Umatilla County sheriff asks Mex. government to pay for prisoners
Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo has sent Mexico's president a bill for $318,843 — the cost of jailing 360 Mexicans last year.
U.S. taxpayers "have to pay for housing these guys in the jail; they have to pay for the courts, the prosecution and the defense," Trumbo told The East Oregonian newspaper of Pendleton.
Fernando Sanchez, general consul for the Mexican government in Oregon, said Tuesday he believed that Mexican President Vicente Fox would respond to the letter. He also said Trumbo's analysis was too limited.
"My view is that he's not taking note of the economic contribution of the workers there in Umatilla County, which is significant," Sanchez said.
Like slaves made "economic contributions" in the South?
In the letter he mailed to Fox last week, Trumbo argued that "each time an illegal immigrant from Mexico was booked into our jail, we were forced to release local prisoners to make bed space available to your citizens."
Something I actually documented in the Washinton County Jail.
So who else is on board with this? I've asked several local law enforcement agencies to do these kind of publicity stunts to keep this issue in the news, raise awareness, and force the federal government to realize that we are not going to take this invasion lying down.
sheriff@co.washington.or.us
sheriff@mcso.us
rramirez@co.marion.or.us
17 comments:
Now we have this today...
http://www.dailyemerald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/15/43f2ecbb9220b
Mexican ID can’t ensure alien safety, U.S. security
By Emerald editorial board
February 15, 2006
Members of Oregonians For Immigration Reform gathered Saturday on campus at the High School Equivalency Program building to protest illegal immigration. Their target: the Mexican consulate issuing matricula consulars — identification cards given to Mexican citizens who can provide a birth certificate, photo ID and proof of residency. The cards allow Mexicans, including illegal immigrants, to obtain driver’s licenses and open bank accounts in the United States.
The protest drew a group of counter-protesters, and Department of Public Safety officers were on hand to keep the peace.
At $27 each, the cards may be cheaper than passports for Mexican travelers. But the OFIR
protesters and their sympathizers have a point: They assert that because legal immigrants from Mexico and other countries obtain Green Cards or other documents, only illegal immigrants need such cards.
The use of the cards has grown from 528,000 to more than 4.7 million last year, according to a Sept. 27 article in the Los Angeles Times. The Mexican Consulate sold about 24,000 cards in Oregon in 2004, according to a Dec. 4 article in The Oregonian.
As many as 7 million illegal immigrants — including 4.8 million Mexicans — lived in the United States in January 2000, according to Immigration and Naturalization Service data.
Issuing these cards raises questions about whether our federal and state governments are handling immigration properly. As stated in the Los Angeles Times article, the matricula consular issue “highlights the contradiction between immigration laws, which forbid the presence of undocumented workers, and immigration reality, which encourages them to spend their paychecks here.”
OFIR members are correct in asserting that illegal immigrants should not be able to receive government-funded social services such as health care and food stamps. The Oregon Department of Human Services currently has a $172 million budget deficit. Those who want to benefit from government services offered in the United States should be legally deemed allowed to do so beforehand.
Moreover, the United States doesn’t record whom the Mexican government is issuing cards to, or whether it is issuing multiple cards to the same person. Mexico itself apparently doesn’t keep clear records of who it issues cards to. Thus many falsified cards may exist and the U.S. remains in the dark about how many aliens are living here.
This causes security concerns, as the protesters point out. For instance, the cards allow holders to board American airplanes. A criminal or terrorist suspect could easily avoid being identified by authorities through the use of a matricula consular or driver’s license that attributes a false name and address to its holder.
According to 2003 congressional testimony by Steve McCraw, assistant director of FBI’s Office for Intelligence, the “Department of Justice and the FBI have concluded that the Matricula Consular is not a reliable form of identification, due to the non-existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder.”
Despite these problems, we must come to terms with the idea that illegal immigrants, primarily seasonal workers from Mexico, form an integral part of Oregon’s agricultural industry. Workers should be granted temporary worker and travel permits that allow the U.S. and Mexican governments to track populations traversing the border to ensure the safety of both immigrants and U.S. citizens.
Perhaps Fernando Sanchez should consider the other impacts that these criminals (for reasons other than their illegal immigration) have on our economy and society....Drug trafficking, child rape/endangerment, etc...
