The state Senate approved an Inland Empire lawmaker?s resolution on Monday that urges the President and Congress to maintain funding for a program in which states are federally reimbursed for housing illegal immigrant prisoners.

?During a month the Legislature is scheduled to cut $1.2 billion out of the Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation budget, there?s a growing consensus to pursue every penny owed to us by the federal government for incarcerating illegal immigrants,? said Sen. John J. Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes), author of Senate Joint Resolution 12.

?Ironically, federal judges are now ordering California to ease overcrowding that the federal government?s inaction has perpetuated,? he said. ?Putting pressure on Washington to pay its obligations is the right thing to do.?

Riverside County law enforcement officials have been key advocates of the funding resolution.

The resolution calls on Congress to continue funding the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), through which states receive federal compensation for keeping illegal immigrants convicted of felonies in prison or illegal immigrants convicted of misdemeanors in jail.

Under President Obama?s 2010 budget proposal, which Congress has tentatively accepted, funding for SCAAP would be totally eliminated in favor of increasing funding for border security.

Under federal law, the U.S. Attorney General can either take an undocumented convict into federal custody or arrange Advertisement
for reimbursements to a state to offset the expense it incurs in incarcerating the alien prisoner.

The average annual cost to house an inmate in California is $49,000, according to the Department of Corrections.

An aide to Benoit said illegal immigrants comprise 12 percent ? roughly 20,500 inmates ? of the state?s prison population.

The cost of housing those prisoners is expected to total $970 million in the current fiscal year ? up 146 percent compared to three years ago, according to Benoit.

Under SCAAP, the state received reimbursement of about 11 percent from the federal government for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, leaving California taxpayers to foot the balance of the bill, he said.

Over the last eight years, Californians have shelled out an estimated $9 billion to cover the cost of imprisoning illegal aliens, according to the senator.

Earlier this year, he introduced SB 125, which would require California?s attorney general to bill the federal government annually for all costs incurred housing illegal aliens in the state penal system.

The bill, which has failed to advance out of committee, would also support legal action against the federal government for neglecting to fully reimburse the state.

Senate Joint Resolution 12, which was unanimously approved in the state Senate, is now being considered by the Assembly.