June 12, 2007

Cobb County deputies checking jail for illegal immigrants

The Associated Press - MARIETTA, Ga.

The Cobb County Sheriff's Office has begun screening county jail inmates to find out if they are illegal immigrants.

The move makes the sheriff's office the first local law enforcement agency in Georgia to begin the practice and one of only a handful nationwide.

It comes after six deputies graduated Friday from a four-week training program with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Herndon, Va. They were trained in areas such as immigration law, cross-cultural communication, civil rights, criminal law, document examination, alien processing and identification and enforcement.

In addition to conducting interviews, the newly empowered deputies will be able to determine whether anyone who enters the jail is in the country illegally by comparing fingerprints with those in ICE and FBI databases.

An ICE supervisor will have final approval on whether a retainer should be placed on a person with questionable immigration status.

"I need to know who comes into this jail and who goes out," Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren said. "Just like any individual for whatever reason who's arrested and comes into Cobb Jail, their fingerprints will be placed into the database."

On Monday, of the 2,155 inmates at Cobb County Jail, there were some 324 foreign nationals. Of those, 63 have been labeled as persons of interest to federal immigration authorities, Warren said.

Warren said of the recent inmates assigned retainer status by ICE, most are in jail because of rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

Felicia Skinner, ICE's acting field director for detention and removal operations, said local law enforcement agencies are on the front lines of the federal government's effort to curb illegal immigration.

"Oftentimes, county jails are the first responders," Skinner said. "They encounter these individuals in their facilities who pose a threat to national security and also to our communities. So it's a public safety issue."

Warren said authorities are not trying to target any particular group and simply want to get criminals off the streets.

However, Cobb County Police Chief George Hatfield blamed much of the violent crime in the county on Hispanic criminals.

"Armed robberies in our county are up 19 percent. We had a decrease in homicides from '05 to '06. Unfortunately, this year they're up and a lot of it is in the Latino community," Hatfield said. "A lot of it is being perpetrated by folks who are undocumented who are here."

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_ne ... p?ID=93655