We don’t write about politics much – because we don’t care! – but this little item caught our eye: Oregon State Rep. Dennis Richardson has an idea about what to do with undocumented immigrants in Oregon, and he told everybody about it in his latest newsletter. Does he want to send them back to the countries from which they came? No. He wants to send them to jail. But not just any old jail. Chinese jail!
From Richardson’s January 21 newsletter:
“For instance, how about considering the effect on both cost and recidivism for Illegals who are sent to do their time in a private prison in China. With contractual agreements regarding care, treatment, nourishment, basic living conditions, etc., Illegals could be incarcerated for less than $10,000 per year-a fraction of current costs in Oregon. Plus, it would free up bed space and thereby avoid having to build or expand Oregon prisons. California contracts with Tennessee prisons, so why how about Oregon contracting with its number one export partner, China. (Certainly there might be federal issues with moving prisoners across international borders, but creative thinking is about “what if” and not “no, because.”)”
Oh boy, what an idea! It’s basically just like immigration reform, except instead of reforming immigration laws, he just wants to send people to Chinese death camps or whatever. Thing about China is: There aren’t any private prisons! They are all state run – just like basically everything else! But maybe our friend Dennis wants to send folks to China’s lovely Black Jails, which are basically torture chambers for political dissidents and other troublemakers. Sure, it might be, like, against international human rights laws, the exact opposite of US extradition policy and completely fucking insane. But still! Taxpayer money, etc.! WHAT ABOUT THE BUDGET, EVERYONE?
And plus, what about all of those private prison companies that supported those crazy old Arizona immigration laws? We don’t think they’d appreciate you shipping undocumented folks out of the country instead of to their their lovely jails in, like, Idaho and Tennessee and shit, would they?
And wait, Dennis: What about all of the taxpayer money we’d spend on those probably illegal extradition flights to Chinese jails?
This plan raises so many questions!