Daniel -- just looked at some pictures and comments from your recent "protest". For somebody apparently so concerned about racism, you sure do seem to take a lot of pleasure in taking pictures of and maligning people whom you assume to be here illegally, and show absolutely no respect for their culture or country of origin. You're a real class act.
Anonymous:
People here legally don't need Matricula cards.
All of the hispanics actually served were here illegally. The one who was turned away was the only one with a green card.
The "culture" of Mexico is largely elitist, sexist, corrupt and violent. That's one of the main reasons people try to leave.
as opposed to our pure and fair culture that gives preference to corporate entities allowing them to operate in Latin America, reap huge profits for shareholders? The whole reason that we can't do anything about remittances (such as taxing them), is because Mexico could turn around and tax profits leaving their country bound for corporations in the U.S. (compare remittances to corporate profits stemming from operations in Latin America, and you'll find the former to be miniscule), which is strictly prohibited by NAFTA. That's not corrupt?
All of your ire is misplaced.
Go Sheriff Trumbo!
I am all in favor of building a large 'tent' city for ICE hold prisoners.
This should be funded at the state level, as should transportation from local ( County ) jails to this facility.
If Mexico wants its citizens comfortable, they can pay for buildings and heat.
Why?
I do not like the idea of 'matrixing out' county inmates due to lack of beds - especially when those beds are filled with imigration related inmates.
If the "guest" has commited some crime, they may have to do jail time before being sent on the ICE facility.
Wouldn't this be a FED issue?
Sure, but not with our current president.
If this is such a good idea, why hasn't someone done it before?
Maricopa
Although Sheriff Arpaio uses the tents for many inmates.
Tent City" with a pink neon Vacancy sign"
AC in AZ? No.
Fernando Sanchez said that the sheriff of Umitilla County is not "taking note of the economic contribution of the workers." Illegal aliens in jail are making an ecomomic contribution? What kind of "left" handed thinking is that? Sanchez must be a liberal in Mexican politics with that kind of remark. The next thing the sheriff of Umitilla County should look out for is Al Gore coming in and denouncing him for jailing the illegals and then having the nerve to bill Mexico for expenses to house and feed this bunch. Scary thought, aint it???
I spelled "Umatilla" wrong. Sorry about that.
Anonymous,
Go live with the Central-American underclass for a week or so. If you survive, you'll see all the distinctions you need.
sailor, why am I the problem? I see as much of an immigration problem as you do, it's just my position that the policy solution should take into consideration as much as possible long run concerns and macro-economic factors the fuel immigration, factors, by the way, that are not in dispute. The current conversation sounds identical to the one right before IRCA in 1986, and it's going to end the same if you don't try to get the corporate types, the perpetual "not-available-for-comment" class to explain their interests to the American public.
Bob, I've spent a considerable amount of time in Central America, and seen its poverty first-hand. Nonetheless, I have no idea of the point you are trying to make...
Way OT:
Hey Dan, since you are taking some shots at some "illegals" looks (pictures of the butt girl you posted) - I gotta poke some fun at your look.
Don't get me wrong, lose the 'stache and you would have a cool Lex Luthor sorta look. But with that lip creature, you have a 1800's prize fighter, Whimpy sorta thing happnin'.
Begs the question - Would you gladly pay tomorrow for a hamburger today?
Anonymous...at least write your name.
Anon,
Nobody said that you were the problem: you said our ire is misplaced; Sailor correctly noted that to the contrary, it is squarely on target.
Illegal immigration is just that: illegal. We object to the Mexican consulate selling matriculata cards to foreign nationals who are here illegally, and we object to state agencies using taxpayer dollars to sign such people up for taxpayer-funded services.
We have no problem with immigrants who go through the process and obtain green cards in order to live and work legally in this country, and we recognize that the USA is in fact a nation of immigrants.
However, the point you seem unwilling to grasp is that we are also a nation of laws.
Their logic is that if it's illegal, then we should make it legal, just like homosexual marriage, marijuana, larceny, rape, murder...you see where it's going?
Anon, I've brought up shaving it multiple times but my wife says I would look weird.
(I have been plotting to "accidentaly" do it for quite some time...)
Do it. Or,
Take a poll - it can be an exercise in American democracy to free you from the grips of marital facisim!
(Btw, don't let my wife know I'm talking like this)
:)
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