Lawmakers discuss deporting foreign convicts
Idea could save money but carries security concerns.
By Mike Ward
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Years ago, when Texas looked for ways to ease prison crowding, lawmakers had a master stroke: Deport the few thousand foreign citizens who were in Texas prisons most of them from Mexico and free up those bunks for the growing number of Lone Star felons.
More recently, proposals were floated to build or lease prisons in Mexico, or even on a Caribbean island, for the same purpose.
The ideas went nowhere, thanks to a firm sentiment by many Texans that if you break Texas law, you ought to serve your time in Texas. And to concerns that deported criminals are allowed to go free in their home countries.
Now, with the population of foreign citizens in Texas prisons at an all-time high and with a state budget crisis looming in 2011, the idea of deporting some percentage of them - at least the nonviolent offenders - is again making the rounds, but with a new twist.
