Lawmaker proposes releasing immigrants to be deported

RALEIGH — Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand has offered another bill to reduce the number of inmates in the state’s prisons.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the Fayetteville Democrat is proposing that nonviolent illegal immigrants be released to U.S. immigration officials for deportation.

Rand says the change could free up 100 to 150 beds each year, a savings of up to $375,000 annually.

Most illegal immigrants in North Carolina prisons would not be eligible for release under the program.

Rand already has offered a bill to release seriously disabled nonviolent inmates, that proposal would free up about 160 inmates under the proposed rules.

Both changes would amount to about the size of a 252-bed minimum-security prison addition lawmakers authorized last year at a cost of more than $13 million.

Information from: The News & Observer,
http://www.newsobserver.com

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)