San Antonio is not a sanctuary city, but tax payers are paying a hefty price because of the decision, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program requires Bexar County to report undocumented inmates that have been housed for four or more consecutive days in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center and have either one felony offense or two misdemeanor offenses within one fiscal year.
So far this fiscal year, Bexar County has spent $25 million to detain illegal immigrant inmates longer, at the request of Homeland Security. T
he federal government has paid the county back about one tenth that amount, $2.7 million.
The revelation comes as state and federal officials are debating bills that call for so called 'Sanctuary Cities' should be outlawed. But local officials say any decision like that has to take into consideration the costs that local officials pay for housing illegal immigrants.
"When the program started, they used to reimburse you for it," Judge Nelson Wolff tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI. "Reimbursements have gone down 80-percent over a 12 year period.
"Back in Fiscal Year 2004-05, Federal reimbursements to Bexar County were $547,366. Last Fiscal Year, the county received $99,891.
"If (the federal government) wants to pay for it, that's fine. But to push it down on us? That's not right to local taxpayers and local taxpayers ought to start raising hell about it," Judge Wolff explains.
He's shot letters to both the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, demanding assistance. Neither agency has responded.Judge Wolff would not speculate on whether it could get to a point where not being a sanctuary city would be fiscally impossible.