Illegal aliens from all over Ore. held in the Lane County jail
The cost to taxpayers: $95 a day, per person, paid by the federal government. Nationally, there are an estimated 30,000 immigration holds.
The people being held have records of convictions ranging anywhere from driving under the influence to assault, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Are our communities safer because of this program?
"I think so and when you see some of the crimes these people have been arrested for, I think you'll agree with this," said Neil Clark with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Criminal Alien Program focuses on illegal immigrants like Edgar Hernandez-Cortes.
"I used to be ah methamphine... methophena..." said Hernandez-Cortes.
"Methamphetamine?"
"Yeah, and I get caught with some of that stuff," Hernandez-Cortes said.
A fingerprint revealed he had crossed the border several times.
"From California to Douglas, Ariz. Any Texas attempts?" asked Clark.
"Yeah, I think I did two," said Hernandez-Cortes.
"You went to Texas twice?" asked Clark.
Hernandez-Cortez has been in and out of prison just as often.
His criminal history includes illegal re-entry after deportation, drug possession and assault against his wife, but his lifestyle choices may leave the biggest scars on his U.S. born children.
"I don't know how to explain it, but I think they hurt because they miss me. And I don't know what's going to happen to them. You know?" said Hernandez-Cortes.
Mexican national Guadalupe Villa-Rubio is in the same boat as Hernandez-Cortez. He will leave behind his U.S. born wife and kids.
"I don't feel really good about it. They depend on me, and she's from here," he said.
And because of his criminal history, including two convictions for driving on a suspended license and one DUII, Villa-Rubio's 7-year-old daughter might grow up without a father.
"If it's a murderer down to the lowest crime of shoplifting, those are people that the law covers, and we have to enforce the law equally," said Clark.
So far for 2008, almost 40,000 criminal aliens have been deported through this program across the nation. But more than double that amount of non-criminal aliens, which ICE defines as an "alien without criminal convictions," have also been deported.
