Oconee sheriff asking feds for immigration law training

Two years after day-laborer roundup
By Adam Thompson | ATHENS BANNER HERALD | Story updated at 10:50 PM on Saturday, December 15, 2007

WATKINSVILLE – Two years after immigrant rights groups cried foul when deputies rounded up and arrested 30 Hispanic day laborers, Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry says the controversy mostly has quieted.

Prosecutors late last month dropped local loitering charges against most of the men caught in the raid Dec. 1, 2005, and the sheriff says he’s received no further complaints from businesses near the Epps Bridge Parkway home improvement store where a shifting group of men continues to gather most days looking for work.

If the raid has any legacy, it probably left a false impression with some people that his office is aggressively targeting Hispanics, the sheriff said.

“There’s a very loud minority that seems to think that our motivation was racial. That’s just ridiculous,” he said.

He points to a jail log for October to December that shows more whites than Hispanics were arrested.

It’s also a question of proportion – statistics for the same period also show that 23 percent of male arrestees were Hispanic, versus 58 percent white – but Berry said his office’s law enforcement methods don’t target any group of people.

The arrests in 2005 provoked concern from local residents and Hispanic advocacy groups and, on the flip side, stoked a fiery anti-immigration crowd in and around conservative Oconee County.

Berry insists, though, that the action had nothing to do with the immigration status of any of the men arrested; at the time, he didn’t take any steps to determine whether they were here legally.

It was about law enforcement, he said.

That unapologetic approach is similar to the way he looks at another action he’s taken – one that’s definitely about illegal immigration.

Hot for ICE

Last year, Berry added his office to a list of law enforcement agencies around the country asking for training from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The training – often referred to by the name 287(g), the section of federal immigration law that allows it – would give deputies at the jail the authority to enforce immigration law against any inmates found to be in the country illegally.

If the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office receives the training, deputies would be able to initiate deportation proceedings against inmates and hold them in the jail until ICE agents in the region followed up and completed the deportation process.

Berry wants to get deputies trained so they can combat what he sees as a significant law enforcement problem that has risen in the county over the past 10 years.

“We’ve had an increase in our population of people we deal with on the street that are illegal aliens,” he said.

Booming development in Oconee County, as in many parts of Georgia, has brought an influx of immigrants looking for work. Most are Hispanic, Berry said.

Some of those people then commit crimes – often traffic and alcohol violations or identity theft, he said.

Berry thinks those people should be booted from the country, and he sees the ICE program as the best way to do that.

A new state law that took effect in July instructs jailers to make a reasonable effort to determine inmates’ nationalities. But illegal immigration ultimately falls under federal jurisdiction so the law hasn’t made much of a difference, Berry said.

Berry is unmoved by criticism that the participating in the 287(g) program could be about anything other than law enforcement or that deportation should be left up to the feds.

“If you break into the country, that’s one thing – that’s the federal government’s problem,” he said. “If you break into the country and commit crimes in Oconee County, that’s my problem. … We’re here; we’re on the ground.”

He talked with ICE officials months ago after applying for the 287(g) program, but the conversation hasn’t led anywhere yet, Berry said.

The list

Thirty-four local agencies nationwide so far have inked agreements with ICE allowing them to deport illegal immigrants, with assistance from the federal agency.

About 80 more are waiting for the specialized program, which includes training in immigration law and databases, and classes on racial profiling and cultural sensitivity, said ICE spokesman Richard Rocha.

However, ICE officials do not discuss where those waiting-list agencies are located or which ones are next for the training, Rocha said.

Sometimes, after an initial discussion, an applicant backs out after discovering the federal agency doesn’t provide much funding beyond the training, Rocha said.

“Some local law enforcement agencies realize that they’re enforcing immigration law with their resources,” he said.

So far, only two law enforcement agencies in the state have received the training.

The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office, under Sheriff Neil Warren, in July became the first Georgia law enforcement agency to begin deporting people using the 287(g) training.

From July through October, Cobb deputies initiated deportation proceedings for nearly 700 inmates. ICE picked up 255 of them, according to the sheriff’s office.

Public outcry over the program has been steady throughout, however.

Critics charge that the program engenders distrust of law enforcement in the Hispanic population and has not received proper public oversight.

Warren so far has not backed down, which doesn’t surprise Berry.

“Why should he? He’s obeying the law,” Berry said.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 121607

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