Open records request: Fulton County Sheriff - Re: Compliance OCGA 42-4-14

Photo: Fulton County Government.

The below email was sent (forwarded return mail rejected because of bad address on website) to the Fulton County Sheriff Feb 16, 2021 at 12:04 PM, Feb 16, 2021 after phone conversation with staffer. Sent to Pat.labat@ fulto. Also to Fulton Co. Attorney.

Note: We also sent open records requests to Gwinnett Sheriff and Cobb Sheriff.

Begin forwarded message:

From: “D.A. King” <D

Subject: open records request Re; OCGA 42-4-14

Date: February 16, 2021 at 11:25:23 AM EST

To: Patrick.Labat@ ful

Cc: steven.rosenbev, Dexter.Jenkin, Adam.Le, Derrick.Single

Fulton Co. Sheriff Patrick Labat. Photo: Ballotopedia

Sheriff Labat,

Please regard this email as my official request for copies of public records.

Please send me copies of any and all documents, emails, phone logs or any record, including ~~electrons~~ (electronic) records in your office pertaining to and or associated with any arrest, custody or incarceration of one Jesus Alvarez De La Rosa who the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper reports was booked into the Fulton Co. jail on (or about) Feb 15, 2021.

Please send me copies of any and all documents, emails, records, including electronic records, or phone logs pertaining to and or associated with any communication with federal immigration authorities in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dealing with or associated with the arrest, booking and confinement of the subject named above. My request includes all records in your office relating to the state law (OCGA 42-4-14) that requires your office to use reasonable effort to determine the inmate’s nationality and verify immigration status and to report the inmate to U.S. DHS if he is determined to be an illegal alien.

Please include copies of any and all documents, queries, records, including electronic records, and logs related to communication between your office and the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) dealing with the arrest process and or confinement of the above named subject.

I expect my request to be expanded.

Thank you in advance for a timely and relevant response.

As an informative courtesy, I paste below the entire code section OCGA 42-4-14.

D.A. King

Marietta, GA. 30066

O.C.G.A. § 42-4-14

Copy Citation

Current through the 2020 Regular Session of the General Assembly

GA – Official Code of Georgia Annotated
TITLE 42. PENAL INSTITUTIONS
CHAPTER 4. JAILS
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

42-4-14. “Illegal alien” defined; determination of nationality of person charged with felony and confined in a jail facility

(a) As used in this Code section, the term “illegal alien” means a person who is verified by the federal government to be present in the United States in violation of federal immigration law.

(b) When any person is confined, for any period, in the jail of a county or municipality or a jail operated by a regional jail authority in compliance with Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a reasonable effort shall be made to determine the nationality of the person so confined.

(c) When any foreign national is confined, for any period, in a county or municipal jail, a reasonable effort shall be made to verify that such foreign national has been lawfully admitted to the United States and if lawfully admitted, that such lawful status has not expired. If verification of lawful status cannot be made from documents in the possession of the foreign national, verification shall be made within 48 hours through a query to the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) of the United States Department of Homeland Security or other office or agency designated by the federal government. If the foreign national is determined to be an illegal alien, the keeper of the jail or other officer shall notify the United States Department of Homeland Security, or other office or agency designated for notification by the federal government.

(d) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to deny a person bond or from being released from confinement when such person is otherwise eligible for release; provided, however, that upon verification that any person confined in a jail is an illegal alien, such person may be detained, arrested, and transported as authorized by state and federal law.

(e) The Georgia Sheriffs Association shall prepare and issue guidelines and procedures used to comply with the provisions of this Code section.

History

Code 1981, § 42-4-14, enacted by Ga. L. 2006, p. 105, § 5/SB 529; Ga. L. 2008, p. 1137, § 4/SB 350; Ga. L. 2009, p. 8, § 42/SB 46; Ga. L. 2009, p. 970, § 2/HB 2; Ga. L. 2011, p. 794, § 13/HB 87.

___

I received the below response at 1:28 PM same day.

Dear D.A. King:

Thank you for submitting an Open Records Request to Fulton County, Georgia.

The County received your Open Records Act request dated February 16, 2021 and has assigned the reference number R001016-021621 for tracking purposes.

