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“I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of Governor of the State of Georgia and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution thereof and the Constitution of the United States.”

Oath of office made by Governor Brian Kemp last week – for the second time.

My January 2^nd column concerned state laws that are not enforced. We reminded readers that Gov. Brian Kemp took an oath to obey the constitution and quoted part of that document with “the Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.”

 As an illustration of one law dealing with illegal immigration that is defiantly ignored, we explained that at his January 1, 2021, swearing in ceremony, Keybo Taylor, the sheriff of Gwinnett County here in Metro Atlanta, told the world “What we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities.”

Then we explained a state law (OCGA 42-4-14) that requires all jailers to use reasonable effort to determine immigration status of foreign-born prisoners and report the illegal aliens to the feds. It’s a state law that Brian Kemp voted for as a state senator.

What I didn’t mention is that the above state law has no penalty in the text of the law.

That is correct. It’s a law with no penalty – don’t scramble to the law books to find one that does not have a penalty for normal, working Georgians.

This writer was involved in the drafting of the law in 2006 and a significant legislative improvement in 2011. I can tell you that none of us dreamed that “jailers” – mostly county sheriffs – would defy that statute. That was then. Now we know. It looks like the Gwinnett sheriff is not the only one ignoring this law.

You will probably read this here first: I can predict with a great deal of confidence that the current General Assembly session in Atlanta will see a bill that would create a stiff penalty for jailers like Gwinnett’s anti-enforcement, Democrat sheriff.

But wait, there’s more.

 As I wrote earlier in the month, Georgia can accurately be described as a “sanctuary state” for the “criminal illegals” Kemp promised to go after when he ran for office in 2018 and pledged to end already illegal sanctuary policies.

This brings up another state law that we need to share here. It’s OCGA 36-80-23 with a title that goes: “Prohibition on immigration sanctuary policies by local governmental entities; certification of compliance.” I am proud to have helped with advice on this legislation (*SB 20) when it passed the Republican-ruled state legislature in 2010.

The short version of this one is that it is illegal for counties, cities, and agencies, including law enforcement agencies, to put in place “sanctuary policies.”

“Sanctuary” in Georgia law 

According to state law, “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.” Pretty clear, we thought.

The enforcement mechanism goes like this: “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…” The “governing body” in Gwinnett is the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners.

How would the various state agencies that administer tax dollars as grants to cities and counties know if those cities and counties were in violation of the law? They don’t know, but the funds are distributed anyway. So, there really is no penalty. This one isn’t enforced either.

More news:

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bill that injects a severe penalty into this toothless “no sanctuary policies in Georgia” law too.

Again: Georgia is a sanctuary state because illegal aliens can go into and out of many of our jails and never be reported to the feds. It’s a bit of California right here in the Peach State. If you want to see action from your state legislators on this, it is a good idea to let them hear from you.

Let’s close with a quote from Brian Kemp’s first TV campaign ad in 2018: “Donald Trump was right. We must secure the border and end sanctuary cities.”

You can see the video from that TV ad on our website, ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com.

• A version of the below column is published in the January 16, 2023, edition of The Islander newspaper in Glynn County, GA.
• *Correction on date of passage, SB 20

A version of this column is published in the January 2, 2023 edition of the Glynn County, GA. newspaper The Islander. 

____

 

“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.

Gov. Kemp’s Georgia can easily and accurately be described as a “sanctuary state” for the “criminal illegals” he promised to go after when he ran for office in 2018 and pledged to end already illegal sanctuary policies.

With constant reminders that Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and more illegals than green card holders, this space will often be used to offer continuing education on multiple laws that were put in place to deter illegal immigration into our state but are now ignored.

• Related: Cobb County Republican Party’s Resolution censuring Governor Kemp for his betrayal on Georgia’s illegal immigration crisis

This week we’ll start with OCGA 42-4-14: “Illegal alien” defined; determination of nationality and verification of lawful admission of person confined in a jail facility.” It was put into law in 2006 in the “Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act” (SB 529) which was a long, multi-section bill that passed out of the state Senate committee process by the Public Safety Committee – Sen. Brian Kemp, Chairman.

Intended to detect illegal aliens who end up in any of Georgia’s jails and report them to the feds, the law is short and simple.

In part: “As used in this Code section, the term “illegal alien” means a person who is verified by the federal government to be present in the United States in violation of federal immigration law. When any person is confined, for any period, in the jail of a county or municipality or a jail operated by a regional jail authority … a reasonable effort shall be made to determine the nationality of the person so confined… a reasonable effort shall be made to verify that such foreign national has been lawfully admitted to the United States and if lawfully admitted, that such lawful status has not expired.

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…”

Who runs most of the jails in Georgia? – county sheriffs.

*  Related: 2018 candidate for GA governor Brian Kemp’s first TV campaign ad 

The statute reads “The Georgia Sheriffs Association shall prepare and issue guidelines and procedures used to comply with the provisions of this Code section.” Those instructions are in place.

As a state senator at the time, Gov. Kemp also voted “YEA” for final passage on this public safety measure.

This writer has spent considerable time over the last several years talking to law enforcement officials and collecting responses to open records requests that tell me many – if not most – jailers in Georgia do not obey this law. I have spoken to sheriffs who have no recollection of ever even hearing about it.

We’ll revisit this topic next time, but until then I leave you with the defiant and unpunished public pledge from metro-Atlanta’s Democrat Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor, made as one of his first remarks at his January 1, 2021 swearing-in event: “what we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in our jail or any of our facilities.”

Sheriff Taylor has been allowed to keep his promise.

I don’t know how many innocent Georgians have been killed, raped, molested, or otherwise harmed by Gov. Kemp’s “criminal illegals” in the last four years – neither does he.

Please re-read the top paragraph of this column and consider calling the governor’s office in Atlanta. The phone number is 404-656-1776. Leave a polite message with the young staffer who answers. Nothing will change if you don’t.

The lack of enforcement of this law is not an oversight – but we are “number one for business.”

• Related: Sanctuary Georgia: Another law that is ignored on “criminal illegals”

 

 

“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.

New monthly report from ICE with a sample of criminal aliens busted by 287(g) partnerships.

Report is informative reading, and demonstrates public safety value of immigration enforcement and cooperation between feds & locals.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) Program enhances the safety and security of communities by creating partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove aliens who are amenable to removal from the United States.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added Section 287(g), to the Immigration and Nationality Act. This section of law authorizes the Director of ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, that permit designated officers to perform limited immigration law enforcement functions. Agreements under section 287(g) require the local law enforcement officers to receive appropriate training and to function under the supervision of ICE officers.

Read the entire report here.

Hat tip, Jessica Vaughan, CIS.