The original story on the complaints is here and the OIG initial response along with my reply and request for reconsideration is here. I added links to the OIG’s response in an effort to make it easier to digest.

• Note: We filed three complaints, one against Gov. Brian Kemp one against Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor and one against Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens. The complaint against Gov Kemp is still under consideration at OIG.

The below was received via email on Sept. 12, 2022. I am grateful to Mr. McAfee for his reply.

_____

Good afternoon Mr. King,

  I appreciate your consideration of our office for your complaint. To be clear, declining an investigation does not mean we’ve taken any position on the merits or thoroughness of your concerns. We must simply “stay in our lane” and only execute the powers delineated to us by executive order. In my mind, that executive order is clear. OIG does not police all executive powers, constitutionally created or otherwise, only the “agencies of state government” and “state agencies within the executive branch.” I’ve attached a copy of our founding executive order for your convenience.

While county sheriffs may perform state and executive branch functions as your cited AG opinion points out, the fact remains that county sheriffs are not state agencies but rather instrumentalities of county government. See, e.g., O.C.G.A. § 15-16-1 (a) (“the sheriff is the basic law enforcement officer of the several counties of this state”); Veit v. State, 182 Ga. App. 753, 756 (1987). OIG has not been granted jurisdiction to investigate anything considered executive in function. Only “state agencies.”

  Feel free to call me anytime at the number below. I’m happy to talk through your concerns and explain our position in greater detail. And disregard any previous reference to DOC, as I agree that DOC would not be the appropriate venue for your complaint.

Complaints filed (Sept. 6, 2022) related to multiple violations of OCGA 42-4-14 and the violations of the oaths of office for Gov. Brian Kemp, Sheriff Keybo Taylor and Sheriff Craig Owens. There will be additional complaints filed. See this letter for explanation and links to evidence.

OIG here.

• Updated Sept. 9, 2022: Initial response and my reply here.
• Final response from OIG on the two complaints against the sheriffs here.
• List of news outlets, editors, producers and reporters to whom we have sent a news tip on this story here. 

“Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.” Thomas Sowell 2017

Note: A version of hit essay was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion site, InsiderAdvantage.com (now James Magazine Online) January 26, 2021.

In 2011, Aurelio Mayo Perez, an illegal alien, was booked into the Cobb County jail for no driver’s license but released due to an immigration enforcement reduction edict from then-President Barack Obama. Two years later, Mayo Perez was charged with aggravated child molestation and rape. The name of the ten-year old girl he was convicted of repeatedly molesting is not available.

Last week, newly sworn Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens held an elaborate press conference packed with invited anti-enforcement activists and proudly announced his termination of the 287(g) program. The Marietta Daily Journal described the event’s big finish with “…as the event ended, and a mariachi band began to play, the mood in the room was decidedly celebratory. The new sheriff even took to the floor and waltzed for a moment, reveling in his audience’s approval.”  Cobb County Deputy Sheriff Loren Lilly – killed by an unlicensed illegal alien driver in a 2007 traffic crash – was unable to attend.

Democrat Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid pronounced Owens’ decision “bold, necessary, and overdue.” Cobb’s new District Attorney, Flynn Broady weighed in with “this is going to make our community safer.” We recommend reading the entire MDJ report

Created by congress in 1996, and signed into law by Bill Clinton, the voluntary 287(g) program is a tool used to expand the authority of local law enforcement to locate and report to ICE illegal aliens, usually in county jails. It’s a deterrent. Then-Senator Joe Biden voted in favor of passage.

The liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Owens claims “the program morphed into one that profiled immigrants through traffic stops, which resulted in them being deported on misdemeanor charges.” While Sheriff Owens – a former Cobb County policeman – is certainly free to smear his fellow law enforcement officers with accusations of profiling, he should understand that it’s illegal aliens who are deported and that removal is the punishment for illegal immigration, not traffic violations.

