The federal Laken Riley Act was President Donald Trump’s first law of his second term. It expands the scope of crimes that could place a person living in the U.S. without legal status in immigration detention and in deportation proceedings.
Last year, state politicians in Georgia also drafted legislation in Riley’s name after the nursing student was murdered on the University of Georgia campus by a Venezuelan migrant who crossed into the U.S. illegally. He had once been caught shoplifting, but was let go.
“In Georgia, the people of this state, the people we represent, are expecting us to do something,” said Republican State Rep. Jesse Petrea in front of legislators last year. “I think this is a good way to do just that.”
The Georgia law requires local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration agents to enforce immigration law through a 287g partnership: A federal program that deputizes local law enforcement to take on some federal immigration responsibilities inside jails. These can include using Department of Homeland Security databases to look up immigration status, requesting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer asking the agency if it wants to engage in immigration charges for an unauthorized migrant, and sometimes transporting the person from jail to ICE detention.
Without extra funding for law enforcement, it’s slow to be implemented.
“The law mandates they ask to participate. The law does not mandate they participate,” said Terry Norris, the executive director of the Georgia Sheriff’s Association. He said the association worked with 142 sheriffs across the state to comply with the new Georgia law, including requesting the 287g partnership.
Georgia has 159 counties, but some of those counties share a sheriff because of a lack of resources.
“We created a template, a little two-line letter to ICE saying I’m sheriff so-and-so from county so-and-so. Please know that I’m interested in the 287g program,” Norris said.
He said no county was approved for the program last year, with ICE saying the sheriffs didn’t have enough resources as required by the 287g program.
An ICE spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
“Georgia sheriffs are like almost every other agency throughout the country,” he said. “We have a very difficult time hiring deputies and jailers.”
Norris said lack of personnel was one problem, and that’s one thing they will need to comply with 287g. Norris and his association are hoping for more state funding to make that happen. He said county taxpayers’ dollars go to the cost of the sheriff’s office and the jail, including medical care, mental health and food.
One version of the 287g agreement trains law enforcement how to use federal databases to check immigration status and requires officers to check if ICE wants to pursue an immigration case — from here, ICE can ask officers to hold a person for 48 hours so they can be transferred to immigration detention, or ICE can decline to pursue immigration action.
There are only six 287g programs in Georgia, according to ICE. That number hasn’t changed since last year’s law went into effect, but the law requires annual application.
Local law enforcement do not usually run immigration status checks on the people they arrest, said Emily Davis, an attorney who teaches immigration law at Emory University.
“It’s very costly for local governments to do that sort of immigration work, and they’re not typically familiar enough with immigration status and immigration law to be able to make that determination,” she said.
Atlanta immigration attorney Charles Kuck said funding is going to be an obstacle for the federal Laken Riley Act, too.
“ICE warned Congress as they were considering this bill that, one, they had neither the funds nor the resources to actually carry out this bill, and two, if they wanted that to happen, they would need approximately $23 billion,” Kuck said.
The federal act requires the Department of Homeland Security to issue a detainer on non-U.S. nationals who have been arrested for theft, shoplifting, burglary, violence that leads to injury or death, or assaulting a police officer.
“Taken to its broadest context and the citations to the statute that applies to, it appears that anyone who is not a citizen of the United States, is mandatorily detained by ICE until they have a hearing in immigration court. That’s how broadly it’s written,” Kuck said. He said this could include visa holders and permanent residents.
Davis, the Emory law professor, said Georgia’s law is more likely to put more people in immigration proceedings than the Laken Riley Act, because the scope of crimes defined in the federal act is narrower than Georgia’s.
“Any crime whatsoever, even if it’s a traffic offense which is considered a misdemeanor in Georgia, could trigger an ICE hold,” she said.
But without the estimated billions in funding, Davis said it remains to be seen how effective the laws will be.
