House tells feds to pay up for illegals in state's prisons

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 21, 2007 at midnight

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The House passed a unanimous resolution on Monday telling the federal government to quit stiffing Colorado on millions of dollars the state spends to imprison illegal immigrants - or face a lawsuit.

"We were promised these funds," fumed Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who sponsored House Resolution 1008 with Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville.

State prisons and county jails are bursting with prisoners, Weissmann said, but the Bush administration failed to pay $5 million owed last year to the state and 22 counties, and has killed repayment for next year.

"All we're asking is to be reimbursed 10 cents on the dollar for housing criminal aliens," McFadyen said. She noted that the cost of housing illegal immigrants who have been convicted of at least one felony or two misdemeanors is estimated at $43 million a year.

"No one disagrees that we need to support our troops (in Iraq), but at the same time we shouldn't do that at the cost of not securing our own communities," she said, referring to the $2 billion a week being spent on the Iraq war. "The federal government's job is to secure the borders, and we're left with the fallout from the federal government not doing their job."

Under a Referendum K mandate passed by Colorado voters last fall, state Attorney General John Suthers already sued the federal government on March 9 to recoup money spent on illegal immigrants for education, incarceration and health care.

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486

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