Illegal immigrants crowd jail, even in South Carolina

September 21, 2006

IIlegal-immigrant inmates are clogging the Beaufort, South Carolina county jail, and are costing taxpayers thousands of dollars a day. County officials want federal immigration officials to do something about it.

Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement aren't answering those requests, they say, nor are they answering similar requests from counties in Texas and California. ICE wants the inmates to serve their jail time in the county jails before the agency takes any action.

Crowded conditions -- 310 inmates in a jail built to house 255 -- are increasing disciplinary problems and posing greater safety risks to Beaufort County Detention Center officers, the jail director said. Many prisoners are sleeping in makeshift beds in the jail's gymnasium.

On September 21, the jail was holding 50 inmates suspected of being illegal immigrants. The jail director said many in that group don't have any form of identification, and some have said they're not here legally. Others are silent when asked if they are here legally.

What the jail and the county administrator want to know is: If they're not supposed to be here, why are they in our jail?

It's something that's caused much frustration, officials say, because they don't have the authority to determine whether their suspicions are true. They're still waiting for a response from ICE to numerous inmate information sheets that county officials faxed to them on suspected illegal immigrants.

"I'm a concerned citizen just like anybody else," the jail director said. "With those kind of numbers of suspected illegal aliens, certainly our population would be down if I didn't have them here."

ICE spokesman Temple Black said the goal of ICE's Criminal Alien Program is not to deport illegal immigrants in lieu of their criminal charge.

"The idea is for them to serve their time on the criminal charges and then be turned over to ICE custody," he said in a written statement. "We're not sure what impact we would have on jail crowding unless it was (the jail's) intent to suspend the sentence upon deportation."

But that doesn't fix the jail's problem, said 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, who has been working with the U.S. Attorneys Office in attempt to increase the federal presence to handle such issues.

"I understand the frustration," Stone said. "I don't understand if (illegal-immigrant inmates) are violating a law by being here, why can't (ICE) act on that?"