By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA — An immigration enforcement program operating in Atlanta area jails is mostly catching people who commit traffic offenses and misdemeanors and should be overhauled to focus on more serious criminals, a Washington-based think tank said in a report released Monday.
Of those booked into Cobb County’s jail and held for immigration authorities through the 287(g) program last fiscal year, about 80 percent had committed misdemeanors or traffic offenses, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s report. During the same time, more than half of the people held on detainers through Gwinnett’s program were for the same types of crimes, the report said.
Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway called the institute’s findings “false and misleading.” He said people identified through Gwinnett’s program could have committed other crimes or could have been deported previously.
Through the 287(g) program, state and local police are given the power to help enforce federal immigration laws. State lawmakers are now considering legislation aimed at expanding the program in Georgia.
The independent institute, which analyzes international migration and policy, said it also studied 287(g) programs in California, Colorado, Maryland and Virginia. Nationally, about half of people held on detainers for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have committed misdemeanors or traffic offenses, most of which were for driving under the influence or driving without a license, according to the institute’s report. The other half had committed felonies and other serious crimes. The 10 communities — including Cobb — with the largest share of detainers placed on people committing traffic offenses are located in the Southeast, the report said.
The institute said that using the program to catch as many illegal immigrants as possible is causing immigrants to avoid public places, stop driving, mistrust authorities and become reluctant to report crimes. It also is driving up federal detention costs for suspected illegal immigrants facing deportation, the report said.
“We believe if fewer people were brought in on traffic offenses and misdemeanors in Cobb and Gwinnett counties, that this would improve relations between the local police departments and the immigrant community,” Randy Capps, a senior policy analyst and demographer for the institute, told reporters during a conference call Monday.
ICE is responsible for picking up people being held on detainers through 287(g) programs within 48 hours. The federal agency may decide to set them free. It may detain them in federal jails, or release them on bond while seeking to deport them. ICE officials said they are focused on deporting non-citizens who are identified through the program and who have committed violent crimes, including killers, rapists, kidnappers and robbers.
A spokeswoman for ICE said the institute’s report “fails to acknowledge that certain misdemeanors — such as drunk driving and domestic violence — are of serious concern, undermine public safety, and warrant ICE’s attention.”
From 2006 through Nov. 14, 2010, more than 185,000 people amenable to deportation have been identified through the 287(g) program, according to ICE. Of those, more than 130,000 have been deported. Last fiscal year, about 62 percent of the 287(g) cases handled by ICE were for felonies and driving under the influence charges combined.
Gwinnett’s sheriff released a prepared statement about the institute’s report Monday.
“ICE’s figures show that of the inmates we released to them, only 21.8 percent of our cases were traffic-related,” Conway said. “It is disheartening that organizations feel they have to stoop to this level to further muddy the waters on immigration in this country. But, at this point, I think I would be shocked if one of these groups actually put out an honest and truthful report.”
Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Copyright 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution