Governor estimates that we spend over $350 million a year incarcerating aliens in our State prisons. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics. about 4 percent of the inmates in our State prisons are not U.S. citizens. The estimated cost to California. as I said. is several hundred million dollars. The Criminal Alien Transfer and Border Enforcement Act urges the President to renegotiate. within 90 days of enactment. the existing bilateral prisoner transfer treaties with Mexico and other source countries. which have sizable numbers of illegal criminal aliens in our prisons. In 1976. almost two docades ago. the United States established a prisoner transfer treaty with Mexico. This treaty is outdated. and It is time for a change of course.