Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier editor-in-chief
Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier managing editor
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office and representatives from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) faced tough questions from a nearly full room of community members yesterday at a public steering committee meeting about a partnership between the two agencies.
The meeting, held at 8 a.m. in the Floyd County Jail Training Center, concerned the local sheriff’s office agreement with ICE under section 287(g) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. The agreement provides training for local law enforcement officials and allows them to be deputized for immigration enforcement duties.
Mike Martin, the program manager for Floyd County’s 287(g) agreement, led the meeting. Representatives from the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office and ICE were also present.
“We do this every three years,” Martin said. “It’s required by the agreement between ICE and the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.”
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office entered its agreement with ICE in February 2018. Since then, five local officers have been trained under the program, with one immigration officer currently active. This officer is officially authorized to question people who are detained at Floyd County Jail about their immigration status and can transfer people without legal immigration status into ICE custody.
Floyd County is one of only six counties in Georgia to enter an agreement with ICE under the 287(g) program. A bill signed last year by Gov. Brian Kemp, however, requires all law enforcement agencies in the state to report and detain people without legal immigration status. During the meeting, Martin said that Floyd County is continuing its 287(g) agreement because it allows immigrants without legal status to pass through legal proceedings faster.
“[In other counties], they stay there until they finish with the criminal charges, they make bond, they finish their sentence, etc., however that works, and then we would go and have 48 hours at that point to go pick them up and take them to the Atlanta field office,” Martin said. “Here, all of that happens on the front end and they get their attorney list, they have all of their documents served and they know everything before they leave Floyd County jail.”
According to statistics presented at the meeting, there were 91 people without legal immigration status at Floyd County Jail in 2023 and 93 in 2024. Of this group, 19 were deported in 2023 and 12 were deported in 2024.
The steering committee asked members of the public to submit questions via email by Feb. 1, saying that only questions related to the 287(g) program would be answered. After giving a brief presentation, Martin answered only four of these pre-screened questions.
Attendees were told ahead of the event that there would not be an open question and answer session at the meeting. Yet the steering committee faced a large and concerned audience, with many shouting out questions after the official presentation. Many Berry students were present, as well as faculty members Christina Bucher, Anne Lewinson and Thom Ratkos.
Though Martin presented two immigrants convicted of burglary and assault who have been deported as “success stories” for the program, Dhamar Verdel, founder of the Rome-based advocacy group Corazón Latino, asked about exactly how many of the people processed through the program were convicted of serious crimes. Martin said that he did not have that information on hand, though it may be provided by ICE officials upon request.
“That data is general data,” Martin said in response to the question. “Is there a way to differentiate? Probably — I didn’t bring that data today.”
The mood in the room became tense at times. A protester in the back of the room silently held a sign reading “Break the ICE.” Another attendee in the back yelled out “f*** off, brownshirts” during the meeting, comparing ICE to a Nazi paramilitary group that aided Hitler’s rise to power. Many local residents shared personal fears about deportation.
One attendee asked if there had been an increase in racial profiling with the presence of the 287(g) program in Floyd County.
“To my knowledge, absolutely not,” Martin said, provoking laughter from some attendees. “In Georgia, since the programs were implemented in 2008, there has been no racial profiling involved in the 287(g) program.”
Blanca Lopez, a Rome citizen who attended the meeting, denied this, saying that her brother – an American born citizen – had been detained by immigration enforcement officials for eight hours.
“They questioned him about his [citizenship status], and of course he has nothing to do with immigration because he was born here,” Lopez said. “It was because he was Hispanic. I feel like as Hispanics we are targeted and we are getting [stalked] and I feel like that is racial profiling. It may not be happening to me right now, but in a week or two I may get stopped because I’m Hispanic.”
According to Lopez, the racial profiling the Hispanic community faces causes growing distrust in local law enforcement agencies.
“You never know the reason they’re stopping you — they can say whatever reason and it could not be true,” Lopez said. “I feel like if they were more open about what is going on [in meetings like these], there would be more trust. Instead, they cherry picked questions and said ‘oh, you can message them and send your questions to this website.’ They are not going to answer my question unless we have a meeting with immigration, the sheriff and other people involved.”
The meeting took place amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to arrest and deport more undocumented immigrants. After Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security issued a directive saying that schools, healthcare facilities and places of worship will no longer be considered safe spaces where immigration enforcement activities should be avoided. According to a report in the Washington Post, the Trump administration has directed each ICE field office to make at least 75 arrests daily. 8,000 people have been arrested by ICE so far this year, an increase over the numbers seen during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Lindsay Williams, an ICE public affairs officer, said that it is now up to officers to decide whether to conduct immigration arrests at schools, including private colleges like Berry.
“We’re federal law enforcement — it’s not like we’re the Boy Scouts or some made-up organization, so we have the authority to do whatever we have the authority to do,” Williams said. “If there was a need, I’m sure our officers would know how to work with the local campus police or whatever to do what they need to do.”
Chief of Police Ryan Chesley declined to comment on how Berry’s police department may work with ICE.
Despite the vocal audience that attended the meeting, many attendees were told that their questions were outside the scope of the 287(g) program. Verdel, who asked several questions regarding the questioning of detainees in the Floyd County jail, accessibility of legal representation for detainees and reporting of racial profiling, said she was dissatisfied with how many questions officials refused to answer.
“I was not satisfied [with the answers given],” Verdel said. “I am glad they were able to answer some questions at the end, but I think that it shows they have a lack of preparation and a lack of actual knowledge of the program. We wanted to make sure we were able to ask the right questions because it really only shows the faults in the system and the program.”
Senior Yahel Parada found the meeting disappointing. He felt that officials did not make any effort to allay fears among immigrant communities, instead directing them to government websites.
“I wish they cared more about the community,” Parada said. “There’s just a natural fear that these are your family members, these are your friends and you don’t know if one day they’re going to be taken away. I really think honesty and transparency are necessary to build that trust [with law enforcement].”
Verdel, who started her organization by sharing information about immigration on social media, said that her biggest concern was misinformation about immigration operations.
“We’ve seen a lot of posts saying, ‘oh, we’re doing a raid here or we’re doing a traffic stop here’ when in reality it’s not true,” Verdel said. “What we don’t want is people to be scared to go out and to enjoy living here and enjoy being with their families.”
Verdel encouraged those concerned about immigration to follow Corazón Latino on social media and get involved in volunteering and awareness efforts.
“There are some Latinos that are scared to go out, so how do they receive the resources if we’re out in the public and not in their houses?” Verdel said. “We will continue to protect, defend and support our community.”