Record(s) Requested: Please regard this email as my official request for copies of public records. Please send me copies of any and all documents, emails, phone logs or any record, including electrons records in your office pertaining to and or associated with any arrest, custody or incarceration of one Jesus Alvarez De La Rosa who the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper reports was booked into the Fulton Co. jail on (or about) Feb 15, 2021. Please send me copies of any and all documents, emails, records, including electronic records, or phone logs pertaining to and or associated with any communication with federal immigration authorities in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dealing with or associated with the arrest, booking and confinement of the subject named above. My request includes all records in your office relating to the state law (OCGA 42-4-14) that requires your office to use reasonable effort to determine the inmate’s nationality and verify immigration status and to report the inmate to U.S. DHS if he is determined to be an illegal alien. Please include copies of any and all documents, queries, records, including electronic records, and logs related to communication between your office and the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) dealing with the arrest process and or confinement of the above named subject. I expect my request to be expanded. Thank you in advance for a timely and relevant response.

We will send out the request to the appropriate department(s). If you should have any questions or concerns about the requested documents, please feel free to contact the Fulton County Open Records team. If there should be a cost associated with the Open Records Request we will contact you in a timely manner.

Fulton County has a new Open Records Center that allows you to submit and track Open Records Act requests. Please visit the link below to monitor request progress and submit future requests.

Open Records Center

Fulton County Open Records

I support the police.
All lives matter.

ACTION NEEDED, PLEASE.

We trust you already know who your state lawmakers are. If not, please click here to find out and see contact information.

January 22, 2022

Below you can see short explanations of three bills pending under Georgia’s Gold Dome. Powerful, well-funded lobby groups are pushing the Republican-controlled legislature to pass HB 120 and HB 932. The same forces are trying to kill HB 228. Please make your voice heard. Contact your state legislators now and often. There will be more bills analyzed here soon. We need help.

* HB 120 would give illegal alien college students living in Georgia with a deferral on deportation in Obama’s DACA program the much lower instate tuition rate in public colleges and technical schools. Americans and legal immigrants from other states who attend the same schools are not eligible for that lower rate and must pay out-of-state tuition.

For academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com .

Last year a federal judge ruled the DACA program to be unlawful. The 11^th circuit appellate court ruled in 2019 that illegal aliens with DACA are still illegal aliens. They do not have legal status and are removable at any time. The Georgia Attorney General’s office takes a similar position. There are about 20K DACA recipients in GA.

Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter introduced HB 120 in 2021. It puts DACA illegal aliens in front of Americans and legal immigrants. We regard that as un-American. The instate tuition for illegals concept is publicly pushed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce because it would lower wages for Americans and raise corporate profits.The Dustin Inman Society opposes HB120.

Ask your state Rep to oppose. Then call and or email the Speaker’s office (404-656-5020) and leave a polite message with your opinion on this bill. These phone lines have voice mail so you can call on weekends and after business hours.

* HB 932 would allow refugees, foreigners here on Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) and Afghans on “humanitarian parole” to be excluded from the current state law and BOR policy that says newly arrived college students must be GA residents for 12 months before they can access the much lower instate tuition rate in Georgia’s university system. (The Special Immigrant Visa grants permanent residence to foreign nationals who claim to have helped the U.S. government abroad).

HB 932 does not cover Americans and immigrants outside the above description who move to Georgia from other states – they would still be required to pay the higher tuition rate for public colleges/tech schools for the first year of their residence.

HB 932 is sponsored by Republican Rep Wes Cantrell and has Democrat cosponsors. We regard HB 932 as un-American. The Dustin Inman Society opposes HB 932.

Ask your state Rep to oppose. Then call and or email the Speaker’s office (404-656-5020) and leave a polite message with your opinion on this bill. These phone lines have voice mail so you can call on weekends and after business hours.

* HB 228 (Republican Rep Charlice Byrd) addresses the fact that Georgia issues drivers licenses and ID Cards to foreigners but has no law that excludes these credentials from acceptance as “proper identification” for voting purposes. The bill fixes that loophole and adds the wording “BEARER NOT U.S. CITIZEN-NOT VOTER ID” to the front of the non-citizen drivers licenses and ID Cards. It also requires DDS to change the first two characters of the serial number of these credentials to “NC” to reflect non-U.S. citizen status for mail-in vote security. We regard this bill to be a commonsense fix to a needless gap in election integrity. The Dustin Inman supports HB 228.

Ask your state Rep to help with passage as a cosponsor. Then call and or email the Speaker’s office – (404-656-5020) and leave a polite message with your opinion on this bill. These phone lines have voice mail so you can call on weekends and after business hours.

More information is easily accessed at ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com and NewDustinInmanSociety.org. dak – 22 Jan 2022

*Updated, Jan 24, 2022 5:03 PM with a correction on HB 932 to “the state’s university system.”