BOONE COUNTY, MO. -- Boone County Jail Administrators are seeing more illegal immigrants at their facility even though there’s been fewer illegals arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Jail records show there were 63 immigration detainers last year.
That compares to only 48 illegal immigrants in the Boone County Jail in 2009.
Four years ago, former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed a law requiring state troopers to check the immigration status of anyone jailed by the highway patrol.
Boone County Jail Officials said that law created a better awareness of the status of immigrants in Missouri.
Deputy Sheriff Tom Reddin said, “We had 54 in 2008. It went down to 48 in 2009. Then, it went to 63 in 2010. We may very well be below 50 or 48 or whatever in 2011. Sometimes numbers are just numbers and they are cyclical.”
Government statistics show there were about 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States during 2008.
That’s down from about 12 million in 2007.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG