x
Breaking News
More () »

#13Investigates: How immigration enforcement works in Georgia

ICE says a majority of their arrests don't come from raids, but other local law enforcement activity

The United States Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Georgia recently sent a release announcing the prosecution of eight people accused of illegal reentry into the United States.

It ran down the names of people from Mexico, Canada and Guatemala.

Three of them either entered guilty pleas or were sentenced for illegal reentry, including one man found in Wilcox County, according to the release.

The release says five others were indicted by a Grand Jury for illegal reentry on May 10.

All eight of them were picked up in Georgia with no legal right to be in the U.S.

13 WMAZ wanted to know how authorities often come into contact and then catch those people, and what immigration enforcement looks like here in Georgia.

We spoke to a Macon immigration attorney and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Atlanta and followed the tracks of one man through the process.

We discovered that illegal immigration raids that often make national headlines are only a small part of the story.

For immigration attorney Ashley Deadwyler-Heuman, those rounded up in ICE raids are not her usual clientele.

“I would say the majority of my clients, at least, I can't speak systemically, but the majority of my clients did not come into custody through raids. The majority of my clients come into custody because of traffic violations or minor misdemeanor offenses that they've been charged with,” Heuman said.

She started handling immigration law cases from her Macon office in the Fickling Building six years ago.

“Usually, it's driving without a license. That's what I really see the most of, it's somebody driving without a license,” Heuman said.

She told us Miguel's story, one of her clients arrested in 2017 in Houston County.

Heuman says Miguel was returning to Florida and was arrested for driving without a license.

Then, Miguel's wife -- a U.S. citizen -- thought he'd be released from the Houston County jail after she paid bail, but instead an ICE detainer was placed on him, according to Heuman.

That’s when he was sent to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Eventually, Heuman said she was able to get him out on immigration bond, allowing Miguel to return to his family in Miami, Florida.

As Miguel’s case works its way through the legal system, WMAZ wanted to know if his story was common.

An ICE spokesman says this is how they come face to face with many of their arrestees.

“The vast majority of ICE arrests take place in a jail, going to a state, federal prison, local law enforcement area, someone who has been arrested on criminal charges, they are in the country unlawfully, they've been arrested on criminal charges,” Bryan Cox said.

Cox is a spokesman for the Georgia office, which oversees ICE operations in Georgia and the Carolinas. He says illegal immigration arrests from raids only count for 10 percent of all ICE arrests.

“Thus far, in the 2018 fiscal year, nine out of ten persons who came into ICE custody, they came into ICE custody after they were arrested on a criminal offense, over and above anything to do with their immigration status. Nine out of ten persons who came into ICE custody, their criminal arrest is what triggered that encounter,” Cox said.

ICE's own nationally reported numbers back up that claim.

In fiscal year 2017, roughly 89 percent of ICE detainees were charged or convicted on other crimes separate from immigration violations.

73.7 percent of their 2017 arrests were of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions, another 15.5 percent were of illegal immigrants with pending criminal charges.

This means there are a lot more stories like Miguel's, rather than ICE raids that grab regional and national headlines.

Cox said local law enforcement agencies will often alert ICE of either convicted criminals or those pending conviction that they’ve determined are here illegally.

An open records request showed that from 2016 to 2018, the Houston County Sheriff’s Office transferred 59 people from its custody to ICE’s.

Before You Leave, Check This Out