Georgia’s Corrections Department and authorities in Bartow and Floyd counties have applied to team up with federal deportation officers through an immigration enforcement program promoted by President Donald Trump, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
At issue is the federal 287(g) program – named after the section of the 1996 federal law that authorizes it – which deputizes state and local officials to help enforce federal immigration laws. The program gives them the authority to investigate, apprehend, detain and transport people facing deportation.
In an executive order he issued in January, Trump called for an expansion of the program. And in July, Immigration Customs Enforcement announced 18 new 287(g) agreements across Texas, bringing the nationwide total to 60. Four other counties in Georgia, Cobb, Gwinnett, Hall and Whitfield, already participate.
Supporters of the program say it is a “force multiplier” that helps expedite the deportation of people with criminal convictions and deters others from coming to their communities. Critics say it promotes racial profiling, erodes the trust immigrants have in police and distracts officers from more important crime-fighting duties. In 2012, the Obama administration announced it was terminating the “task force” part of the program in which police helped with street-level immigration enforcement in Georgia and other states.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections said ICE approached officials at her agency about the program, saying it would help “streamline their processes.”