Enforcement works # eight gazillion
From today’s AJC on Cobb County, Georgia’s use of 287 g training to expand existing authority to enforce immihgration laws.
( Hint: Illegal aliens are leaving Cobb)
IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: HARD REALITIES OF DEPORTATION
Crackdown in Cobb: Jail is holding more inmates longer as the Sheriff’s Office sets a state precedent in checking whether suspects are in the U.S. illegally.
By Mary Lou Pickel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/11/07
Somewhere between the bonding window and the visitation desk at Cobb County’s jail, the gravity of the situation hit Patricia Trujillo.
She had paid her husband’s bond on charges of driving without a license and speeding.
Then a clerk handed her a yellow Post-it with a number for immigration enforcement.
Her husband faced possible deportation for overstaying his visa.
As the prospect sunk in, Trujillo’s face distorted into a square-mouthed grimace of despair, the tears shooting from her eyes, dripping onto her black leather jacket.
Cobb’s Hispanic population is learning the hard reality of heightened immigration enforcement at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
The new deportation program means more families wait at the jail to learn if a loved one will be released.
It means families don’t know whether to pay bond on local charges if there is the chance a relative will be held anyway until the federal government deports him. Visits at the jail have been limited to one per week because of the volume of inmates, for an array of reasons.
On top of that, immigrant advocates say some inmates are held longer than permissible while the sheriff’s staff decides whether to press immigration charges. They say Cobb County is targeting Latino immigrants in traffic stops.
But the new program appears to have repercussions for the jail as well.
Although Sheriff Neil Warren said the program isn’t causing crowding, more inmates are held longer at an already crowded facility.
Three lawsuits were filed alleging prisoners were held longer than allowed. All were dismissed because prisoners were released on their own recognizance to face an immigration judge later.
“I think they got so many people, they don’t know exactly what they’re doing,” said Chris Taylor, a partner with Hernan Taylor & Lee, the law firm that sued.
During one week in October, 477 people sat in jail facing possible deportation.
Of the 477, 326 were waiting for local charges to be satisfied first, either by paying bond or serving time, and 151 were ready to be picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The jail has a total population of about 2,800, about 200 more than in May. Annually it books 40,000 inmates.
Warren acknowledges the jail is crowded.
“Is it because of just immigration? No. It’s because of the drugs and crime in our community,” he said.
But Cobb has asked ICE to assign a federal officer to the jail seven days a week instead of five. At the same time, the sheriff has asked ICE to certify the facility as one that can hold prisoners for extended periods until ICE can pick them up.
Cobb is the only jail in Georgia to sign an agreement with the federal government to help enforce immigration laws as people are booked into jail. The Georgia Department of Public Safety, the Department of Driver’s Services and a few GBI agents have taken federal training to enforce immigration laws.
Doranely Lopez, 22, learned about the jail’s stricter visitation rules last week. Her husband, who has been in jail for three weeks on charges of driving without a license and running a light, faces deportation to Mexico. Lopez paid her husband’s bond of $760 last month, but she didn’t see him because she says she did not have the right ID to enter the jail.
“I just wanted to see him one last time,” Lopez said. She returned this week to try again, bringing her 3-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen.
Jerry Gonzalez, an activist for immigrants’ rights, said Warren is causing more problems than he is solving.
“They’re inundating immigration with minor traffic violations instead of focusing on people who commit major crimes,” said Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials
Read the rest HERE, while the link lasts.