Musings on Immigration

A detailed review of HB 87, the purported " Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011" reveals that this bill does not reform illegal immigration nor does it enforce laws related to illegal immigration. What it does do is increase taxes on every citizen of Georgia by increasing government regulation, creates unfunded mandates for every county, city, town, and village in Georgia, and creates new private rights of action against every Georgia polity that will absolutely result in hundreds of lawsuits that will drain taxpayer coffers and result in little, if any real change on illegal immigration. The Faulty Premise of HB 87 W ithout belaboring the point, this type of legislation is popular because it gives the perception that the state is doing something, which the federal government is purportedly not doing—enforcing federal laws on illegal immigration. The problem with this notion is two-fold. First, the federal government is doing mor...

Citizens of Gwinnett County (with skin that is not white)…brace yourself for a barrage of racial profiling at its best. Prepare to be pulled over for trumped up traffic violations so under-trained police officers can inquire into your immigration status in an attempt to bring another prized “illegal” back to the station so that the County can receive federal money for housing them. Prepare to be questioned regarding your immigration status if you call the police for help after having been the victim of a crime or traffic accident. Gwinnett County recently announced that it will be joining Cobb, Hall, and Whitfield Counties as a county that practices 287(g), a federal program that trains and authorizes deputies to enforce federal immigration law. With 287(g) expanding, it is now more important than ever to know your rights and be prepared. If you are a person affected by the expansion of the program, remember, do not sign anything! Ask to speak to an attorney immediately, and do not all...

1. I have paid my relative’s Cobb County bond- why can’t he get out? Cobb County has implemented a 287 (g) program. Under this program, state and local law enforcement are authorized to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain people who may have violated the immigration laws. Once you pay the Cobb County bond, your relative will be placed under an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer. The detainer provides ICE with a period of time to interview and assess the alien. This means that even if you pay the bond, he can’t leave the jail for 48 hours. 2. If I pay the county bond, what will happen? Your relative should be interviewed by an ICE official in Cobb County within 24 hours of the payment of the county bond. Your relative will be moved to a section of the jail designated for immigrants and will be transferred out of the jail- generally within 48 hours of bond payment. Note that the ICE official may issue an immigration bond – payment of which will result i...

In his article posted March 26th, 2009, Gregory Weeks of the News and Observer points out a lot of the flaws with the current implementation of the 287 (g) program here in North Carolina. “The program sounded very good on paper. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the purpose of 287(g) authority is to identify undocumented immigrants who commit “violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling and money laundering.” In other words, we want to find the very worst offenders, get them off our streets and then out of the country once they have served their time. If done properly, this protects everyone from serious predators. In 2006, Sheriff Jim Pendergraph made Mecklenburg County the first sheriff’s office on the East Coast to provide local law enforcement with 287(g) authority through ICE. There are a total of eight agreements across the state today. From the beginning, doubts were raised about the prog...

Hi Mr. Charles, I am writing to you today less as your company’s client but more as an immigrant to USA conversing his concerns to the president of AILA. As our nation has taken a U-turn in the overall direction on the topics of major national agenda and foreign policy unfortunately one single area where we have not seen any activity is broken immigration system in USA. Especially in the state of Georgia where legislations such as 287 g one of the most strict nationwide immigration laws passed during the Bush administration period don’t make it any easier for immigrants to live peacefully in this state. I am legal immigrant to USA from the day I laid first step on this soil and still I feel threatened by such legislations who single out immigrants using local police authorities. Police force is given by law an tremendous authority to protect the people of America, allowing immigration enforcement in the hands of local state wide law enforcement authorities with minimal training provid...