SHERIFF TRUMBO
May 13, 2006, 9:32AM
Oregon sheriff bills Mexico for jailing illegal immigrants
By TOMAS ALEX TIZON
Los Angeles Times
PENDLETON, ORE. - Out of ideas and low on cash one cold morning, the man with the biggest badge in town put his meaty fingers on a keyboard and tapped out a letter to the leader of Mexico.
"Dear Precidente (sic) Fox," it began.
"My name is John Trumbo. I am Sheriff of Umatilla County in northeastern Oregon." Illegal immigrants "from your country" who committed crimes here, the letter said, cost Americans lots of money.
Last year, more than 360 of "your citizens" spent time in jail "at a cost of $63 a day which equates to a request for payment of $318,843," the letter concluded. "At this time, you will not be billed for medical, dental and transportation costs. Your prompt attention to this request will be very much appreciated."
Three months later, Trumbo reports, Vicente Fox still has not paid up. The Mexican president has issued no response.
The silence has reverberated at the Umatilla County Justice Center. Here, the influx of Mexican immigrants — many of them illegal and a portion criminal — has become an increasingly prickly issue.
To anyone who asked, Trumbo explained:
The county has a daily jail capacity of 252 inmates but can afford staff and services for only 135 inmates. The sheriff's office should have a minimum of 27 patrol officers but can fund only nine. Between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., no patrol officer is on duty.
"When people call the police, they expect to see the police," Trumbo says. "They see it on TV all the time. But there are times when I can't send anybody, because I don't have anybody because I don't have the money."
One reason, he says: The department spends much of its $6.5 million annual budget on apprehending and jailing illegal immigrants.
He has no problem with Hispanics personally, he says. "Some of my best friends," Trumbo says, "are Hispanic." He just wanted to tell someone, anyone, about the situation.
In the past 16 years, the Hispanic population in 20 of Oregon's 36 counties has as much as tripled.
Many of them end up in places like Umatilla County, where they take the hardest farming jobs or work in food-processing factories.
The population increase has led to a corresponding rise in the number of undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. Trumbo says between nine and 15 of his jail beds are occupied each day by illegal immigrants from Mexico.
The majority of jailed illegal immigrants are in for property crimes. One man arrested on burglary charges, Juan Flores-Romero, has been in the Umatilla County jail 20 times. Flores-Romero, 62, was deported in almost every instance.
Says Trumbo: "The old joke among the immigration agents who shuttled these guys back to Mexico was, 'I hope we make it back to Pendleton before they do.' "
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I would like to emphasize here that some of our Sheriffs are doing multiple deports of career criminals. Hardly the kind of people who would be eligible for citizenship in any case. And what is the point, if the border is so open that they are back the next week? The more times we deport them, the more money it costs us... :banghead:
they inslaved them to work their gold mines then killed them when they were finished with them.
