Why does ICE waste huge amounts of money?

Is our federal government out of control? Of course...

I know a man who is stuck in ICE custody in the McHenry County Jail. He has been there since June.

Our County Sheriff has to love the deal he cut. The County added onto the jail, and Nygren cut a deal with ICE to house Federal "detainees" for approximately $90.00/day.

The man to whom I'm referring was arrested in Chicago, entered a negotiated plea on his charges and was sentenced to, and served, four months in Cook County Jail. Upon his eligibility for release, ICE grabbed him and transported him to McHenry County Jail.

He's in the U.S. illegally. No doubt about that. He overstayed his visa. He has settled his debt with society for the criminal charges. He can't come up with $5,000 bail, which has a 100% bond amount. No 10% and "out the door" for detainees.

Now, should he be held in custody at the $90.00/day rate? His next court date with an immigration judge is in mid-December. At that point he will have been in custody for six months. 180 days at $90.00/day = $16,200.

If ICE smartened up and had any interest in cutting costs, it could use electronic monitoring, which costs about $15.00/day. 180 days x $15.00 = $2,700.

Multiply these numbers by tens of thousands of detainees in the U.S. Most of them are not a risk to society. Some of these are people who may have just had a headlight out, got stopped and, the next thing they knew, they were behind bars.

What if they slip off the electronic device and disappear? If they leave the U.S., fine; they're gone. If they just take off, one of these days they'll get stopped for something.

At that point a condition of their release on electronic monitoring could be immediate deportation. Ship them home for $500 airfare. Still a lot cheaper than $16,200 for a six-month stay at Hotel Nygren.

Where do Representatives Manzullo, Walsh and Hultgren stand on this? Oh, and those two U.S. Senators, too.