Southeast Montana News

McCone County Jail officials had no arrests or incarcerations involving illegal aliens in the jail in the time period since July 1, 2021. 

The jail confirmed to Southeast Montana News on Thursday May 30 that it doesn’t record the citizenship of perpetrators housed there, in response to a Freedom of Information Request.

On Thursday May 30, Southeast Montana News asked the jail for a list of illegal alien inmates and the taxpayer cost of housing them.

McCone County Jail has a capacity of 174 inmates in its general population as of March 23, 2024.

In 2021, Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill into law requiring all Montana cities to comply with federal immigration regulations, despite the state currently having no sanctuary cities. This legislation prohibits state agencies and local governments from enacting or enforcing policies that would prevent officials from sharing information about an individual's citizenship or immigration status with federal, state, or local authorities. The law also mandates that state and local entities must comply with requests from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding the release or detention of individuals. In recent years, numerous cities across the United States have declared themselves "sanctuaries" for undocumented immigrants, aiming to protect them from federal arrest and deportation efforts.

In March, the sheriff of Butler County, Ohio reported that his jail had housed 999 illegal aliens since July 1, 2021 at a cost of $1,757 per inmate, or $1.8 million to taxpayers.

An Oct. 2020 U.S. Department of Justice report estimated that, at the 2019, there were 51,074 “known or suspected” illegal aliens in U.S. federal jails and that the average cost to house a prisoner was $88.19 per day. The report found that housing illegal aliens in these jails costs U.S. taxpayers $4.5 million per day and $1.64 billion per year.