Illegals cost border counties $192M

Study: Latest figures show cost to Az $26.6M for jailings, prosecutions

DIANA MARRERO

Published: 03.05.2008

WASHINGTON - Illegal immigration is costing Arizona border counties millions of dollars a year for law enforcement and criminal prosecutions - diverting money from parks, libraries and other law enforcement efforts, according to a study to be released Wednesday.

The costs to the four border counties in Arizona have increased by 39 percent from $19.2 million in 1999 to $26.6 million in fiscal 2006, researchers at the University of Arizona and San Diego State University found.

Costs totaled $192 million for the nation's 24 border counties in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas - more than double the costs in 1999.

The study was commissioned by the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, a nonprofit group of border county officials who want the federal government to reimburse their county jails and prosecutors' offices for those costs.

"The study is important because for the most part, these border counties are small, they're rural, they're very poor and this is a tremendous hit to their county budgets," said Tanis Salant, a public policy lecturer at the University of Arizona and the study's main author.