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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    GA: Some communities left out of immigration program

    Posted: Saturday, August 28th 2010 at 7:19am
    Some communities left out of immigration program
    By The Associated Press

    ATLANTA - Several Georgia communities have been rejected from participating in a federal program aimed at helping local authorities remove illegal immigrants who are dangerous from their communities.

    Critics say the program could encourage racial profiling.

    The Forsyth County Sheriff's office confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the agency was among those rejected. The taxpayer-funded program allows local officials to investigate immigration status of people arrested and jailed for other crimes.

    Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison told the newspaper that he applied for the money in 2008 and had not yet received an answer. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the county's request is still under consideration.

    They are among Atlanta-area sheriffs and police chiefs eager to sign on because the program would give them federal enforcement powers they don't have now. Those powers include the authority to detain, process and transport illegal immigrants for deportation.

    Law enforcement officials believe the program could reduce the number of both criminal and non-criminal illegal immigrants in their communities.

    In Cherokee County, Garrison said deputies have arrested 647 non-U.S. citizens, some of whom may be in the country illegally, so far this year.

    Critics have complained the program, called 287(g), could lead to racial profiling and discourage immigrants from reporting crimes to police. The National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights organization based in Washington, released a report Friday calling on the Obama administration to scrap the program.

    "It is being used as a roundup, a legal way to round up people who are not wanted in those particular counties," said the Rev. Tracy Blagec, spokeswoman for a coalition of churches and community organizations called Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment.

    But many cities and counties want into the program. A spokeswoman for ICE said her agency can't accept everyone into the $68 million program, in part because of limited funding. ICE covers the costs of supervising the program, training officers and buying equipment. ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said Cherokee County and the city of Roswell's applications are still under consideration.

    Roswell has applied three times since 2006. The first application was rejected, and it never got a decision for its request in 2008 to start the program in its jail, said City Police Chief Ed Williams. The third request sent in May is pending.

    Nationwide, the federal government has received 207 applications from cities, counties and state agencies wishing to join the 287(g) program since it started in 2002, according to ICE statistics.

    Some communities are not eager to apply.

    DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown said he is concerned he doesn't have the staff needed to participate. He said his department currently has 80 openings for detention officers. He said he would have to send 15 to 20 deputies for weeks of outside training.

    "That would just cripple me right now," Brown said.

    The Fulton County Sheriff's Office does not plan to apply, saying that illegal immigrants make up less than 2 percent of the inmate population.

    But Roswell Mayor Jere Wood said his department needs the program.

    About a third of the inmates in Roswell's 55-bed jail last year were foreign-born and could not provide a Social Security number, city police said.

    http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=231814
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  2. #2
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    Ga. communities lack funding for illegal immigrants
    Federal program aims to deport those convicted of crimes
    By Jeremy Redmon
    August 28, 2010

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    Several Georgia communities have been shut out of a taxpayer-funded federal program aimed at ridding localities of dangerous illegal immigrants, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

    The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week it is among those rejected from participating in the federal 287(g) program, which empowers local officials to investigate the immigration status of people arrested and jailed for other crimes.

    After Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison complained to the AJC this week that Washington hadn’t yet given him a decision on the request he sent in 2008, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the county’s request is still under consideration.

    They are among metro Atlanta sheriffs and police chiefs eager to sign on because the program would give them federal enforcement powers they don’t have now, including the authority to detain, process and transport illegal immigrants for deportation. Having the program, they said, could vastly shrink the number of illegal immigrants — both criminals and noncriminals — in their communities.

    So far this year in Cherokee, for example, sheriff’s deputies have arrested 647 non-U.S. citizens, who may be in the country illegally, Garrison said. Cherokee’s jail was holding 53 of them for federal immigration officials to screen as of Tuesday, a development Garrison called a “major burden.â€
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  3. #3
    Senior Member Dixie's Avatar
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    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  4. #4
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    These state have 60% or more of their jurisdictions enrolled in The I.C.E. Secure Communiy Program.

    AZ. 11 of 16 - 68%
    CA. 35 of 58 - 61%
    DE. 3 of 3 - 100%
    FL - 67 OF 67 - 100%
    TX. 193 of 260 - 74%
    VA. 129 of 129 - 100%

    All other states do NOT.

    GA. has 3 of 159 jurisdictions enrolled.

    Georgia
    Gwinnett 11/17/2009
    Clayton 11/17/2009
    DeKalb 11/17/2009
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


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