Sheriffs in Bibb, Monroe counties coordinating with ICE on immigration cases
State law requires sheriffs to coordinate with ICE when detaining immigrants on local or state charges.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Macon-Bibb and Monroe counties are now part of the federal 287(g) program, which partners state and local law enforcement agencies with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The program allows local officers to enforce certain aspects of federal immigration law.
In Georgia, this is required under the controversial bill passed last year. State law now mandates that sheriffs coordinate with ICE when holding someone suspected of being in the country illegally.
According to ICE’s website, both the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office are now involved in the initiative. In Bibb County, three officers are trained in the program, and there are ten immigrants in the county’s jail. Monroe County, which applied to the program several years ago, was recently accepted. There are “one or two” immigrants in the Monroe County Jail. Sheriff Freeman reports that one staff member has started ICE training, with plans to cross-train several more deputies in the near future.
Colonel Chris Patterson from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office says daily operations at the jail have not changed significantly.
“We’re going to follow what the law requires,” he said. “It has not affected our operations to any kind of degree that I can see.”
House Bill 1105 mandates that sheriffs coordinate with ICE when detaining someone suspected of being in the country illegally. Sheriff Freeman stressed that individuals are not being targeted based on immigration status alone. They must first be arrested for breaking the law.
“They have to be brought to the jail because they have broken state, local, or federal law,” he said. “They have been arrested, whether it was for driving without a license, shoplifting, domestic violence, robbery, whatever, they were brought here on a state or local charge.”
The 287(g) program operates under three models: the Jail Enforcement Model, the Task Force Model, and the Warrant Service Officer Program. Monroe County will use the Jail Enforcement Model, which allows officers to identify and process immigrants in jail with pending or active criminal charges.
Bibb County uses the Warrant Service Officer Program, where trained booking deputies handle paperwork for releasing individuals to ICE but do not actively seek out suspects.
“They just process the paperwork, and they remain in the jail,” Patterson said. “They are booking deputies, so they don’t go out or initiate any type of paperwork, but they are the ones that sign the paperwork if someone is to be released to ICE.”
Since the program’s start in February, three people have been removed from the Bibb County Jail.
