{"id":14319,"date":"2019-08-08T10:34:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T15:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/?p=14319"},"modified":"2019-08-08T12:52:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T17:52:19","slug":"answering-the-smear-being-spread-by-the-gwinnett-daily-post-arent-reporters-expected-to-contact-people-in-their-stories-when-they-spread-the-splcs-smears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/2019\/08\/08\/answering-the-smear-being-spread-by-the-gwinnett-daily-post-arent-reporters-expected-to-contact-people-in-their-stories-when-they-spread-the-splcs-smears\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering the smears being spread by the Gwinnett Daily Post: Aren’t reporters expected to contact targets in their stories when they spread the SPLC’s smears?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: Gwinnett Daily Post<\/p><\/div>\n

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This below is from a newspaper that happily published my immigration columns for more than a decade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Archiving two Gwinnett Daily Post articles here in which that newspaper helps pass along the lies and smears from the discredited SPLC et al<\/em> and one in which it helps a race-baiting politician get more signatures on a hate petition intended to discredit a law and order sheriff and to neuter my pro-enforcement efforts here in Georgia where we have more illegal aliens than green card holders. The Gwinnett illegal alien population is estimated by MPI to be about 72,000 – or about 8% of its total population.<\/p>\n

Nobody, including the reporter, Isabel Hughes (“emerging journalist”<\/a>) and the longtime editor, Todd Cline has ever contacted me in any way for comment on either of these articles. The kicker is that for eleven years I wrote pro-enforcement columns for the Gwinnett Daily Post, and they were published by the same editor, Todd Cline. All of those columns can be seen here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Contact the GDP <\/strong>here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sparks fly at community meeting to discuss Gwinnett jail’s 287(g) immigration program<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Isabel Hughes isabel.hughes<\/p>\n

@gwinnettdailypost.com<\/p>\n

Jul 31, 2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a white supremacist!\u201d one woman shouted from the back left side of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center auditorium.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a coward and a sorry little…\u201d a man yelled several minutes later from the opposite back corner, leaving his sentence unfinished.<\/p>\n

The comments, which were directed at two separate panelists, gave voice to tensions that, at times, ran high through GJAC\u2019s auditorium Wednesday night during a \u201ccommunity engagement discussion\u201d about the Gwinnett County Jail\u2019s 287(g) program.<\/p>\n

A partnership between state or local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that allows local jurisdictions to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement, 287(g) has been a controversial issue in Gwinnett in recent months, largely sparked by Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway\u2019s anticipated renewal \u2014 and then official one-year reinstatement \u2014 of the program.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s discussion about 287(g), which was organized by Gwinnett County District 4 Commissioner Marlene Fosque and featured six panelists \u2014 three from what Fosque called the \u201cbenefits,\u201d or pro-287(g) side, and three from the \u201cimpact,\u201d or anti-287(g) side \u2014 was intended to foster a dialogue between the program\u2019s supporters and opponents, the commissioner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sheriff\u2019s department has participated in the 287(g) program for about 10 years, yet no one has brought the two sides together to decide what are the benefits of 287(g) and decide what is the impact,\u201d Fosque said. \u201cI\u2019m a newly elected commissioner, so I\u2019m trying to do new things. I pray at the end of this discussion, (attendees) walk away with a different perspective, or at least a new perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Fosque said it remains to be seen whether attendees\u2019 perspectives were ultimately changed, it certainly wasn\u2019t for a lack of trying.<\/p>\n

With businesswoman Andrea Rivera, District 99 State Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero and local attorney Antonio Molina on the anti-287(g) side and Gwinnett County Sheriff\u2019s Office spokeswoman Deputy Shannon Volkodav, ICE Southern Region Communications Director Bryan Cox and D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society, which pushes for tougher immigration laws but has been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a> as an anti-immigrant hate group, on the pro-287(g) side, the discussion ranged from quotations of bible verses to racial profiling to what ICE\u2019s presence in Gwinnett will be if 287(g) goes away.<\/p>\n

The two sides did agree on one thing, however: fear plays a large role in immigration discussions, though for different reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a conversation about fear,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cPeople have had encounters that (contribute) to that, but it\u2019s also a fear (of immigrants) that\u2019s been imposed on all of us by politicians and others. But one of the reasons that most our parents and grandparents or great grandparents came here is because they were looking for a different life and for a different way of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many immigrants, especially ones who are undocumented, their fear is different than what Rivera spoke of \u2014 it\u2019s a fear of being targeted because of their skin color or immigration status.<\/p>\n

But Cox said much of the immigration-related fear, especially when it pertains to 287(g), is unfounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of fear in the community; of that, we agree. Both sides speak to fear in the community,\u201d Cox said. \u201cHowever, that is based on a significant amount of misinformation. ICE does not do any type of random, indiscriminate enforcement in Gwinnett County, or anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our officers go out for the day to make arrests, they quite literally have in hand a target list. They\u2019re going to a specific place, looking for a specific person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Volkodav said, 287(g)-trained deputies, or any other law enforcement in Gwinnett, are not asking residents about their immigration status \u2014 the only place a county law enforcement officer can question someone\u2019s immigration status is when he or she has been brought to the jail and is charged with a crime.<\/p>\n

Then, too, it\u2019s only one of the specially trained 287(g) deputies who can do the questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is, 287(g) focuses solely on criminal offenders. The only way you\u2019re going to encounter 287(g) is if you\u2019re charged with a crime,\u201d Cox said. \u201cCurrently, ICE goes to the jail and takes custody of a criminal offender, and only that criminal offender. The reality is, in the jurisdictions that don\u2019t work with ICE, this agency has no choice but to send ICE officers into the community to find those criminals. With 287(g), we go to the jail, arrest the target and only the target. Without 287(g), you will see an increased ICE presence; the agency will have no choice but to send more officers onto the streets of Gwinnett County to find those same persons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result of that is, when you\u2019re looking for that target, we also would be more likely to encounter other persons in the country who are in violation of federal immigration law,\u201d Cox continued. \u201cSo, if your position is that you don\u2019t like ICE and you don\u2019t want ICE enforcement, the reality is, 287(g) is your best friend, because this is a program that focuses exclusively on the subset of (undocumented) individuals who commit criminal offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Cox\u2019s words likely didn\u2019t do much to dissuade fear of ICE, Fosque told the Daily Post she felt confident the evening opened the eyes of both pro- and anti-287(g) attendees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it accomplished an opening up of perspectives on how 287(g) operates, as well as the emotions about the impact,\u201d Fosque said. \u201cThat was my whole point \u2014 for both sides, the benefits as well as the impacts, to really understand each other. That\u2019s what I think it did, and I think it accomplished that goal. It didn\u2019t necessarily change minds, but it (offered) the opportunity just to listen to different viewpoints and educate people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entire report with photos here.<\/a><\/p>\n

_ More below<\/p>\n

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Duluth city councilman files petition for Gwinnett BOC to condemn sheriff for choice of speaker at Wednesday 287(g) meeting<\/h1>\n
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