U.S. Billed for Migrant Prisoner Expenses

PHOENIX —  Gov. Janet Napolitano said Tuesday she had billed the federal government for nearly $118 million in unreimbursed costs for imprisoning criminals who were illegal immigrants.

If the federal government doesn’t pay, it should take custody of the approximately 3,600 illegal immigrants incarcerated in Arizona prisons, Napolitano said. She sent the bill last week in a letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.

“This is just wrong,” Napolitano said Tuesday.

“Arizona has held up its end of the bargain, and has taken these criminals off the streets. Yet the federal government has abandoned its job by refusing to pay for them.”

Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland in Washington said department officials were reviewing Napolitano’s letter.

The Democratic governor released the letter -- and copies of two invoices sent with it -- one day after President Bush proposed eliminating funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program.

The program, which received $297 million last year, was launched in the mid-1990s to reimburse state and local jurisdictions for costs related to incarcerating criminal illegal immigrants.

The governor’s spokeswoman, Jeanine L’Ecuyer, said Napolitano was distressed by Bush’s proposal.

“We’re going from very little to nothing,” L’Ecuyer said.

Congress has resisted similar proposals by the president in previous years. U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) announced last week that he and 13 other lawmakers had introduced legislation to fund the program.

“There should be no chance that felons be released because states can’t afford to keep them in jail,” Kyl said.

Bush’s proposed budget doesn’t seek money for the assistance program because an Office of Management and Budget review concluded the program lacked performance goals and couldn’t demonstrate results, Department of Justice spokesman John Nowacki said.