Kuff has numbers on the jail bond vote.
I found it quite interesting that predominantly Latino districts, like H and I, voted against the jail bond–53% and 54%, respectively. Even the Latino vote went against it by 1,000 votes, if you go by those numbers.
I voted against the jail bond because I wanted to stick to my principles–I’m not in favor of Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s insistence on keeping the flawed Latino round-up program, 287(g). He uses this program to boast thousands of apprehensions, a large percentage of which were for low-level offenses, according to performance reports from ICE. Of course, this comes at a cost of about $50 million.
Yesterday, I got a few angry text messages asking me if I knew the Sheriff was asking the Commish court to reauthorize the agreement with ICE. My question to them: Did you vote for the jail bond? Obviously, I wasn’t surprised since the Sheriff has been quite the defender of this flawed program. And it’s a waste of tax money.
Data being collected under a new state law shows Harris County spent nearly $50 million from October 2011 to September 2013 to house immigrants here illegally being held at the request of federal authorities – more inmates by far than any other county jail in the state.
During that time period, the county reported housing 30,306 immigrants with ICE detainers at a total cost of $49.64 million.
On Tuesday, the court accepted an annual federal reimbursement of just $1.8 million for the cost of housing incarcerated illegal aliens in the jail. The county must absorb the rest.
The Sheriff’s office says that ICE detainers have fallen since 2009 and that they are only going after “big fish”–serious criminal. Well, since that’s how the policy was written, it’s nice that almost 20 years later, they’re more focused, right?
I must say, though, that I like Horwitz’s perspective at Texpatriate.
doscentavos.net 
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