Cobb sheriff asks GBI to investigate Board of Regents
by Kathryn Dobies

June 09, 2010 MARIETTA – Sheriff Neil Warren is calling for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to probe the University System of Georgia’s governing body, the Board of Regents, for possibly violating the law by admitting illegal immigrants into the state’s universities.

Anti-illegal immigration activist D.A. King filed a complaint on May 19 with the GBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, then asked Warren to assist in the matter.

In a letter dated June 4, Warren referred to King’s complaint, stating that the Board of Regents is in violation of state and federal laws, which prohibit state universities from admitting illegal immigrants.

“O.C.G.A. 50-3601(c)(7) requires compliance with 8 U.S.C. 1621 which provides that aliens not legally in the United States are ineligible for certain State or local benefits, including postsecondary education,” Warren writes in his letter to GBI Director Vernon Keenan.

King said he contacted Warren on May 27, after he heard no response from GBI or ICE and read comments from a GBI spokesman in the Journal. In the May 26 article, the spokesman said GBI is not legally allowed to respond to a request from a citizen to open an investigation. Instead, an investigation request must come from an elected official or law enforcement official.

King’s actions to contact the GBI were prompted by the case of Kennesaw State University student Jessica Colotl, who was stopped on campus for a traffic violation and arrested March 30 for failure to provide a valid driver’s license. It was later discovered that she entered the country illegally at a young age with her parents and had been paying in-state tuition since she enrolled at KSU as a freshman in fall 2006. Nonetheless, she was released from a detention center in Alabama on May 5 and ICE deferred any action against her for one year so she could return to her studies at KSU.

On May 12, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office obtained a warrant for Colotl on a felony charge of lying to law-enforcement officials, based on a reportedly false address she provided upon her book-in at the Cobb County Jail in March. Some immigration activists criticized Warren for the second arrest, claiming it was selective law enforcement. On May 14, Colotl turned herself into Cobb authorities and was released on a $2,500 bond.

Warren said he filed the request with GBI because, in his opinion, the law is being violated.

“The way I read the law, I think someone is in violation of the law and I think someone independently should look into it,” Warren said.

In light of the criticism Warren has received regarding the Colotl case, he said he felt it was appropriate for an independent agency to do the investigation.

“I definitely didn’t ask D.A. King or any other citizens to make that request to me,” Warren said. “I felt obligated once it was brought to my attention to forward it to someone to look into it.”

Warren has not yet received a response from GBI.

King said he is pleased that the sheriff responded to his request, and hopes that the GBI will investigate the Board of Regents and prove that they are in violation of the law.

“I am as always very grateful for the sheriff’s grave attention to duty,” King said.

In his letter to the GBI, Warren also copied Gov. Sonny Perdue and Attorney General Thurbert Baker.

King went on to say: “My hope is that the GBI will investigate and confirm what is evident to anybody that can read and is a smarter than a fifth grader … This is not only a violation of a state law, but a violation of two separate federal laws.”

The Board of Regents is holding its monthly meeting today and tomorrow, and has an item on its agenda slated as a residency verification presentation by legal chief James Burns Newsome. In response to King’s request to the GBI, Regents spokesman John Millsaps denied that the board is breaking the law.

King, the founder of the Dustin Inman Society, said he plans to go to the Regents’ meeting to hand out copies of the federal and state laws.

“I hope they ask themselves the question, how many real immigrants and American citizens have been put out of a classroom seat because of their violation of the law?” he said.

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Cobb sheriff asks GBI to investigate Board of Regents

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