The U.S. Department of Justice is giving $7,524 to the St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office to reimburse some of the costs of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens who have committed serious crimes in the United States.

The money comes from the DOJ’s State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the goal of which is to enhance public safety in communities throughout the nation, the announcement from Sheriff Kevin Wells said.

This opportunity originates from federally mandated programs that the Sheriff’s Office is providing within its County Jail at local cost.

As many local entities are aware, the federal government drives local governments to assume more responsibility for the administration and delivery of government services, often funded with local dollars, according to Wells’s announcement.

In some cases federal funding is available, if the proper request is made. Identifying federal funding stream opportunities and then applying for them are not simple or easy tasks, the news release from the sheriff says. “The interaction between federal, state, and local political entities is complex, and often unwieldy for most local political entities,” according to the announcement.

Wells said a Texas firm helped in securing the funds.

JBI, a public sector consulting firm located in Dallas, specializes in locating and accessing hard-to-find federal reimbursements for local and state governments. JBI does the research, gathers and analyzes the data, and completes the application.

St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office was one of only 894 (out of 3,140) eligible local entities across the U.S. that successfully applied for the funds.