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Each year Pima County taxpayers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to jail illegal entrants accused of misdemeanor crimes.

But the County Attorney's Office is working on a plan that could get them out of jail and back to Mexico and other foreign ports faster.

On any given day, about 10 percent of the prisoners in the county jail are illegal entrants, or believed to be illegal entrants, said India Davis, the jail's support-operations division commander.

Once their local charges have been settled, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement take custody of those here illegally and deport them or begin deportation proceedings.

Right now it takes about 10 days to resolve most misdemeanor cases, either through dismissals or plea agreements.

But Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall and Assistant County Administrator Lindy Funkhouser think they may be able to speed that up.

Instead of waiting until a suspect's pretrial hearing 10 days after arrest to settle the case, they are considering offering misdemeanor suspects plea agreements within a day or two of arrest, when they're arraigned.

In most of the cases, it would be the same deal suspects would get anyway, only sooner. They'd be sentenced to time they've already served in jail, or probation, and transferred to an ICE facility in Florence or Eloy.

Since every inmate costs the county $62.79 per day, the savings would be substantial, Funkhouser said.

In fiscal 2006-07, 400 misdemeanor suspects were released to ICE, Funkhouser said. That includes those being prosecuted by both the city and county.

If all were eligible for plea agreements, and the county could cut the number of days they spent in jail from 10 to one, the savings would be around $300,000 a year, Funkhouser said.

Not every misdemeanor suspect would be offered an accelerated deal, Amelia Craig Cramer, chief deputy county attorney, stressed. Anyone suspected of driving drunk or domestic violence would be excluded.

Those accused of such things as trespassing, littering, failure to pay fines and public urination could be offered a deal, Cramer said.

"We're not looking to do it in any way that would alter the outcome of a case," Cramer said.

Jail officials are gathering data to determine what charges those 400 people were being held on so they can get a more accurate cost-savings estimate, Cramer said.

She also said a part of the savings would have to go toward appointing defense attorneys.

City Prosecutor Laura Brynwood said city prosecutors already offer plea agreements to many misdemeanor suspects at their arraignments. Others are offered plea agreements at review hearings, which are usually held five days after arrest.

Those plea agreements aren't limited to those being held on ICE detainers, however, Brynwood said.

"We are all sensitive, as public servants, to the cost of housing inmates, and we try to plead out as many misdemeanor cases as possible," Brynwood said.

Cramer said the office needs to look for ways to cut costs because hard economic times have hit the federal government and the impact is trickling down to the state and local level.

Pima County Public Defender Robert Hooker has concerns about offering plea agreements at arraignments.

There are people who will enter a plea agreement because they are desperate to get out of jail, but they don't realize all of the ways it may affect their citizenship prospects and other aspects of their life, Hooker said.

If the county follows through on the proposal, it is crucial that defendants are afforded a defense attorney, Hooker said.

Lee Ewing, president of Arizonans for Immigration Control, a Tucson-based group, doesn't think illegal entrants need to spend a single day in our jails.

As soon as they are arrested, they should be escorted to the border, Ewing said.

"These people should be deported immediately. They shouldn't be given any rights," Ewing said. "The only way to solve this problem is to put the military on the border with orders to shoot to kill."