FAST FACT: Rapid REPAT program has saved Georgia more than $204 million… HERE

Boston Herald

Illegal immigrants accused of crimes are sometimes deported before trial in instances where they’re picked up by federal immigration authorities. Some local law enforcement agencies around the country are trying to speed the removal process by using fingerprint technology to check both the criminal background and immigration status of arrestees during the booking process.

Rapid REPAT, however, focuses on illegal immigrants already convicted and imprisoned. Proponents say it spares states the cost of incarcerating inmates who’d probably be deported anyway, allowing immigrant inmates to return to their home countries without completing their sentences.

To qualify, inmates must be nonviolent offenders who have received final deportation orders and who have exhausted or waived appeals of their criminal convictions and agree not to fight their removal. They cannot return to the United States after deportation. Inmates must volunteer to participate in the program.

“To us, if we identify one person, one criminal alien, and get him off the streets and out of the country, we’re happy,” said Todd Thurlow, assistant field officer for ICE’s Boston field office.

ICE touts major cost-savings in other states that use Rapid REPAT or similar programs.

In Georgia, the bureau says Rapid REPAT and a predecessor program had saved $204 million and removed 3,612 criminal aliens as of August 2009. And ICE says its Phoenix field office has removed nearly 2,700 people since 2005 under a program that authorizes the deportation of some foreign-born inmates who have served half their sentences.