Jose Alfaro-Contraras, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was one of the gunmen in an April, 2015 armed robbery of the owner of a check-cashing store in Duluth. A year earlier, Alfaro-Contraras had been in the Gwinnett County jail on a shoplifting charge. He was released because “minor crime.”

The above examples are taken from a 2017 report “Jail records reveal immigrants not deported after minor crimes later commit worse ones” from Atlanta’s Fox Five TV News investigative reporter Randy Travis.

Related: According to the anti-enforcement Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.

In metro -Atlanta’s Gwinnett County, on his first day in office, Sheriff Keybo Taylor made his enforcement policy clear when he quit the 287(g) program: “What we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities…” said Taylor at his own presser. He told a local NPR interviewer 287(g) is slanted towards “people of color.”

“So basically, what that program started to do was target, uh, you know, people of color that were in this country that’s undocumented, so, you know, it became, you know, a racist issue for me…”,

He says he would rather focus on gang members. I was curious, so I checked with experts on gangs in Gwinnett and the skin color concern Taylor expressed. But on that topic Sheriff Taylor apparently does have concerns about borders “…crime and criminals…they don’t, they do not respect borders, so, you know, it’s nothing to come from Atlanta to Gwinnett County…” says Taylor. Indeed.

In print and radio interviews, both sheriffs have done a remarkable job of learning and adhering to the anti-287(g) talking points distributed by the far-left. Below are some of those tips from a 2008 ACLU ‘toolkit.’

‘How to oppose 287(g) agreements in your state or locality’

*Always describe how police enforcement of immigration laws endangers public safety for everyone.

*Assert that local police of immigration laws will result in widespread racial profiling.

*Assert that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government.

*Assert that police resources are stretched thin already.

Georgia law as a ‘Plan B’ plan to address anti-enforcement sheriffs

Attention Georgia prosecutors, including Flynn Broady: Independent of 287(g), longstanding (2006) state law (OCGA 42-4-14) requires jailers to check the immigration status of incoming foreign prisoners. “If the foreign national is determined to be an illegal alien, the keeper of the jail or other officer shall notify the United States Department of Homeland Security, or other office or agency designated for notification by the federal government.”

The AJC – again

 In an entirely unbalanced, celebratory report on Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens ending 287(g) the AJC recently told readers as a statement of fact “the program originally began to remove terrorists, as well as other violent criminals, from neighborhoods across the country.” But, as was noted here in December, the law establishing 287(g) program never limited it to applying only to terrorists or illegal aliens who were arrested for violent crimes.

The liberal AJC has not covered the fact that the above law is not enforced.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society.

The below was emailed to Mr. McAfee today and put in the U.S.P.S.

January 11, 2023

The Honorable Mr. Scott McAfee

Inspector General, Georgia

2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SW,

1102 West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334

Re:

A second addition to my September 6, 2022 complaint against Governor Brian Kemp.

Complaint confirmation # F345217D89. My first addition is here.

• Please add OCGA 36-80-23.
• My request that you forward this complaint to the Attorney General’s office.

“The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.” Section ll, Paragraph ll of the Georgia Constitution.

Mr. McAfee,

Please update my September complaint against Gov. Brian Kemp to include my allegation that he is in violation of his oath of office on enforcement of yet another state law, OCGA 36-80-23, known as Georgia’s “sanctuary city law.”

For clarity, I paste part of the law below:

36-80-23. Prohibition on immigration sanctuary policies by local governmental entities; certification of compliance.

 “…(6) “Sanctuary policy” means any regulation, rule, policy, or practice adopted by a local governing body which prohibits or restricts local officials or employees from communicating or cooperating with federal officials or law enforcement officers with regard to reporting immigration status information while such local official or employee is acting within the scope of his or her official duties.

(b) No local governing body, whether acting through its governing body or by an initiative, referendum, or any other process, shall enact, adopt, implement, or enforce any sanctuary policy.

(c) Any local governing body that acts in violation of this Code section shall be subject to the withholding of state funding or state administered federal funding other than funds to provide services specified in subsection (d) of Code Section 50-36-1.

