Sorry for the delay in posting this, but the end of the year was a bit intense for me.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, December 30, 2008Hundreds of Gwinnett County inmates who are in the country illegally will be fast-tracked for deportation once federal immigration officials begin a 26-day "surge" to screen foreign nationals.
The surge will begin Jan. 12, with federal immigration officials working in 15-person teams from 6 a.m. to midnight at the Gwinnett jail, said Stacey Bourbonnais, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County
Sheriff's Department.The surge is the latest step in an effort to forge a partnership between the county and the federal government that would allow local jailers to begin deportation paperwork.
During the surge, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will check the immigration status of all foreign-born inmates booked into the jail regardless of their claim to citizenship. Inmates here illegally will be processed for removal to their home country, Bourbonnais said.Gwinnett has been waiting since March for approval from ICE to begin training deputies to flag illegal immigrants who are arrested — no matter the offense — for deportation.
"This hopefully will bring us one step closer in getting the green light on that program and will give ICE an idea of the approximate numbers they would be receiving from our jail," said Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway. "I'm very pleased that ICE has committed these resources to Gwinnett County and our citizens."
The Sheriff's Department currently does not track inmates' immigration status, but it does count which ones are foreign-born. So far this year, 14,084 foreign nationals have been booked into the jail, and department officials estimate that about 60 percent of them are here illegally.
The Cobb, Whitfield and Hall County Sheriff's Departments as well as the Georgia State Patrol are already participating in the program, known as 287(g).
Not everyone is in favor of the program. Pastor Carlos Alberto Gutierrez, minister of Mount Sinai Christian Church in Norcross, joined about 50 people earlier this month in demonstrating against the program at the Gwinnett jail.
"It's not a good idea," said Gutierrez. "A lot of families will be separated — children from parents. We're praying every day and every night."
More on this issue, but not necessarily GA only, from MALDEF, Detention Watch Network, The Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
In GA we should keep checking in with This World Now blog. I'm sure they will have an update soon.
Comments (19)
Violent offenders & gang members..yes send them packing.
For years the Gwinnett BOC and Chamber have turned a blind eye to immigration for obvious reasons Build, Build, Build.
Totally agree, if they cannot build things, send them away.
The larger issue is what to do with the literally tens of thousands of illegals who have been working, paying taxes and raising families. Should they be seperated from their family and sent back for a traffic violation? What about anchor babies? It's not exactly family values to split up the family now is it?
I think we should ask these folks one question.. Do you wish to be a US citizen? If yes, them have them start the process by paying a fine, doing community service and getting at the back of the line for citizenship. If they say no, then deport them.
Why exactly call them illegals? The name is dehumanizing.
"I think we should ask these folks one question.. Do you wish to be a US citizen? If yes, them have them start the process by paying a fine, doing community service and getting at the back of the line for citizenship. If they say no, then deport them."
Do you have many foreign friends? I don't think I've ever met a foreign resident here who wouldn't instantly answer YES to the question. Everyone wants citizenship. Who do you expect to say no outside of drug runners and murderers?
"Why exactly call them illegals?"
Because they broke the law.
"Because they broke the law."
You probably speed sometimes. Are you an illegal? Heck, everybody's an illegal then! Wait, does that mean we're all really legal? I mean I'm over 16 so I'm obviously legal...
A more relevant question is:
Do we call the employers who hire undocumented workers "illegals"?
Look, I worked for Homeland Security/GEMA and I understand the need for having an immigration policy where we know who is coming in and out of the country, and there are a lot of legitimate security concerns.
That being said, we should pursue immigration reform without demonizing people who decided they don't want to get shot in a Mexico City drug brawl or join a prostitution ring and wanted to have a shot for the American dream. Calling them "illegals" is just a slur. It removes human agency from them, it turns them into some kind of sinister, criminal conspiracy, alien group. That's not acceptable.
Employers should be held accountable as well. If they hire "undocumented workers" (is that better?) they should be fined an amount equal to the average yearly salary for an employee.
My suggestions still gives any one a shot at citizenship if they want it. Except for violent criminals and gang members, do you not agree with that?
Sndeak I wouldn't say that's an unjustified position.
But one last elephant in the room on immigration: no more NAFTA. We don't need trade deals that basically take a sledgehammer to anyone who isn't one of the multinationals. Immigration spiked right after passing NAFTA, and a workable Mexican economy would be great to get it back down again.
NAFTA sucks. We should be encouraging economic and social improvements in Mexico.
I'm going to avoid NAFTA for now.
The funny thing is I have the classic libertarian position on immigration. I believe immigration is the key to a sustainable economy. I want the borders to be more open. I want the path to citizenship to be easier and god knows less bureaucratic.
And getting those type of policies past the paranoia and fear is a helluva lot more important to me than whether a descriptor is humanizing or not.
OK, but do you understand that using that label exactly stokes paranoia and fear? You gotta put yourself in their shoes.
I understand that fighting that particular battle waste cycles.
"I understand that fighting that particular battle waste cycles."
Good luck getting immigrants and immigrant advocates to work on your Libertarian comprehensive reform plan while simultaneously insulting them.
Good luck getting anything passed if you reject allies just because they don't walk and talk the way you want 100% of the time.
"Good luck getting anything passed if you reject allies just because they don't walk and talk the way you want 100% of the time."
I didn't reject you, I just told one person that there's a better phrase to use if you don't want to insult the immigrants.
You're a bit too touchy about this mate.
"NAFTA sucks. We should be encouraging economic and social improvements in Mexico."
Ironically, that was one of the stated goals of NAFTA. Ideally, that is what free trade does, encouraging economic and social movement.
"Ironically, that was one of the stated goals of NAFTA. Ideally, that is what free trade does, encouraging economic and social movement."
The important thing to note is that NAFTA doesn't really have anything to do with free trade anymore than the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) has anything to do with democracy.
It essentially disposes of tariffs and protections for the poor, expands rights of investors, and allow big multinationals to keep getting subsidies on their agriculture goods, for one, sending them into Mexico where true-price farmers are put out of work by the millions.