5:54 p.m. Monday, January 31, 2011

GA. Report: Illegals caught for minor offenses

By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An immigration enforcement program operating in Atlanta area jails is mostly catching people who commit traffic offenses and misdemeanors and should be overhauled to focus on more serious criminals, a Washington-based think tank said in a report released Monday.

Of those booked into Cobb County’s jail and held for immigration authorities through the 287(g) program last fiscal year, about 80 percent had committed misdemeanors or traffic offenses, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s report. During the same time, more than half of the people held on detainers through Gwinnett’s program were for the same types of crimes, the report said.

Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway called the institute’s findings “false and misleading.â€