06-13-2007, 07:41 PM
Story by wsbtv.com
MARIETTA, Ga. --
The Cobb County Sheriff's Office has started screening county jail inmates to determine whether they are illegal immigrants.
The move makes the sheriff's office the first local law enforcement agency in Georgia to begin the practice and one of only a handful nationwide.
It comes after six deputies graduated Friday from a four-week training program with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Herndon, Virginia. They were trained in areas such as immigration law, cross-cultural communication, civil rights, criminal law, document examination, alien processing and identification and enforcement.
In addition to conducting interviews, the newly empowered deputies will be able to determine whether anyone who enters the jail is in the country illegally by comparing fingerprints with those in ICE and FBI databases.
Monday, 324 foreign nationals were among the 2,155 inmates at the Cobb County Jail. Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren says of those, 63 have been labeled as persons of interest to federal immigration authorities.
Warren says authorities are not trying to target any particular group and simply want to get criminals off the streets.
However, Cobb County Police Chief George Hatfield blames much of the violent crime in the county on Hispanic criminals.
MARIETTA, Ga. --
The Cobb County Sheriff's Office has started screening county jail inmates to determine whether they are illegal immigrants.
The move makes the sheriff's office the first local law enforcement agency in Georgia to begin the practice and one of only a handful nationwide.
It comes after six deputies graduated Friday from a four-week training program with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Herndon, Virginia. They were trained in areas such as immigration law, cross-cultural communication, civil rights, criminal law, document examination, alien processing and identification and enforcement.
In addition to conducting interviews, the newly empowered deputies will be able to determine whether anyone who enters the jail is in the country illegally by comparing fingerprints with those in ICE and FBI databases.
Monday, 324 foreign nationals were among the 2,155 inmates at the Cobb County Jail. Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren says of those, 63 have been labeled as persons of interest to federal immigration authorities.
Warren says authorities are not trying to target any particular group and simply want to get criminals off the streets.
However, Cobb County Police Chief George Hatfield blames much of the violent crime in the county on Hispanic criminals.