Legal statuses targeted

Assemblyman Van Tran wants state and federal authorities to team up to check the immigration status of prisoners.

Tran’s bill, which would require correctional officers to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and federal law, would also save California money, he said.

Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant, argued that prison costs could be cut tremendously by deporting, instead of detaining, those here illegally. “This is definitely a law-and-order piece of legislation, but it’s also a fiscally prudent piece of legislation,” he said. “It should substantially help curb our $16-billion budget.”

Tran cites a similar program in Arizona, where the prison population is approximately 20% of California’s. There, according to Tran, the state has saved nearly $3 million in only the first six months of the program. In California, Tran estimated the program would save the state about $750 million — the average cost to house a prisoner for a year multiplied by the number of illegal immigrants estimated to be in state jails.

The plan is similar to Costa Mesa’s, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent checks the immigration status of many arrested in the city.

While such an agent would not be present in every state prison under Tran’s proposal, officers would be trained to comply and assist with federal agents.

“They would check their status, while coordinating and notifying immigration authorities,” he said. “I’m sure we would have to implement protocols and a formal procedure between the federal authorities and the state.”

Tran expressed hope that the state’s financial woes would make a great sales pitch to his Democratic colleagues he thought may be normally disinclined to support such legislation.

“I hope that my Democratic colleagues will see that, in light of our budget deficit crisis, this is the best and most prudent way to save a substantial amount of state funds — instead of closing state parks and beaches,” he said.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at chris.caesar@latimes.com.