(d) As a condition of funding, the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Transportation, or any other state agency that provides funding to local governing bodies shall require certification pursuant to Code Section 50-36-4 as proof of compliance with this Code section.”

As you know, Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor has defiantly boasted to the national and Georgia media that his office will not share information on immigration status with federal immigration authorities (ICE).

I again respectfully remind you that according to quotes published in the media, including the Associated Press, Taylor’s exact words on this policy at his swearing-in event on January 1, 2021 were “one thing we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail of any of our facilities.”

I have spent many hours verifying that Sheriff Taylor has been allowed to fulfill his anti-enforcement pledge.

This public defiance of the state law Taylor (and Gov. Kemp) are charged with enforcing should be treated as Taylor’s confession to repeated and now two-year long violations of not only OCGA 36-80-23 but also OCGA 42-2-14.

My original complaint was centered around Gov. Kemp’s refusal to enforce the latter law, which, as you also know, requires jailers – including Sheriff Taylor – to use reasonable effort to determine immigration status of foreign-born prisoners and to report illegal aliens to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.

In addition, OCGA 36-80-23 requires certification of compliance from the “governing body” as a condition of funding from various state agencies.

(d) As a condition of funding, the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Transportation, or any other state agency that provides funding to local governing bodies shall require certification pursuant to Code Section 50-36-4 as proof of compliance with this Code section.”

As you informed me last year in your response to my original complaints against Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens and (Gwinnett Co.) Sheriff Keybo Taylor, these sheriffs are employed by their respective counties. Those county governments are the “governing body” of each sheriff and the sheriffs are the “elected or appointed official” and certified peace officer” in the law cited in paragraph (5):

“(5) Local official or employee” means any elected or appointed official, supervisor or managerial employee, contractor, agent, or certified peace officer acting on behalf of or in conjunction with a local governing body.”

The law does not say “may” – it says “shall” be subject to withholding of state funding or state administered funding not stated in subsection (d) of another law that goes unenforced by Gov. Kemp.

“Any local governing body that acts in violation of this Code section shall be subject to the withholding of state funding or state administered federal funding other than funds to provide services specified in subsection (d) of Code Section 50-36-1.”

I charge that Sheriff Taylor is in violation of both OCGA 42-4-14 and OCGA 36-80-23. Gwinnett County government, operated by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners is in violation of OCGA 36-80-23 (while it is not the subject of this complaint, I believe Gwinnett County to be in violation of OCGA 50-36-1 as well).

Unless Gwinnett County government has made false statements of compliance on OCGA 36-80-23 making the state funding agencies believe the county complies, it would seem that all of the state agencies that have funded Gwinnet County since January 1, 2021 (Sheriff Taylor’s swearing in date) have done so illegally.

I limit this observation here to one county for space and time, but I can easily point to multiple additional governing bodies (including Cobb County) that are not in compliance with any of the laws mentioned here for the same reasons.

As the Chief executive, Gov. Kemp is responsible for the enforcement of all the laws mentioned above and for the public safety of all Georgians.

Please advise me if I must file a separate complaint with your office dedicated to the various state agencies involved with apparent funding violations outlined above – or if your investigators can and will use the information contained in this addition to my complaint against Gov. Kemp to examine my allegations regarding state agencies here.

Please forward my complaint to the Attorney General.

I have again read the mission statement and duties of your office:

“The State of Georgia Office of the Inspector General promotes transparency and accountability in state government. OIG diligently investigates fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in the executive branch. We work to promote effective controls, improve agency policies and procedures, and identify opportunities for efficiency…”

I believe I have met the requirements for your office to investigate all concerned in this letter and have outlined a valid account that accounts for nearly all of the examples of  illegal government actions in your “what we do” statement.

I will be grateful for a note that you have received this additional information and complaint. I will follow up on it.

Sincere congratulations on your appointment to the Judicial Branch.

Respectfully,

D.A. King