Updated at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday
The Georgia Department of Corrections says the agency has applied to participate in a controversial federal immigration enforcement program that allows state and local officers to enforce federal immigration law.
Like us on Facebook
The program, known as 287(g), trains state and local officers to perform certain duties of federal immigration agents in their jails or prisons, including interviewing inmates about their immigration status and helping start the deportation process.
Gwendolyn Hogan, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Corrections, said the agency submitted an application in September.
“The Department has been and currently works with ICE agents. Earlier this year, our agency was approached by ICE regarding the 287(g) program and was advised that this program would help streamline their processes,” Hogan said in an emailed statement.
Two counties in Georgia have also applied for the program. Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap told WABE on Monday his office has submitted an application for 287(g). Tom Caldwell, chief deputy of Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, also confirmed to WABE that their office has applied to participate.
Four Georgia counties already participate in the program: Gwinnett, Cobb, Hall and Whitfield. Some 60 counties or agencies participate in the program across the country, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has trained more than 1,800 local and state officers to enforce federal immigration law, according to ICE.
The 287(g) program has come under criticism.
Immigrant-rights advocates say the program has led to racial profiling and has caused mistrust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement in reporting crimes in their neighborhoods.
“Community members do not feel that they have any trust in local police in terms of picking up the phone and calling the police,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director at Project South, a civil rights advocacy group. “The kind of trust that local police need in order to be able to do their job of keeping community members safe just does not exist in 287(g) counties.”
Bryan Cox, a spokesperson for ICE, would not comment on the pending applications to the program. In fiscal year 2016, 358 people were deported from the United States through the 287(g) programs in Georgia, according to Cox.
ICE on its website says “[r]acial profiling is simply not something that will be tolerated, and any indication of racial profiling will be treated with the utmost scrutiny and fully investigated.”
