2,000 referred for deportation since 287(g) put in place
Program allows local authorities to turn over illegal immigrants

By Stephen Gurr

UPDATED April 16, 2010 11:32 p.m.

Two years after sheriff’s officials started an immigration enforcement program known as 287(g), some 2,000 people arrested in Hall County while in the country illegally have been turned over to federal officials for possible deportation.

The number of those who have been taken into custody by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have varied month to month, but appears to be diminishing.

From a peak of 146 in July 2008, Hall County has seen a record low the last two months. In February and again in March, 49 people were taken into custody by ICE at the Hall County Jail. The monthly count has been below 100 since September 2009.

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office became the third law enforcement agency in Georgia — and only the 67th nationwide — to use 287(g) when it began the program in April 2008. It gives designated sheriff’s employees the ability to check the immigration status of people booked into the Hall County Jail and to begin processing them for possible deportation by ICE. The federal government makes the final decision on whether people detained locally on immigration violations will be picked up for deportation proceedings.

In the first year of the program, 1,099 people were picked up by ICE, according to Hall County Sheriff’s records. In the second year, 982 people were transported from the jail by federal officials.

In Cobb County, which has a population of about 700,000 compared to Hall County’s 180,000, some 6,600 people have been picked up by ICE since the county’s sheriff’s office started the program there in July 2007.

Supporters of the program say it has reduced violent crime and drug trafficking in the communities where it is used.

“The real value of 287(g) in addition to the deportation of illegal aliens is its deterrent factor,â€