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OPINION
Oregon, Multnomah County, Beaverton, Tualatin and Portland versus Arizona SB 1070
7:21 AM, Apr. 19, 2012|
Written by
David Olen Cross
When the State of Oregon, Multnomah County, Cities of Beaverton, Tualatin and Portland filed amicus briefs in support of the United States federal government’s lawsuit against the State of Arizona over an Arizona law SB 1070, a case that will be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court, most Oregonians with any common sense would naturally ask the following question: What do the internal affairs of Arizona have to do with the state, a county and three cites?
Answering the question, the Attorney General of Oregon, the Multnomah County commissioners, the mayors and city councils/commissioners of Beaverton, Tualatin and Portland believe Arizona SB 1070 is civil rights issue.
A statement of fact to send to the pre-mentioned Oregon state, county and city elected officials: Arizona SB 1070 only allows the State of Arizona law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration law not create Arizona immigration law. Moreover, within Arizona SB 1070 are provisos that prohibit any form of profiling of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or country of origin.
What should be particularly troubling to Oregonians about the misguided actions of the attorney general, county commissioners, mayors and city councils/commissioners in their collective action against Arizona SB 1070 is their inability to differentiate, call it a cognitive dissonance, between what is an actual civil rights issue and what is a public safety issue.
Some background history, the State of Arizona, a border state, passed SB 1070 in 2010 simply to mitigate the negative cause and effect, the collateral damage, of having hundreds of thousands undocumented foreign nationals (illegal aliens) present or entering the state primarily from Mexico.
Let us look at Arizona SB 1070 simply as a public safety issue concerning both the residents of Oregon and Arizona using some crime numbers and statistics from a comparable time frame.
The Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) prison system in February of 2012 had 1,176 of the DOC’s 13,999 prisoners who where foreign nationals (criminal aliens); 8.40 percent of the prison population.
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At the same time, the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) prison system in February of 2012 had 5,291 of the ADC’s 39,835 prisoners who were criminal aliens; 13.28 percent of the prison population.
Comparing the preceding numbers reveals the ADC had 4,115 criminal alien prisoners more than were incarcerated in DOC prisons — 449.91 percent more.
Incarceration cost for a DOC prisoner is $82.48 per day. Therefore, DOC’s incarceration cost for 1,176 criminal aliens is approximately $35,403,715.20 per year.
Whereas, incarceration cost for an ADC prisoner is $59.85 per day. Thus, ADC’s incarceration cost for 5,291 criminal aliens is approximately $115,583,217.80 per year.
Comparing the difference in incarceration costs between the DOC and ADC prison systems, if the criminal alien incarceration numbers were to remain a constant, they won’t, the ADC will spend $80,179,502.55 more this year than the DOC — 326.47 percent more.
Oregonians certainly have a legitimate right to question whether or not the attorney general, county commissioners, mayors and city councils/commissioners took into consideration in their collective action against Arizona SB 1070 the uncounted crime victims and their families, no matter what their immigration status, all victims of the thousands of criminal aliens incarcerated in the DOC and ADC prison systems.
A review of the 1,176 criminal aliens in DOC prisons by numbers per crime equated to the following: 4-arsons; 121-assaults; 33-burglaries; 34-driving offenses; 178-drugs; 5-forgeries; 142-homicides; 49-kidnappings; 68-others; 75-robberies; 452-sex crimes; 11-thefts; and 4-vehicle thefts.
Whereas, the 5,291 criminal aliens in ADC prisons by numbers per crime equated to the following: 10-arsons; 532-assaults; 153-burglaries; 319-driving offenses; 1,721-drugs; 58-forgeries; 497-homicides; 607-kidnappings; 290-others; 373-robberies; 577-sex crimes; 31-thefts; and 123-vehicle thefts.
As dramatic as all the preceding crime numbers are from both prison systems, the numbers of criminal aliens incarcerated for drug crimes particularly stands out. While the DOC had 178 criminal aliens (15.13 percent) incarcerated for drug crimes; the ADC had 1,729 criminal aliens (32.68 percent) incarcerated for drug crimes.
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These numbers are significant, the ADC had 1,551 criminal aliens more incarcerated for drug crimes than the DOC — 971.34 percent more.
With so many crimes being committed on a regular basis locally and nationwide by illegal aliens, just read your local newspaper, these Oregon state, county and city elected officials, seemed to have engaged in a feigned ignorance as to the source of the preceding crimes, the country of origin of the majority of criminal aliens in both the DOC and ADC prison systems.
The country of origin of 992 of the 1,176 criminal aliens in DOC prisons was from Mexico — 84.35 percent.
Likewise, the country of origin of 4,820 of the 5,291 criminal aliens in ADC prisons was from Mexico — 91.10 percent.
Leaving the February 2012 time frame of comparison and contrast of the DOC and ADC prison systems, let us just focus on the most recent criminal alien numbers available from the DOC from the last four years.
In a four year time period, the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in the DOC prison system went from 1,061 alien prisoners on March 1, 2008 to a record number of 1,285 alien prisoners on March 1, 2012; an increase of 224 criminal aliens — a 21.11 percent increase.
Over the same four year time period, criminal aliens incarcerated in DOC prisons for drug crimes increased from 117 alien prisoners on March 1, 2008 to 190 alien prisoners on March 1, 2012; an increase of 73 criminal aliens — a 62.39 percent increase.
In a period of one month, from February 1st to March 1st of 2012, the number of criminal aliens in the DOC prison system increased by 109 alien prisoners — 9.27 percent more.
Over the same preceding time period, criminal aliens incarcerated in DOC prisons who declare their country of origin as being Mexico increased from 992 prisoners to 1,066 prisoners; an increase of 74 Mexican national prisoners — a 7.46 percent increase in one month.
Back to the U.S. federal government’s lawsuit against the State of Arizona over an Arizona SB 1070, the Attorney General of Oregon, the Multnomah County commissioners, the mayors and city councils/commissioners of Beaverton, Tualatin and Portland must withdraw their amicus briefs they presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the U.S. federal government’s lawsuit against Arizona SB 1070 so the case before the nation’s highest court can be settled quickly.
The State of Arizona’s ability to fully implement SB 1070 empowering Arizona law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration law will enabling them to more effectively protect the residents of both Arizona and Oregon from the invasion of criminal aliens primarily from Mexico.
David Olen Cross of Salem (docfnc@yahoo.com) writes on the subjects of immigration and foreign national crime.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120420/OPINION/304200006/Oregon-Multnomah-County-Beaverton-Tualatin-Portland-versus-Arizona-SB-1070
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