It’s a controversial collaboration that critics say encourages racial profiling and tears apart immigrant families.
But when the time came to decide whether the sheriff’s office in ethnically diverse Gwinnett County should continue taking part in the 287 (g) program, commissioners — all of them white — saw no reason for debate. Before they voted at a recent meeting, they received no input from residents against the program, which gives deputies the power to question people about their legal status and to detain them for immigration violations.
“The sheriff still feels this is an important tool in addressing crime in our community,” Chief Deputy Sheriff Mike Boyd said.
“So it is a success?” Commissioner John Heard asked.
“Yes, sir,” Boyd responded.
With that, commissioner voted unanimously to renew the program.
That vote shows why some Gwinnett minorities have grown increasingly frustrated with a local government they say pays them little heed. Last week, that frustration led to a federal voting rights lawsuit.
The lawsuit contends political districts in Georgia’s second-largest county are drawn to thwart minority voters. Though more than half of Gwinnett’s 896,000 residents are black, Latino or Asian, they remain a minority in all four county commission districts. The same is true in four of the five school board districts.
As a result, the lawsuit says, no minority has ever been elected to the county commission or the school board, and elected officials ignore minorities’ concerns.
Gwinnett officials declined to discuss the lawsuit. But they say they do want to be responsive to the needs of minorities. They cited numerous outreach efforts and services like translators and mentors in public schools.
“We, as a county government, try to embrace our diversity,” Heard said. “We market that to the world. We’re proud of it.”
But some argue elected officials disregard concerns about aggressive immigration enforcement and inequitable student discipline in public schools.
"We weren't afforded an opportunity to comment prior to them voting (on the immigration program)," said Brenda Lopez, a Norcross immigration attorney who soon will become the first Latino woman in the Georgia General Assembly.
“Not that we thought our comments were going to sway anybody’s mind, but just to have that information on record,” she said. “There is this complete disregard.”
A controversial program
The 287(g) program gives local agencies the authority to help enforce federal immigration laws. They turn over to federal authorities inmates who are in the country illegally.
Sheriff Butch Conway said the program removes criminals from the community and reduces the jail population.
The program has been controversial from the beginning. Civil rights groups say 287(g) encourages racial profiling by police.
Critics say the program separates thousands of Georgia immigrants from their U.S. citizen spouses and children. And they say crimes go unreported because immigrants are afraid they’ll be deported if they call the police.
Conway dismissed those concerns. He said there is no reason to fear contacting law enforcement for assistance. He said families are torn apart every day when loved ones are arrested or convicted, regardless of their immigration status. He said that should be an incentive to obey the law.
“If the media would be responsible, they would be telling people the only way they would be deported through the 287(g) program would be to commit a crime and be jailed,” Conway said.
Antonio Molina, Latino caucus chair for the Georgia Democratic Party, watched from the audience as commissioners voted in June to renew the program.
“I knew we didn’t have the votes,” Molina said. “I went there with the idea that, let us be heard. Let us tell you why we feel this policy is bad. They didn’t allow that to happen.”
With the exception of zoning cases, commissioners seldom allow public testimony at meetings before taking action on issues. They set aside time at the end of meetings for general public comment. Opponents spoke against the 287(g) program during the public comment period – after commissioners had voted.
“We don’t want to do anything that alienates anybody,” Heard said. “However, we do support a law-abiding community.”
Disparities in discipline
Some say the Gwinnett Board of Education has rebuffed minorities' concerns about student discipline. Two years ago, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found black students are suspended and expelled at much higher rates than their white peers in Gwinnett and across Georgia.
Marlyn Tillman, co-founder of the Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline, has lobbied the district on the issue for more than a decade. She said the district has changed some policies, but only under pressure.
Longtime school board member Louise Radloff acknowledged the district has changed its discipline policies in response to feedback from people like Tillman. She cited the district’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program as an effort to reduce the need for discipline.
Still, Tillman, who is black, said the school board is often not responsive and sometimes defensive.
“Right now, we have an all-white school board that does not even begin to understand people of color,” she said.
The voting rights lawsuit cites the immigration enforcement and student discipline issues – among others – as evidence of political neglect. Gwinnett's elected officials are "unresponsive to the needs of the county's black, Latino and Asian-American citizens," the lawsuit says.
Radloff disputes that. She represents the school board’s lone minority-majority district and says she spends “99 percent of my time meeting the needs of minorities.”
“If we’re going to look at the economics of the future of Gwinnett, we absolutely have to meet the needs of our growing populations,” she said.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit – seven Gwinnett residents and several civil rights groups – want at least one county commission district in which minorities are the majority. They want a second minority-majority school board district.
That might not give minorities the votes to have their way on either board. But Molina said it would give them a full voice on issues that matter to them.
“You don’t start changing dialogue until you have people in those rooms making that dialogue,” he said.
About the Author
