After several months of
delay, state and federal officials have reached an agreement to deport illegal
immigrants with less than six months left on their sentences out of the state's
prisons and into an expedited deportation process.
The memorandum of understanding
between
Oregon and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration &
Customs Enforcement means that inmates who waive all rights to contest a
deportation will have their sentences commuted and be quickly deported.
Six sentences were commuted yesterday after the agreement was signed on
Monday, officials from Gov. Ted
Kulongoski's office said. The vast majority of the 206 inmates eligible
for the early release are from Mexico, state records show.
To be eligible for the early release, inmates must be offenders who've not been
convicted of any violent, sexual or Measure 11 crimes. The early deportation
program was signed into law last summer in Salem as part of a broad cost-saving
corrections package. Lawmakers planned to save $2.1 million by transferring 175
prisoners to federal immigration authorities over the biennium.
The state had expected to save $700,000 by Dec. 1 through the early deportation
program but a legal glitch in reaching the agreement with the feds held it up.
With states across the country strapped by the recession and looking to trim
prison costs, the immigration service agreed to work with states across the
country to deport criminal offenders before their sentences expire. Several
states have deported prisons under the program.
Inmates who participate in the program not only waive their rights to
challenge a deportation, they face significant
federal prison time if they
are caught in the United States again illegally.
--Susan Goldsmith