Sheriff’s officials gearing up for immigration program
Deputies to be authorized to detain illegal immigrants


By Stephen Gurr
sgurr@gainesvilletimes.com

UPDATED Jan. 8, 2008
Hall County deputies will soon begin deportation proceedings for any person booked into the county jail who is determined to be in the country illegally.


Sheriff Steve Cronic said nine of his deputies began training today for the 287(g) program, a local-federal partnership that gives sheriff’s officials new authority in enforcing immigration law.


Cronic had been waiting for approval for the program for nearly a year. Hall County and Whitfield County will be the second and third jurisdictions in Georgia to implement the program, which Cobb County began last year.


The sheriff said anyone who commits a crime that requires them to be booked into the jail will be subject to deportation if they are in the country illegally. He said the program was not aimed at rounding up illegal immigrants.


“This program is not anti-immigrant,â€