Georgia Sheriff Misleads About 287(g) Program

IIn 2007, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office became the first local law enforcement agency in Georgia to partner with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and participate in the important 287(g) public safety program. After years of successfully identifying and deporting criminal aliens from Georgia, newly elected Sheriff Craig Owens ended the 287(g) partnership immediately after taking office in 2021. The Biden administration made no attempt to maintain the partnership, apparently comfortable with releasing criminal aliens into American communities.

Now Sheriff Owens is claiming that the 287(g) program is no different from honoring ICE warrants. This claim is completely false and is an obvious attempt to hide from his pro-illegal immigration stance in an election year.

The fact is, without the training and equipment that 287(g) sheriffs receive through this important ICE partnership, Sheriff Owens and his staff cannot determine whether a person they have arrested for a crime is in the country illegally. This inability to determine the status of criminal aliens has undoubtedly resulted in dangerous individuals being released back into American communities.

The 287(g) program is critical. As described by ICE, “The 287(g) program improves the safety of our nation's communities by enabling ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) to work with state and local law enforcement to identify and expel detained criminal aliens who are eligible for removal” (ICE). The program has been critical in identifying countless criminal aliens who are in jail because they have already been arrested by local law enforcement. Law enforcement officials across the country have been trained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on how to identify criminal aliens so that the individuals can be turned over to ICE for removal rather than released back into their communities.

There are a number of reasons why the 287(g) program is critical to public safety. Sometimes, ICE knows that a criminal alien has been arrested by local law enforcement. For example, if a sheriff's department takes a person's fingerprints after that person has been arrested and booked for violating a local or state law, the prints are entered into a federal system and result in a flag for ICE if the person is an alien who has had prior trouble with federal authorities (e.g., a previous deportation). In such a case, where there is a relevant record, ICE will generally issue a warrant to the sheriff and ask local law enforcement to continue to hold the person until an ICE officer can be sent to jail to transfer the alien to federal custody. Sanctuary jurisdictions generally ignore these warrants and release criminal aliens back into our communities.

However, there are many cases where an alien arrested by local police for a violation has no federal record (for example, they may have entered the country illegally without encountering Border Patrol) and the fingerprints do not result in a report to ICE. In these cases, training local police through the 287(g) partnership is critical to initiate the identification and deportation of a criminal alien. After the proper investigation, sheriffs will alert ICE to the potential deportation of a person they arrest, rather than automatically releasing them back into the community where they could reoffend.

A fundraiser for Cobb County. The 287(g) program has played a key role in identifying serious criminal aliens in Cobb County jails, and opponents of immigration control are well aware of this.

Those who oppose 287(g) explicitly support the release of criminal aliens into our communities. The following case studies are a handful of examples of criminal aliens identified by the Cobb County Sheriff's Office through the 287(g) program. They are available in ICE's monthly 287(g) reports, which the Biden administration stopped publishing once President Biden took office.

Notably, one of these 287(g) encounters occurred right after the current anti-287(g) sheriff was elected (but before he was sworn in in December 2020) and involved a Jamaican citizen sentenced to 10 years for armed robbery. Other examples include illegal aliens arrested for rape and child molestation, crimes that one would assume a reputable sheriff would want to ensure result in prosecution and deportation. But under Sheriff Owens, there is no telling what happens to people with similar criminal records who are arrested by his officers. We know they will no longer be identified as deportable aliens by his office, and it is more than likely that ICE will not detect them – since many enter the United States secretly on unknown dates – and will simply release them rather than transfer them to ICE custody.

  • On November 16, 2020, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office 287(g) program encountered a citizen of Jamaica who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of marijuana and issued an immigration arrest warrant for the individual. The individual was last entered into the United States as a conditional lawful resident.
  • On January 2, 2020, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office 287(g) program encountered a citizen of Honduras accused of rape of a minor and issued an immigration arrest warrant for the individual. The individual entered the United States without screening on an unknown date and location.
  • On November 11, 2019, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office 287(g) program encountered a citizen of El Salvador accused of child abuse and issued an immigration arrest warrant for the individual. The individual entered the United States without screening on an unknown date and location.
  • On March 10, 2020, the Cobb County 287(g) Program encountered a citizen of Guatemala charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a valid license and issued an immigration arrest warrant for the individual. The individual entered the United States without inspection on an unknown date and location.
  • On August 23, 2020, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office 287(g) Program encountered a citizen of Mexico charged with simple assault and driving with an expired license and issued an immigration arrest warrant for the individual. The individual has prior convictions for driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, first-degree child abuse, obstructing or hindering persons making an emergency call, third-degree child abuse, false imprisonment, and aggravated assault. The individual entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident.
  • On October 26, 2020, a Mexican national was arrested and issued an immigration warrant under the Cobb County Sheriff's Office's 287(g) program for driving with a suspended license and failure to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk. The subject has two prior convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol. He entered the United States without being screened on an unknown date and location.

Why Sheriff Owens would not want similar identifications of criminal aliens to continue is difficult to imagine, but he takes great pride in helping criminal aliens in his jails avoid deportation, calling the termination of the 287(g) partnership a “historic moment for Cobb County.” It is perhaps historic in that it is likely the first time a Cobb County Sheriff has taken action to protect drunken child molesters who are in our country illegally.

Criminal aliens benefit from the termination of the 287(g) partnership with Cobb County. At a recent candidate event, both Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens and his challenger, David Cavender, answered several questions from the audience, including questions about 287(g). Sheriff Owens was evasive when asked about ending Cobb County's participation in the program, arguing that he continues to cooperate with ICE and respect ICE warrants. The same border opponents who persuaded Sheriff Owens to end the 287(g) agreement also oppose sheriffs respecting ICE warrants, so it is unclear to what extent Cobb County is a cooperative jurisdiction from ICE's perspective.

Regardless, honoring an occasional ICE warrant is very different from 287(g) cooperation. When a sheriff honors an ICE warrant, he or she is simply responding affirmatively to an ICE warrant request, essentially saying, “Yes, we will continue to hold the person for up to 48 hours to give ICE an opportunity to take them into custody.” It is important for local law enforcement to honor warrants, but that is the bare minimum of cooperation.

When a sheriff's department is a 287(g) partner, officers receive training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) and also receive electronic equipment from ICE to help them quickly identify criminal aliens in their jails as part of the basic intake process. The 287(g) program means more information for sheriffs and a greater benefit to public safety than passively waiting to see if an arrested alien is on ICE's radar.

Illegal aliens are often off ICE's radar because they entered the U.S. clandestinely. When a criminal alien with an unknown, undocumented past is arrested by local police, ICE often doesn't know to issue a warrant. But a sheriff's department trained under the 287(g) program can uncover a person's deportation status and notify ICE of the arrest. That's a good thing when public safety is the goal.

When an illegal alien who is unknown to ICE crosses the path of local law enforcement, a 287(g) partnership is very important to ensure that the alien is identified and flagged for ICE so that after local authorities do their work, the individual can be sent home rather than sent back to American communities to reoffend. Simply complying with warrants is not the same as a proactive partnership with federal law enforcement.

Cobb County should take public safety seriously and send a request to ICE to restore its 287(g) partnership.