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April 7, 2008

Sanctuary city fights border crime?

Ed Waage
San Francisco officials have taken US taxpayers for $5.7 million by using grant money designed to prosecute Mexican border related drug and alien smuggling crimes according to an audit conducted by the US Department of Justice Office of Inspector General. The grant money comes from the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative Reimbursement Program (SWBPI) which, according to the audit, was designed to reimburse state and local governments for "costs associated with the prosecution and pre-trial detention of federally initiated illegal immigration and drug and alien smuggling cases that subsequently are declined by the U.S. Attorneys offices and instead referred to state and local jurisdictions."

San Francisco received more SWBPI grant money in 2006 than Los Angeles County or San Diego County which do have bona fide border problems.

The audit states :

Although, San Francisco provided two separate lists in support of the SWBPI cases submitted for reimbursement, according to San Francisco officials neither list was representative of the SWBPI cases submitted for reimbursement because the SWBPI submissions were not based on actual cases. As a result, we found that all of the SWBPI reimbursements submitted by San Francisco were not supported.

In other words, San Franciso officials apparently submitted made-up data to document the expenditure of funds since it had apparently no records for "real" cases. Perhaps there are no "real" cases because the official policy of the City is not ask anyone if they are in the country illegally.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle

Federal officials say they will ask San Francisco to repay the $5.4 million the city has received as part of the program, but they have not determined how to go about it.

This audit comes on the heels of a TV, radio and billboard public relations effort by the City to encourage illegal aliens to relocate to San Francisco where they can receive schooling, health care and other benefits. But the City Controller has projected that the City is facing a whopping $338 million budget deficit next fiscal year so it is not clear how the City can afford to be so generous.

Certainly, the SWBPI funds wasted on San Francisco could have been better used in places like Maricopa County, Arizona where Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been waging a no-nonsense war against border crime.

One wonders why sanctuary cities are even eligible to receive this funding.

Posted at 11:23 AM | Email | | | Share Share