Thread: Cobb jail looks into all inmates' immigration status

ajc.com > Metro > Cobb
Cobb jail looks into all inmates' immigration status

Published on: 07/30/07
Maria Rivera sits in the Cobb County Jail, facing deportation after a traffic stop.

If the Mableton mother of three, who is here illegally from Mexico, had been pulled over in any other county in Georgia, she likely would have bailed out and gone on with her life.

But Cobb County's jail is at the forefront of local enforcement of immigration laws, going a step further than many states and further than a new Georgia law requires.

Cobb has trained some sheriff's deputies to determine the legal status of all foreign born inmates at the jail, no matter how minor the charge. Cobb jailers now can start deportation proceedings under what's known as a "287-G" agreement with federal immigration authorities.

"The computers are up and running," Cobb County Chief Deputy Sheriff Lynda Coker said. "They can run inquiries on a federal database."

A new state law effective July 1 requires jailers statewide to determine the legal status of inmates charged with felonies or DUI and report illegal immigrants to federal immigration officials, but they can leave it at that.

In Cobb, jailers have been trained by federal immigration officials on how to inspect immigration documents.

"They can initiate the removal proceedings themselves," said Richard Rocha, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, known as ICE. "Any time we can share resources with local law enforcement, it's a plus for public safety," Rocha said.

Proceedings against 42

In the four weeks since the program began, Cobb jailers and ICE have interviewed 86 inmates, placed immigration holds on 68 and started deportation proceedings against 42, Coker said. Deportation paperwork done by sheriff's deputies must be reviewed by an immigration officer before it goes to a judge.

Although it's sheriff's deputies, and not Cobb County Police Department officers, who are now processing deportation paperwork, the program is sending a shiver through the immigrant community.

Fear destroys any rapport the community had with police, said Jerry Gonzalez, head of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

"This is having a very negative effect on overall public safety," Gonzalez said.

Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University Law School, agrees. The institute is a nonprofit Washington think tank that studies global migration patterns.

"People are reluctant to report crimes to the police, or be witnesses in criminal proceedings," Chishti said.

As for the agreement's effect on immigration patterns, it's hard to say. Since 2001, there's been an annual net increase of 500,000 illegal immigrants entering the country, Muzaffar said.

"There's no evidence these agreements have led to a decrease in illegal immigration," he said.

Coker stresses that Cobb jailers have had a cooperative relationship with immigration authorities for about 10 years and have reported illegal immigrants to them. What is happening in Cobb now, Coker said, is not much different, except sheriff's deputies can now pitch in on the paperwork.

Some Cobb inmates who have been flagged for immigration holds are charged with child molestation or drugs, weapons and alcohol-related offenses, Rocha said.

"With the success of the program, we've been able to identify people who may otherwise not have been flagged," he said.

Nationwide since 2006, local jailers have identified more than 20,000 illegal immigrants through cooperative agreements with the federal government like Cobb's, Rocha said.

Whether and how an inmate is flagged as illegal may differ in each case as it goes through the system. Some jails have dedicated ICE officers to identify illegal immigrants as they are booked. At others, ICE relies on local jailers to notify them if an inmate may be here illegally, Rocha said.

Inmates collected by ICE right away are usually those facing lesser charges, Coker said. Those with more serious charges usually go to trial and serve time if convicted, she said. It's up to ICE to deport them after they serve their time.

Traffic violations

Rivera was flagged because she had been deported before, in March 2006, after crossing the Mexican border illegally, Rocha said.

Rivera crossed again last year and went to Chicago with her husband and three children, said Enrique Farias, her roommate. About six months ago she came to Mableton with her children, Farias said.

His sister cared for the three children a few weeks while their mother was in jail, he said, until an uncle from Chicago came last week took the children home with him.

Rivera was stopped by a Cobb County police officer July 11 on her way to work as a house cleaner, Farias said. She is charged with driving without a license, having no proof of insurance and an expired tag, according to jail records.

Cobb County police Chief George Hatfield said his officer had no choice but to enforce the law with Rivera.

"It's sad if she's got the three children and everything, but she should have thought about that before she got behind the wheel of a car," he said.








Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/ ... _0730.html


EMAIL THIS | Close


Check the box to include the list of links referenced in the article.

Deport her and tell here she will spend 5 years in jail if she comes back!! something tells me her children are illegal also!


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---- "ACTIVE PROJECTS"----PLEASE GET INVOLVED
CALLING ALL ALIPACERS AND LOOKIE LOU'S DO YOU WANT OUR LAWS ENFORCED? PLEASE HELP! LINK BELOW!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... c&p=429504
DIXIE NEEDS HELP ON A NEW PROJECT!!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=73375
ALIPAC needs donations to stay afloat and in the fight Please give what you can!!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=C ... page&pid=9

Poor baby...she has 3 anchor kids....hopefully they go thru with it....isn't it a MANDATORY 8 year prison term if you get deported and come back....It didn't take her long to get back here...IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People are reluctant to report crimes to the police, or be witnesses in criminal proceedings," Chishti said.

Yeah , Great point .

"People are reluctant to report crimes to the police, or be witnesses in criminal proceedings," Chishti said

...yeah, like that matters. The same crimes they are witnessing are the crimes they, or others in their unassimilated ethnic enclave, are committing so they wouldn't be reporting them anyhow...regardless of 287(g). So the bonus of 287(g) is that we'll have less illegals here committing crimes that they wouldn't be reporting anyway since they are likely committing the crimes they aren't reporting.