Governor Perdue has begun to take advantage of a section of 1996 federal law [ 287 (g)] to deal with illegal aliens on a state level. He should be contacted and thanked for doing so. 404 656 1776.

Alabama has proven that 287 (g) works.

We should be asking why our city and county governments are not doing the same, and why many other city and county governments around the nation are ahead of us on doing so.

Below is a news story from North Carolina, a state with a smaller population of illegals than we have here in Georgia. After reading it, why not call your local County Commissioner – or Chairman – and ask why they have not taken advantage of the available federal tool to help deter illegal immigration in your county?

I am.

Carolina Journal Exclusives
Illegal Immigrants Filling Jails
Sheriff’s department officials around state predict thing will worsen

By Karen Welsh
July 27, 2006

RALEIGH — County jails throughout North Carolina are stressed to the limit with illegal immigrants, law-enforcement officials say.

With the lack of immigration control to deal with the estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants residing in the state, it probably won’t be getting better anytime soon.

Kevin Jastzabski, prison captain for the Lee County Sheriff’s Department, said the number of Hispanics clogging the county’s system is getting larger everyday. “We do have a problem, and it is going to keep on growing,” he said “It doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon.”

Randy Jones, director of public information for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Department, said about 40 percent of the inmates in the county’s jail are Hispanics and most of those have illegally entered the country.

Jim Kouri, the fifth vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and a writer for New Media Alliance, said this is not uncommon. Two-thirds of illegal immigrants across the country have been arrested before and 61 percent have been convicted of crimes at least once, he said.

“In the population study of a sample of 55,322 illegal aliens, researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times,” Kouri wrote, “averaging about eight arrests per illegal alien.”

Although it might be a losing battle for now, Rush said, Mecklenburg is trying to make improvements. The county is part of the Section 287(G) Program, designed to keep better track of illegal immigrants. Together, the county and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are fingerprinting and photographing the hundreds of illegal aliens arrested in the area each month.

James Jay Carafano of The Heritage Foundation said Section 287(G) is vital because both state and local law enforcement are critical in aiding federal immigration investigations.

“Section 287(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides the legal authority for state and local enforcement to investigate, detain, and arrest aliens on civil and criminal grounds,” he wrote. “ Any comprehensive border and immigration security legislation by Congress should include provisions for strengthening and expanding programs authorized under Section 287(G).”

Although Section 287(G) has been in existence since 1996, Mecklenburg is the only county east of California that has the program in place. There are others trying to help rectify the situation.

Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., recently announced a regional plan for eight counties in western North Carolina to deal with illegal immigrants.

Read the entire article here.

For those of you in Cobb County, where I have lived for twenty- three years, I’ll get you started with the info below. It is time that our elected officials at the county level show the same courage and determination as many around the nation already have.

Allow me to help out with what you will hear when you call. You will likely be told that county jails are already full and that local law enforcement is already busy dealing with crime. And…that enforcing immigration laws will somehow create a situation of “mistrust in the community”.

The first two are true enough. The latter is nonsense invented by the illegal alien lobby to deter enforcement of existing laws.

What you won’t hear is that once people who are in this nation illegally realize that local police and Deputies are helping the feds enforce immigration laws, they will make it a point to re-locate. That is the point.

Think of places you know are monitored on I – 285…do you drive slower? I do.

Samuel S. Olens
Chairman

solens@cobbcounty.org