U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday cited public safety concerns in reacting to a new Fulton County resolution that urges Sheriff Ted Jackson to stop cooperating with the federal agency.
“The release of a serious criminal offender to the community, rather than to ICE custody, undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and impedes us from enforcing the nation’s immigration laws,” ICE spokesman Vincent Picard said in an email Thursday.
Picard added that the same scenario “creates an officer safety issue when ICE officers have to attempt to apprehend the most serious offenders outside a controlled penal setting.”
Fulton’s resolution asks Jackson to prevent ICE from using county facilities for “investigative interviews or other purposes.” It also says county personnel shall not spend time communicating with ICE under certain conditions. Further, it urges Jackson to not comply with ICE detainers, which are official requests for jails to hold inmates beyond their scheduled release dates so ICE can take custody of them and attempt to deport them. The resolution is not binding on the sheriff.
Fulton Commission Chairman John Eaves said he voted for Wednesday’s resolution based on several concerns about the detainers, including “the damage they may inflict upon the relationship between our law enforcement officers and our immigrant community.”
On Thursday, ICE disclosed it had issued 30 detainers to the Fulton jail between July and August. Of those, 15 were for immigrants who were in the country illegally and who had been convicted of “Level 1” crimes. That category includes homicide, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault, extortion, sexual assault and other sex offenses, cruelty toward children, hit-and-run, and certain felony drug crimes.
Approved Wednesday by a vote of 6-0, the resolution says the federal government is not reimbursing Fulton for the costs to comply with ICE detainers. But the federal government awarded Fulton $8,878 in funding this fiscal year for incarcerating immigrants without legal status. Counties become eligible for money through the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program by incarcerating such inmates — who have at least one felony or two misdemeanor convictions — for at least four consecutive days. The funding helps counties pay for deputy salaries, jail maintenance and rehabilitation programs for inmates.
Fulton Commissioner Liz Hausmann abstained from voting on the county resolution Wednesday, saying she was hesitant to support it without input from the sheriff and other public safety officials.
“In my opinion, this resolution falls into the category of politically motivated, feel good legislation in an election year that is outside of the authority of my duties as a county commissioner,” Hausmann said in a statement Thursday. “As such, I chose not to participate in this vote and abstained. In retrospect, the proper vote should have been a NO vote.”
Commissioner Joan Garner said “sponsoring the resolution was the right thing to do.”
“I am opposed to any form of discrimination against any person or group,” Garner said in a statement Thursday. “The practice of holding individuals on an ICE detainer seemed to target a group of people and I had to speak up, and will always speak up, in order to oppose racial profiling and oppression.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has requested an interview with the sheriff about the resolution. A spokeswoman for Jackson on Wednesday issued a statement about the county jail’s handling of ICE detainers.
“If an inmate has local charges and has an ICE detainer request, then that inmate is held on the local charges only,” the spokeswoman, Tracy Flanagan, said by email. “Once the local case is resolved, ICE is notified. Persons are not held once they are scheduled for release.”
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