ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp wants hundreds of state officers to help the feds detain criminals who are in the country illegally.
The governor has requested ICE train capitol police, Georgia State Patrol and Motor Carrier officers to apprehend people here who “pose a risk to the public.”
The Georgia Commissioner of Public Safety told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that Georgia has applied to get immigration training from the feds for all Georgia troopers and other officers under his command.
He says details are still being worked out and Georgia is in the queue for this along with other states.
“We’re going to try and stay in our lane and do what’s proper and what’s right. And if people are here illegally, I think it’s important for us to take those out of here. We’re trying to create a safe community for our citizens to live, work and enjoy life,” Georgia Department of Public Safety Commissioner Billy Hitchens said.
Winne rode along with Georgia State Patrol Sgt. David Whitehead on Tuesday and rolled up on a traffic stop.
Whitehead said the driver said he crossed the border illegally from Venezuela but turned himself in and is here legally now. But later he was found with a bogus work permit at the jail.
The stop illustrates the complexities of immigration law troopers encounter and why training on it would be useful.
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“Will this ICE training be useful and if so, why?” Winne asked Whitehead.
“It will because it’s going to give us a point of—to know we should go next with it,” Whitehead said. “It will give us guidance should these people be here, should they be removed from the state of Georgia.”
“Our goal is not to come out and round up illegal immigrants that aren’t doing anything,” Hitchens said.
Hitchens said at the direction of Kemp, he has requested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train all 1,100 Georgia State Patrol Troopers, Capitol police officers and Motor Carrier Compliance Division officers on how to handle situations involving men and women in this country illegally who have committed crimes.
“It’ll just give us another tool in our tool belt that allows us to deal with, you know, criminals that are here illegally when we come in contact with them during our daily operations,” Hitchens said.
“Immigration law is complicated, right?” Winne asked Hitchens.
“Yes. It very much is very complicated. And that’s why this training will not turn us into Ice agents,” Hitchens said.
“Are you confident this training will not take away from having enough troopers on the road?” Winne asked Hitchens.
“Yes, sir. I’m very confident of that,” Hitchens said.
Whitehead said he’s part of the GSP’s Criminal Interdiction Unit which works often with DEA and other federal agencies on big drug cases involving foreign-based cartels -- cases frequently involving people in this country illegally.
“I would note that you can’t train someone on immigration law in a couple hours. Immigration law is wildly complicated,” immigration attorney Chuck Kuck told Channel 2’s Brittany Kleinpeter on Tuesday. “Some people will be detained but this is not going to result in mass arrests by the DPS.”
As for the driver who was pulled over, Whitehead said the driver would go to jail for having no license, a window tint violation and having a 4-year-old in the car unrestrained.
Whitehead described a February chase by his unit in metro Atlanta ending in a PIT maneuver and the discovery the driver was in the US illegally and had roughly 20 pounds of methamphetamine.
In another stop last week, the driver was here illegally and had rape and assault-strangulation charges on his history though we don’t know the status of those charges.
But Whitehead said ICE told GSP they’d been looking for that man for deportation.
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