Georgia had the highest deportation rate among all non-border states in fiscal year 2013, according to a new report.
Federal agents returned 386,485 individuals illegally residing in the U.S., 7,120 of whom were deported from the Peach State, which put it at the top of the list after Texas, Arizona and California. More than 500 of those deported from Georgia had serious felony convictions and had been previously deported, according to a Freedom of Information Act request by WSB-TV in Atlanta.
“To the families who’ve been victimized … by these folks who shouldn’t be in the country to begin with, this is not a political game,” Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., told WSB.
Criminal illegal immigrants have been able to circumvent federal laws that would require them to be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal services as a result of state-enacted anti-detainer laws and sanctuary city policies.
These practices are standard in hundreds of municipalities around the U.S. and allow local law enforcement not to report a criminal’s immigration status to ICE, which lets them remain in the country after he or she makes bail or serves time.
Georgia’s high deportation rate indicates the state may contain a higher percentage of illegal immigrants than others, or that its law enforcement officials are cooperating with ICE officials at a higher rate than other states. The WSB report said Georgia is essentially a “border state” with those numbers.
After learning about the FOIA results, Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., asked his constituents to hold their representatives at the state and federal levels accountable for ensuring that policies that affect public safety are enforced.
“These statistics that you’re exposing now create energy back home that creates pressure on politicians. And when you create pressure on politicians, then things start to happen (in Washington),” Perdue told WSB-TV.
