From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Criminal Alien Statistics Description: GAO has updated its March 2011 report on criminal alien statistics in a new report. Take a listen to hear what's changed since then. Related GAO Work: GAO-18-433: Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, Convictions, Costs, and Removals Released: August 2018 [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. This podcast is about criminal aliens. Now, a criminal alien is a person who is not a citizen or national of the United States and who has been arrested and convicted of crimes in the United States. GAO was asked to update a March 2011 report on criminal alien statistics. And Gretta Goodwin, a director in our Homeland Security and Justice team, is with me to talk about this new GAO report with updated numbers. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, Gretta. [ Gretta Goodwin: ] Thank you for having me. [ Matt Oldham: ] I realized I gave a quick definition of what a criminal alien is in the beginning. Could you give a little more context about this group of people? Who are they and how many are there? [ Gretta Goodwin: ] Absolutely. So the populations that we reviewed were criminal aliens who were incarcerated generally between 2010 and 2016. So first we looked at criminal aliens who were incarcerated in federal prison and in 2016, there were about 40,000 criminal aliens in federal prisons. During the five years that we reviewed, most of these criminal aliens were from one of six countries: Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Guatemala. And more than 90 percent were incarcerated for either an immigration or a drug offense. Secondly, we looked at criminal aliens incarcerated in state prisons or local jails. Because there's no reliable data that includes all of the criminal aliens in state prisons or local jails, we reviewed a subset of that population. So in 2015, this subset included about 170,000 alien incarcerations in state prisons and local jails. We also looked at convictions for the state prison systems with the largest number of criminal aliens. Those states were Arizona, California, Florida, New York, and Texas. The most common convictions across these five states were generally related to either a drug, homicide, or sex offense. [ Matt Oldham: ] Now did you find any prevailing trends while updating these statistics? [ Gretta Goodwin: ] We found that the numbers of criminal aliens incarcerated in the federal prisons decreased by about 22 percent over the five year period that we reviewed. Of the subset of criminal aliens that were incarcerated in state prisons or local jails, these numbers decreased by about 40 percent. It cost the federal government about $1.4 billion in 2015 to incarcerate the criminal aliens. This annual cost decreased by about 9 percent during the period of our review and that follows the trend of the decrease in the number of incarcerated aliens. [ Matt Oldham: ] So what happens to these criminal aliens once they've served their time? [ Gretta Goodwin: ] We found that about 95 percent of them were removed from the United States after their incarceration in a federal prison. And then we looked at the re-incarceration. And so 12 percent of aliens who completed a term of incarceration in a federal prison were subsequently re-incarcerated in federal prison over the five year period we reviewed. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] It sounds like federal costs to incarcerate criminal aliens have gone down from 2010 to 2015. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] So, Gretta, what do these numbers mean? [ Gretta Goodwin: ] So what we know about the cost to incarcerate the criminal aliens at the state level– we know that those numbers have gone down because the federal government, they reimburse the states a portion of those costs. Over the years, the amounts of the reimbursements have declined. As it relates to the federal level, we did not look at any of the policy changes that might affect what happens at the federal level. [ Matt Oldham: ] So what do you believe is the bottom line of your report? [ Gretta Goodwin: ] So there are two major takeaways from this report. The first one, back in 2011 when we did the other criminal aliens report, we reported that the numbers of incarcerated criminal aliens and the cost to incarcerate them were generally increasing. This trend has changed and now the numbers and the costs are generally decreasing. The second major takeaway is that our findings about the countries that the aliens came from and the types of offenses for which they were convicted are generally similar to what we reported back in 2011. [ Matt Oldham: ] Gretta Goodwin is a Director in our Homeland Security and Justice team. And she was talking about a GAO report updating criminal alien statistics. Thank you for your time, Gretta. [ Gretta Goodwin: ] Thank you. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham: ] For more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.