The sheriff in the county where a nursing student was murdered, allegedly by an illegal immigrant, said he would refuse to cooperate with ICE detainers.
The elected Democrat sheriff of the Georgia county where illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra allegedly murdered nursing student Laken Riley campaigned in 2020 on not cooperating with immigration authorities on the deportation of illegal immigrants.
John Williams, who in November 2020 was elected to Athens-Clarke County Sheriff, said in an interview with Athens Political Nerds ahead of the election that he wouldn’t cooperate with detainers issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“It is not my intention, when elected sheriff, to cooperate with those detainers,” Mr. Williams said.
An ICE detainer is a written request to local law enforcement to detain an individual who has been arrested on criminal charges and which ICE believes is a non-citizen subject to deportation.
A detainer asks police or other agencies to notify ICE when a removable individual is to be released from custody and requests that such individuals be held for longer so that ICE agents can take them into custody.
“When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission,” ICE says in an explainer.
‘Not Something We’ll Be Doing’
In the pre-election interview, Mr. Williams said that he believes that cooperating with ICE detention requests instills a “culture of fear” in the community.
“I see it as the sheriff’s responsibility, any law enforcement, to protect and serve the community,” Mr. Williams continued.
“We can’t help with a culture of fear in our community and expect our citizens to respond and help us in situations, because the fact is that a lot of law enforcement is based around community support,” he explained.
“Building relationships is key, and if we’re, I guess, antagonizing people because they are undocumented or underdocumented, then they build that fear in them, and they’re not likely to come to us not only when we need their help but when they need our help,” he added.
By Tom Ozimek
