Speaker Summaries

Cobb County Chief Deputy Linda Coker discussed some of the ins and outs of the illegal immigration problem as it relates to Cobb County during the Madison Forum lunch meeting January 8, 2007.

Chief Coker started by outlining the events leading to the recent death of Cobb Deputy Sheriff Warren Lilly while he was on his way to work. She said the two people in the other vehicle fled the scene immediately. She went on to explain who the investigation was carried out. Traffic accidents are handled by the city police, so this fatality was handled by the City of Marietta Police Department. The investigation is still on-going, but there are two people in custody, and she read the warrants. One of the men is charged with a false report of a crime, in that he called 911 and reported a 2006 Ford Taurus as being stolen when, in fact, the vehicle was involved in a fatality hit and run crash earlier where he was a passenger in the vehicle. The other man was arrested for improper lane change, driving hit and run, and that he did operate a 2006 Ford Taurus causing an accident, damage, and death. Both men were caught and booked later in the day, and, as in all cases of anyone born outside the United States, Cobb police notified ICE which put a hold on both men. The driver in this case is charged with one misdemeanor and two felonies, and has no driver’s license. All of these charges will have to be satisfied before the Federal Government will step in and act on that hold. That means if all these charges went away, and the two men were released, the agency instituting the hold will be notified and be given a certain amount of time to pick up them up. This would apply to another county as will as to ICE.

Chief Coker explained that the investigating officers, in this case the Marietta police, bring the basics information to court and the judge says what that person is charged with based on the evidence presented. The warrants in this case were based on the phone call to 911 which presented probable cause. Since the investigation is on-going, there may be further charges.

Chief Coker said there are 79 foreign born inmates in Cobb County with a hold from ICE out of roughly 2,200 inmates in custody pre-trail. The majority of those are charged with serious offenses, such as trafficking cocaine, aggravated assault, armed robbery, child molestation, murder, and forgery. The ICE hold doesn’t kick in until their prison term is over. Then ICE is notified, and someone is supposed to pick them up. She said the incidence of these people being picked up when their terms expire has improved, but a part of the problem with ICE is that they have no place to put them. Lack of jail space and money are big problems.

Chief Coker said that we have a pretty good jail in Cobb County, thanks to the people in the community. The Sheriff’s Office tries to keep on top of the jail population, and has good standards, policies, and procedures. The Federal guidelines regarding prison care are extremely hard to achieve and extremely costly and present many challenges to counties such as Cobb. One of the solutions to the overcrowding of jails is the Arizona plan of using tents to house inmates. The difference, says Chief Coker, is that the people in the tents have been convicted by the courts. You can do a lot with convicted felons that you can’t do with pre-trial inmates. The prisoners in Arizona have been convicted by the courts and are under sentence. The majority of Cobb’s inmates are pre-trial. Sheriff Warren has looked for places to put fences if the need arises, because the system does make sense, but it’s not needed right now.

Asked about the possibility of bail for the men jailed for the accident, Chief Coker said that normally when there is a hold from another agency that precludes bail. If the accused did post bail, that person would immediately be turned over to the agency with the hold. In this instance, neither man in jail has a bond, and that is probably because of the hold by ICE. ICE will conduct an investigation and will not lift the hold if the person(s) are in this country illegally. Several states have a law that says if you are in the country illegally, you may not be granted bond. Georgia does not have this law yet.

Asked about charging persons first with being an illegal alien, without going through the local charges, Chief Coker said that being in the country illegally is a Federal issue, the that agency will not come to pick up the person. States cannot bring a Federal charge, just as local government cannot bring a state charge.

Chief Coker went on to say that during the last seven months, approximately 63 inmates who had ICE holds and completed their local charges were turned over to ICE custody by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department. The county is working well with ICE. We are not getting all the illegals out of the county, but we are working in the right direction. Is it slow? Yes. The thing that Sheriff Warren wants to communicate is that if you are going to be in this country illegally, don’t come to Cobb County and commit crimes. The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office has had a partnership with immigration and ICE officials since the late ’90s. The county was a pilot program with INS and they sent an agent to the county jail. When people were booked in who were obvious foreign nationals, the agency would work with the county to determine if the people were here legally. The numbers increased, and it went to a teleconferencing scenario, and now we are moving into the 287G section of Federal Law. It is overwhelming, since the agency is now Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The problems have ballooned, probably as much because of awareness of the problem as the problem itself.

In about 1996 a law was passed that said it was a stipulation of Federal Law that would allow local law enforcement officers to enforce Federal Law. It is not easy, because that section stipulates specific training that local law enforcement officers must do and must be able to do to enforce that area of Federal Law. It does not give local agencies the authority to enforce all Federal Laws. It gives the county the authority to work with ICE and enforce those laws that pertain to illegal immigrants. The county petitioned ICE for authorization August 2006, and in October it was taken before the Board of Commissioners for approval, and on November 2, 2006, the Sheriff’s Department received notification of authorization to participate in the 287G Program. The department is now waiting for a Memorandum of Understanding. Cobb is the only county in Georgia with this authorization. The authorization will allow the county to select deputies who will attend an intensive five-week training program which will teach them the nuances of deportation such as Immigration Law, Civil Rights, and Intercultural Relations. Then the local ICE agents will work with the county deputies. When other nationals come into the county jail there will be an automatic partnership between ICE and local law enforcement with instant access to the Federal database. One of the side effects of this will be that the county will identify more illegal aliens and may get some jail backup for a while. The ICE agents are very committed officers and want very much to make this program work. They seem to be pleased with the partnership and have been very helpful.

Sheriff Warren says it’s still a Federal issue. The county can’t impact the immigration laws. Its job is to enforce the law, but the job is also to protect the community. Sheriff Warren takes that responsibility very seriously. Chief Coker says she thinks he has done an excellent job of trying to create the partnerships that will help send that message. Maybe we in Cobb County can’t build that wall on the border, but law enforcement can certainly secure the borders of the county and send a message that we are serious about it and are hoping that this is what will be accomplished with this partnership.