Open records request - Cobb County Sheriff - Feb 15, 2021 Re; OCGA 42-4-14

Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens Jr. Photo: CCSO/WABE/Twitter

Open records request Re; Compliance with OCGA 42-4-14 Email traffic.

Email sent 11:21 AM – FEB 15, 2021

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Sheriff Owens,

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 Rony Perez-Lucas who at least one local news report claims was arrested on Feb 9, 2021 and is or was confined in the Cobb County jail.

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 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

Current through the 2020 Regular Session of the General Assembly

§ 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.

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Response received from Sheriff Owens address at 11:43 AM:

Good morning Mr. King,

Please send all Open Records request for the Cobb Sheriff’s Office to Ms. Robin Clements our Custodian of Records she handles all Open records request for Cobb Sheriff’s Office.

Thank you and have a great day!

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I forwarded the original email to Robin Clements a few minutes later and was sent this response.

On Feb 15, 2021, at 12:31 PM, Clements, Robin <Robin.Clements@cobbcounty.org> wrote:

Good Morning Mr. King,

I have attached the arrest/booking report along with a color mugshot. All charges were obtained by the Cobb County Police Department, not our agency. In order to retrieve an incident report please contact Cobb County Police at policeopenrecordsofficer@cobbcounty.org. Their case number is 21009562. For information regarding the immigration status of Rony Perez please contact the Department of Homeland Security/ICE. I am only the custodian of records for the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office. Have a great rest of the day and stay safe!

Very Respectfully,

<image001.gif>

Robin E. Clements

Executive Asst. to Chief Deputy R. W. Anderson

Public Safety Services Coordinator

185 Roswell Street

Marietta, GA 30090-9650

770.499.4748 Office

Robin.Clements@cobbcounty.org

_________

I then sent this (1:05 PM) in an effort to be sure my original request was clear to all concerned at the CCSO.

Ms.Clements,

Thank you. To be clear, my request included records that would exist if the Cobb County Sheriff office is in compliance with OCGA 42-4-14. I want to be sure there is no confusion and that these are the only records your office can produce for my request on the booking and incarceration of this individual, including any records that would exist due to compliance with the above state law.

I strive for accuracy.

dak

I support the police.
All lives matter.

Image: Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Note the below opinion piece was written about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We have had enough experience in Georgia’s state Capitol to know it’s also mostly true for state chambers.

“The Chamber of Commerce exists to keep workers’ wages low”

No, we don’t need to double immigration to stop inflation

Conn Carroll

Washington Examiner

January 14, 2022

Chamber of Commerce President Suzanne Clark, who was paid over $4 million by the Chamber in 2020 , wants to double immigration to the United States, a move she said will help solve the nation’s labor shortage and inflation crisis.

“We must double the number of people legally immigrating to the U.S.,” Clark said during her State of American Business 2022 keynote address . “This workforce shortage is a crisis. It is contributing to supply chain disruptions and rising inflation. It is undermining business growth.”

It is true that there is a near record-high of 10.6 million jobs available, according to the Labor Department’s most recent report . And it is true that legal immigration is down. But legal immigration has been down since President Donald Trump took office , and the labor shortage only materialized after Biden became president .

What did change under Biden is an unprecedented fountain of money going straight to households regardless of their working status . And even President Barack Obama’s top economic advisers have said that it is this flood of money that is the driving force behind inflation. “By March of 2021, it looked very likely that the vaccinations were going to be very effective in bringing COVID down and that the economy was repairing rapidly,” Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman said last November . “So, that last round of checks, I thought at the time, was a mistake.”

If Clark wants to start filling those 10.6 million job openings, the businesses that pay her $4 million salary should start offering to pay their workers more. Just 61.9% of working-age people are in the American labor force. To bring those 10.6 million job openings down to zero, the labor force participation rate would only have to rise to 65.9%, a level last reached in 2008…. please read the rest here.