Border help needed

readyPublic safety is the paramount responsibility of government. Our federal government protects us from foreign threats. Local government protects us from those closer to home.

Whose responsibility is it to protect us from those who illegally cross our borders, then break additional laws once in our country? Unfortunately, that burden has fallen on the county.

Of the approximately 6,000 inmates in the Orange County Jail, 10.5% are foreign nationals with immigration holds. That means more than one in 10 inmates should not even be in this country. According to the Sheriff’s Department, the cost to incarcerate these immigrants is $48,847 per day or $17.5 million per year.

The money spent on jailing illegal immigrant inmates is a drain on county resources that should be serving lawful residents. Then there’s the overcrowding problem. According to a recent newspaper article, the jails in Orange County are the third most crowded in the country and the most crowded in California. Illegal immigrant lawbreakers only make this overcrowding worse.

When an Orange County resident is incarcerated, the cost is justified by its effect on public safety and the promise of rehabilitating a resident who can become a contributing member of society in the future. The public pays for protection and rehabilitation.

The illegal immigrant inmates in turn do nothing more than drain $17.5 million per year of our money without a single returned benefit outside of the obvious -- as with any criminal -- that they are off our streets. Illegal immigrant inmates’ ultimate fate could be a fast release back into our society whether they served any jail time. We suppose asking for a check on the way to deportation would be too much to ask.

Current cost reimbursement to the county of Orange in the form of awards from the federal government is only a drop in the bucket toward the total cost. Current federal legislation does not adequately address this issue and the dire consequences it has on counties.

The county must divert much needed public safety funds to pay for the uncompensated financial burden of incarcerating illegal immigrants before they go to trial. If we received full cost reimbursement from the federal government, all Orange County residents will benefit from their tax dollars being spent more wisely on programs that need funds.

This country was built by immigrants. Is it fair to make those who have entered the United States legally bear the financial burden of those who have not?

We all have striven to make Orange County a better place. With our growth and sustained popularity as a destination for opportunity, let’s not lose sight of the cost it takes to maintain a quality of life.

The issue is that we need to stop illegal immigration and to fully compensate the counties of Southern California, where the taxpayers bear the brunt and lose on shared fiscal opportunities.

These inmates are here because of a failure in federal policy. The federal government should either successfully enforce that policy or compensate counties fully for its failures.

County services have become a backstop for the failures of other agencies. We cannot afford the financial or social costs of federal failures.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Supervisor James W. Silva represents the county’s Second District, which includes Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, and Supervisor Chris Norby represents the Fourth District, which includes Anaheim and Fullerton.