Jose Antonio Ibarra, the man convicted of killing Riley last year, entered the United States illegally, authorities say. He was cited for shoplifting in Athens-Clarke County months before Riley’s murder.
The federal government has long prioritized immigrants for deportation who are convicted of violent crimes and other felonies. Adding misdemeanor theft-related charges, with or without convictions, could increase the number of deportations. But it’s not clear how many more undocumented immigrants the law would catch, or whether state and federal officials would have the resources to handle them.
“We look at it as a step toward eliminating such tragedies in the future,” said Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association. “What that impact might be on sheriffs generally and law enforcement in general, we’ll have to wait and see.”
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Many shoplifters are cited without being brought to jails where their immigration status would be checked, Kuck said, so they could still walk away with no flags raised.
And a federal court has ruled that Georgia’s shoplifting charge is too broad to qualify as an offense for federal purposes, leaving the question of whether accused shoplifters can be detained under the Laken Riley Act open to litigation, Kuck said.
House Bill 1105, a state law that Gov. Brian Kemp signed in the wake of Riley’s death, requires sheriff’s deputies to verify the status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That typically happens when people don’t have identification, Norris said. Georgia does not issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.
But the Laken Riley Act requires federal agents — not local sheriffs — to detain the immigrants. Sheriffs in Georgia are not required to hold them unless ICE issues a detainer, and those accused of misdemeanors often bond out before ICE can do so, Norris said.
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“The sheriffs want people detained in county jails that are a danger to the public,” Norris said. “However, if they can get someone out (of jail) on a minor offense, they want them out of that county jail, if they can legally bond out, because of the expense of medical, the expense of mental health (care.)”
ICE detainers ask jails to hold suspects for 48 hours, but if federal agents do not pick them up within that time, the suspects are released.
HB 1105 also required every sheriff’s office in Georgia to seek partnerships with ICE, known as 287(g) agreements, that allow deputies to issue their own immigration detainers and charging documents for deportation cases. But the administration of former President Joe Biden did not approve new 287(g) partnerships, and before Biden’s presidency, ICE rejected partnership applications from sheriff’s offices that did not have enough manpower, Norris said.
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Under HB 1105, sheriff’s offices in Georgia with 287(g) agreements are required to wield their immigration enforcement powers, Norris said. The Georgia Department of Corrections and the Floyd, Hall, Oconee, Polk and Whitfield county sheriff’s offices have current agreements. The Trump administration could approve more.
HB 1105 also requires sheriff’s offices to publish quarterly reports on charges that noncitizens face. In Gwinnett, the state’s second-largest county where a quarter of residents are foreign-born, 701 inmates were undocumented and 165 of them were subject to detainers from July to September of last year, according to the sheriff’s office.
Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor, who ended a 287(g) partnership on his first day in office, did not respond to a request for comment on the Laken Riley Act.
Some sheriffs have argued that jails nationwide are already short-staffed.
“I worry about the resources that sheriffs have on a good day, without the Laken Riley Act,” Norris said. “We’re struggling to hire folks throughout the state.”
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On the federal side, the paperwork to begin deportation proceedings is time-consuming and immigration courts are severely backlogged, Kuck said. The Department of Homeland Security has estimated the Laken Riley Act would cost $26.9 billion in the first year to implement, including an increase of 110,000 ICE detention beds.
“If you flood the system and you don’t allocate resources or personnel, mostly because they don’t exist right now, how does the system change other than things get more bogged down?” Kuck said.
The new law allowing detentions based on charges, rather than convictions, has raised due process concerns. Kuck said there is precedent limiting immigrants’ due process rights, but the Laken Riley Act does allow for deportations stemming from accusations that wouldn’t stand up in court.
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“There’s going to be a lot of profiling going on here,” he said.
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat did not respond when asked his opinion on the Laken Riley Act.
“We will comply with all laws mandating reporting and detention,” a spokesperson said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
