Whiplash in Gwinnett, Cobb as new immigration law takes effect

On a Tuesday morning in January almost four years ago, the notes of a mariachi band rang through the Cobb County Jail .

New Democratic sheriffs taking over from Republicans in Cobb and Gwinnett counties were celebrating the end of partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement known as 287(g) agreements, which give sheriffs’ offices certain powers to investigate immigration cases.

It was a drastic about-face in the messaging of both sheriff’s offices, which two years earlier led the nation in referrals to ICE through the program.

Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens proclaimed “a new era.” In Gwinnett, where a quarter of residents are foreign born, Sheriff Keybo Taylor said to voters in reference to ending the program: “You spoke and I listened.”

But last month, Georgia’s controversial new immigration law, House Bill 1105 , took effect, requiring all 159 county sheriffs in Georgia to apply for 287(g) or unspecified similar federal immigration enforcement partnerships.

The impact of the 287(g) program on deportations is murky in both counties, but ending the agreements after the 2020 election signaled the new sheriffs were friendlier to immigrants as a similar change took place in the White House.

The new law’s 287(g) provision does not seem to have radically changed immigration enforcement in either county so far, but it is leading immigrants there to watch the presidential election with anxiety and a sense of whiplash.

The 287(g) agreements vary by county, but commonly give jail employees access to federal databases to investigate the immigration status of inmates. The contracts can also allow deputies to issue detainers and charging documents for inmates suspected of being in the country illegally, saving ICE the trouble.

Even when local jails refer undocumented immigrants to ICE, the federal government ultimately decides who to prioritize for deportation. In that way, the importance of 287(g) agreements could depend on the results of the presidential election in November, and the policies outlined by the new administration.

“We don’t expect for the law to fundamentally change the way people live their lives with a federal enforcement priority that is focused on violent criminals, which is what’s happening now,” said Gigi Pedraza, executive director of the Latino Community Fund Georgia. “Federal enforcement can change every time there is an executive branch change.”

Former Republican President Donald Trump has promised to carry out an unprecedented mass deportation program if he is re-elected. Vice President Kamala Harris, in her speech accepting the presidential nomination at last week’s Democratic National Convention, said she supported tightening border enforcement while creating a pathway to citizenship.

During the 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden pledged to end all Trump-era 287(g) agreements — which accounted for the vast majority — and limit use of the program. But 135 agreements still remain on the books nationwide, all dating from the Trump administration. No new 287(g) agreements have been signed under Biden, according to a list maintained by ICE.

HB 1105 requires sheriffs to apply for federal partnerships annually. If the Biden administration rejects agreements this year, a potential Trump administration could approve them in the future.

Leslie Palomino, the Georgia program coordinator for the national advocacy organization Poder Latinx, lives in Gwinnett County, as do some of her extended family members who are undocumented immigrants from Peru.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Palomino said her phone “blew up” when HB 1105 passed. Relatives have been asking whether it’s still safe to drive to work or take their children to soccer games, she said.

“People are afraid there’s going to be more ICE raids, more checkpoints,” she said.

The new law’s supporters say it will increase public safety in response to the killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus in February. The suspect is a Venezuelan man who entered the United States illegally, according to ICE.

The immigration enforcement powers of sheriff’s offices are moot for many metro Atlantans who receive traffic citations because police often release them without bringing them to jails. But Georgia does not provide driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, and driving with out a license can be — and often is — a jailable offense.

Everyone detained at the Cobb jail completes an intake form that includes questions designed to verify immigration status, a protocol that existed before Owens took office and continues under him. Even after 287(g) was eliminated, Cobb jail deputies kept referring detainees to ICE for further investigation if they provided answers that raised doubt about their status or did not answer those questions at all, Owens said.

It is unclear whether fewer inmates were deported from the Gwinnett or Cobb jails after 287(g) ended in both counties. A Freedom of Information Act request for the number of deportations from the jails in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years has not been answered.

The Migration Policy Institute, a liberal think tank, estimates 77,000 undocumented immigrants live in Gwinnett County and 39,000 live in Cobb.

According to federal data, 875 people were deported from the Gwinnett and Cobb jails due to the 287(g) program during the fiscal year that ran from October 2019 through September 2020. For about half that year, fewer people were being jailed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In each of the two fiscal years before that, more than 1,200 were deported from the two jails.

Owens said he was not going to apply for 287(g) again because he can’t spare deputies to investigate immigration cases or do the administrative paperwork. Local law enforcement agencies all over the country are facing historic staffing shortages, he noted. But ICE agents visit the Cobb jail multiple times a week to handle the cases themselves, Owens said.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Sheriffs who fail to comply with HB 1105 face misdemeanor criminal penalties and the loss of state-administered grant funding. Owens said he is following the law by fulfilling its immigration enforcement mandates, such as holding suspects wanted by ICE, even if he never applies for 287(g).

“We have a great working relationship with our ICE officers,” he said. “I don’t have to go and sign a contract to work with ICE.”

Taylor declined to comment for this article.

Taylor and Owens are running for re-election in November against Republican opponents. Taylor faces Mike Baker and Owens faces David Cavender.

The new law and its penalties have limited Democrats’ ability to oppose the 287(g) program on the campaign trail. It has not been heavily debated this year in Gwinnett.

In Cobb, Cavender’s website lists “collaborating with ICE to remove criminal illegal aliens” as one of his top issues. A vocal Trump supporter, his campaign messages frequently include the phrases “America first” and “Secure our borders.”

The Fulton and DeKalb county sheriff’s offices did not respond to questions about applying for 287(g).

Lindsay Williams, a regional ICE spokesperson, declined to say which, if any, Georgia sheriff’s offices have applied this year. The state corrections department and sheriff’s offices in Floyd, Hall, Oconee, Polk and Whitfield counties all have current agreements, dating to the Trump administration.

Just as sheriff’s offices don’t need 287(g) agreements to refer inmates to ICE, the agreements on their own don’t require deputies to go out of their way to investigate immigration cases, said Lena Graber, senior staff attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

“That really comes down to a question of management by the sheriff and how they discipline officers, how they instruct officers, what they prioritize,” she said.

In response to the new law, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights has been distributing “know your rights” materials, reminding people they have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions without a lawyer present, even in jail.

Even though people were still being deported out of the jails, eliminating 287(g) in Gwinnett and Cobb gave many immigrants the sense that they could run errands — and report crimes — without being targeted, advocates said.

“I think it was courageous of them to say publicly they were ending 287(g) to rebuild trust,” Pedraza said. “Our community’s not used to that, people standing up for them.”

Sheriffs who were elected on promises to end the program now need to clear up confusion about what HB 1105 means for their counties, said Kyle Gomez-Leineweber, director of public policy and advocacy for GALEO Impact Fund, which works to increase Latino political power in Georgia.

“The sheriffs need to communicate to their communities in a culturally competent way, in a linguistically competent way ... as to what they’re going to do, and what implementation is going to look like, and how they see their role being in enforcing 1105 and what they’re going to do to keep these communities safe,” he said.

In the absence of information, people are afraid and upset, GLAHR Executive Director Adelina Nicholls said.

“Now it is a different story and I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of the presidential election,” she said.

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