Ohio sheriff bills fed for jailed illegals

CINCINNATI, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- An Ohio sheriff has billed the Department of Homeland Security $125,000 for the cost of jailing 900 illegal immigrants arrested in his county in the past year.

"Why should Butler County taxpayers have to pay for jail costs associated with people we don't believe should ever have been in this country, let alone this state or county, to begin with?" Sheriff Richard Jones told The Washington Times. "If they don't want to pay for them, then they can deport them."

The sheriff's three bills represent $70-a-day in housing costs for the illegal Mexican immigrants. The county forwarded bills to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Homeland Security agency in charge of detention, in the amounts of $71,610 for October, $30,030 for November and $23,380 for December.

Jones said that although the government may not be legally obligated to pay the bills, he intends to send similar ones every month until the federal government gains control of the border.

"We're not a border state -- we're in the middle of the country -- but I can tell you the people here are fed up with this stuff," he said.