Send California inmates to Mexico, says Schwarzenegger

[YumYum]

Mon Jan 25, 8:45 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested California could ease its crowded prison system by sending thousands of undocumented inmates to specially built jails in Mexico.

Speaking to reporters at the Sacramento Press Club, Schwarzenegger said California could ease its strained finances by a billion dollars if 20,000 illegal immigrants currently held in the state were housed across the border.

"I think that we can do so much better in the prison system alone if we can go and take, inmates for instance, the 20,000 inmates that are illegal immigrants that are here and get them to Mexico," Schwarzenegger said.

"Think about it -- if California gives Mexico the money. Not 'Hey, you take care of them, these are your citizens'. No. Not at all.

"We pay them to build the prison down in Mexico. And then we have those undocumented immigrants down there in prison. It would half the costs to build the prison and run the prison. We could save a billion dollars right there that could go into higher education."

Schwarzenegger's remarks come as California prepares for the latest in a long line of state budget crises.

Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency earlier this month, warning severe cuts were necessary to stem a 19.9-billion-dollar deficit.

California has some of the most overcrowded prisons in the United States, with an estimated 170,000 inmates housed in facilities designed for 100,000 people, according to 2007 figures.

Schwarzenegger said he believed the financial burden of California's prisons could be eased if the private sector moved into the industry.

"I think that there is no reason why we should have just state employees and public prisons," Schwarzenegger said. "Why shouldn't we have private prisons and private prisons competing with public prisons?

"I don't want to go and get rid of public prisons, not at all. It's not an attack on their labor union even though they may take it as such.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100126/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticscaliforniaprisons_20100126014519

Mexico wouldn't house and take care of these prisoners. They would take the money and let them go, so the crimminals could return back to America.

[Meatwasp]

Why should we pay to build a prison in Mexico. This is truly nuts Just send them back

[MelissaWV]

Okay so... let me get this straight.

Jose el Plomero crosses the border into the USA illegally.
Jose el Plomero is picked up by la Migra and ends up arrested.
Jose el Plomero is sent to prison, but it's in Mexico.
Jose el Plomero is now in a prison, in Mexico, for crossing into the USA illegally, even though he isn't actually in the USA anymore anyways, and has effectively been deported to Mexico.


:confused: Que :confused:

[sratiug]

Our country is run by idiots. Maybe we should outsource our elections to Mexico too - votes would be cheaper to buy.

[tmosley]

Extraordinary rendition, CIVILIAN VERSION!

[Fr3shjive]

No way the unions would allow that to happen?

[Meatwasp]

Okay so... let me get this straight.

Jose el Plomero crosses the border into the USA illegally.
Jose el Plomero is picked up by la Migra and ends up arrested.
Jose el Plomero is sent to prison, but it's in Mexico.
Jose el Plomero is now in a prison, in Mexico, for crossing into the USA illegally, even though he isn't actually in the USA anymore anyways, and has effectively been deported to Mexico.


:confused: Que :confused:

I am not entirely sure but I beleave most of them are in prison other than being illegally here.Crimes much worse.

[DamianTV]

OOoh oooh I know what to do!

Since california is now 51% hispanic, we should just build a wall around the whole fucking state and consider it to be a prison state! If the majority of the residents are illegal or descendants of illegal immigration, and democracy is mob rule, where the majority outweighs any minority, we can just let them have the whole state, then charge them for it! It will be just like Escape from L.A.! yeah yeah! Thats the ticket! That will solve all of our immigration problems!

[Fr3shjive]

OOoh oooh I know what to do!

Since california is now 51% hispanic, we should just build a wall around the whole fucking state and consider it to be a prison state! If the majority of the residents are illegal or descendants of illegal immigration, and democracy is mob rule, where the majority outweighs any minority, we can just let them have the whole state, then charge them for it! It will be just like Escape from L.A.! yeah yeah! Thats the ticket! That will solve all of our immigration problems!

You're a fucking retard. I think its funny that because the state is 51% hispanic you think we should build a wall around it.

[MelissaWV]

Someone's scarcas-o-meter is busted. :D

[Fr3shjive]

Someone's scarcas-o-meter is busted. :D

Possibly but based on the hates for "illegals"(mexicans) I've seen on here I wouldnt be surprised.

[Meatwasp]

Possibly but based on the hates for "illegals"(Mexicans) I've seen on here I wouldn't be surprised.

That is a ridiculous statement. I don't hate Mexicans, I just don't think we need to fill our jails with criminals from Mexico.
Also what happened to the Bracero program where Mexican men came here to work but went back home when the crops were done.
I have relatives that lost their ranches in Mexico , and they were Mexicans, when they took over all the land there under Federal law.

[Zippyjuan]

According to this report http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/cacounts/CC_208KBCC.pdf , seventeen percent of the California prision population were classified as "foreign born". This includes those here legally and those from countries other than Mexico. According to Wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States 23.7% of US immigrants came from Mexico. If the California prison population is representative of the nation as a whole (it may not be but it gives us a place to start from) then about four percent of the CA prisoners would have been born in Mexico (here legally or illegally).

Going back to my original source quoted, they later add that:

In 2005, there were 28,279 foreign born
adults and 139,419 U.S.-born
adults in California prisons.

According to another Wiki source, Mexicans comprise 57% of US illegal immigrants. If that portion is true of the prision population, we should expect about 17,000 Mexican born people in CA prisons- but again that includes both legal and illegal so if we sent all the Mexican born illegal residents currently in California jails, we are probably talking less than 10,000 people out of 170,000 in 2005.


I have no problem deporting illegal aliens. It is just that this will not help much getting to the 25,000 inmates Arnold would like to reduce the prision population by. The supposed goal is to save the state money- how is it saving money to pay Mexico to build and opperate a prision there? Now you have state taxpayer money going to another country.

[ItsTime]

This is what should be happening. But we should not build the prisons they should and we should pay them to house the illegals then release them back into Mexico when done with their term. I see no problem with that.

[BlackTerrel]

I am not entirely sure but I beleave most of them are in prison other than being illegally here.Crimes much worse.

Yeah they don't put you in prison for being an illegal immigrant. Otherwise there would be another 5 million prisoners in CA alone. They are their for various other crimes.

[YumYum]

The supposed goal is to save the state money- how is it saving money to pay Mexico to build and opperate a prision there? Now you have state taxpayer money going to another country.

Have you ever seen a Mexican prison? We have horse stables in this country that would be considered Country Clubs compared to Mexican prisons. I think Arnold is bluffing. By making these threats the federal government will bailout California, because the feds don’t want 25,000 illegal criminals coming back into this country. If Arnold keeps his promise, he would give Mexico a pittance and say “they’re yours”, to which the Mexican government would smile and say “Gracias, Gringo!”, then take the money and let the prisoners go. Kind of like what Bush did when he turned the federal programs over to the states to manage.