ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Georgia's Latino community is bracing after President-elect Donald Trump promised a crackdown on the southern border with a comprehensive deportation plan.
Gigi Pedereza is director of the Latino Community Foundation of Georgia. She said there is a lot of uncertainty in the Latino community in Georgia right now. Some people are afraid of the plan, others doubt that it will be implemented.
“Some people are very scared and others think nothing will happen. They have these competing thoughts,” Pedereza said. “What we know is that he ran on this platform. He is the president-elect and we expect there will be changes on immigration. We don't know how comprehensively, how quickly and how this will be implemented, but at this point it is very worrying. We have already seen hate crimes, we have seen physical attacks and we know that people have received threatening text messages.”
Most police departments and sheriff's offices in Georgia do not have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.
According to the Georgia Sheriff's Association (GSA), only a handful of Georgia law enforcement agencies are part of the 287(g) program, which allows state officials to act as federal immigration agents.
Law enforcement can arrest an illegal immigrant if they commit a crime, but the GSA said that often does not result in deportation.
Last year, the General Assembly passed the Track Act, which requires county jails to report the immigration status of every inmate.
The GSA said despite the reporting requirement, the majority of immigrants are released after completing their sentences before they can be taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Pedereza said she works with churches and schools to ensure people in the immigrant community are aware of their legal rights.
“I have been in a few meetings where some of the leaders were concerned that children's attendance is already going down because parents are afraid because the children, when they are in high school, are afraid to go to school . come back and can’t find their parents,” Pedereza said.
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