Program touted as first of its kind in the country By Mary Lolli
Cox News Service
HAMILTON | Less than 24 hours after President Bush announced a national initiative to reduce the numbers of illegal immigrants living in the United States, Butler County officials launched a county initiative to rid the county of undocumented, foreign-born residents.
Friday, Sheriff Richard K. Jones, county Commissioner Michael Fox and state Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, announced a multi-tiered program they said is the first of its kind in the country.
Beginning Monday, Jones said he will be requiring a declaration of citizenship from all inmates booked into the county jail.
Combs said he is drafting legislation that will make it a state offense for illegal immigrants to cross Ohio's borders.
Fox is working on initiatives to discourage employers from hiring illegal immigrants.
The three said they began working on the issue six months ago, but shelved it when racial tensions boiled over in Hamilton after a Hispanic man was accused of raping a girl.
In retaliation, two teenage boys set the house on fire, destroying it.
The suspect remains a fugitive police said and may have fled to Mexico.
According to national figures federal officials released Thursday, an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are living in the United States and another 3 million are expected to enter the country by year's end.
Although officials have no estimates on the number of illegal immigrants living within the county, Jones said that in the past two years more than 600 inmates had been booked into the county jail without Social Security numbers, which he said makes them undocumented persons.
In the past year, 885 foreign born people had been booked into the jail, some documented, some not.
"It cost us $1 million alone to house just those who were booked into our jail without Social Security numbers," Jones said. "It's more likely than not that an adult living in the United States without a Social Security number is an illegal alien."
Under the new booking program, Jones said detectives will double-check the inmate's citizenship information against his or her birth records.
Those in jail on misdemeanor offenses who falsify their information or are found to be illegal immigrants, will be reported to the federal department of Immigration and Naturalization Services for possible immediate deportation.
Those jailed on a felony offense will first stand trial and then face possible deportation.
To force INS officials to take the local measures seriously, the sheriff said he intends to bill the federal government $70 a day for every illegal immigrant housed at the county jail.
"We're not saying we don't want immigrants to come here and try to make a life for themselves in America," Combs said.