The Glynn County Sheriff’s Office is seeking to work with federal immigration authorities as part of a program that lets deputies serve warrants on immigrants in the jail.
As of April 29, Sheriff Neal Jump’s agency has a pending application to participate in the “Warrant Service Officer” initiative under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program, according to ICE. It is the only Coastal Georgia law enforcement agency with a pending or active application with ICE.
If approved, ICE will train and authorize designated Glynn deputies to serve administrative warrants on and arrest immigrants accused of entering the country illegally, who are already in the sheriff’s custody for a separate crime. The arrest warrants initiate the process to transfer the immigrants to ICE custody — halting their scheduled release from jail and detaining them until ICE can take over, the program’s memorandum states.
ICE then has 48 hours to pick up the detained immigrant from the jail before they are released.
Jump was not available for an interview on Wednesday, but his office sent The Current a letter the sheriff’s office submitted to ICE as part of its application. The letter proposes six total deputies for training.
The program “will enable my agency to assist in expediting transfer of subjects to ICE custody who may pose a risk to public safety in Glynn County,” Jump wrote in the letter dated March 18.
Migrant Equity Southeast, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of immigrants in Southeast Georgia, said that using local tax dollars to fulfill federal responsibilities is misguided.
“Immigration enforcement is a federal government responsibility, not something that should fall on local taxpayers,” said Eduardo Delgado, a civic and advocacy coordinator at Migrant Equity Southeast.
“This is going to further family separations here in the United States. We’re very concerned that the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office is looking to sign up for a 287(g) program,” according to Delgado.
While ICE covers the cost of training, Jump will have to pay for everything else: travel, lodging, per diem expenses, salaries of officers during training, office supplies and security restraints, according to the memorandum.
It is unclear whether the sheriff’s office has applied for the more intense 287(g) programs, which empower local police to interrogate suspected noncitizens about their immigration status.
The proposal is still a step further from legislation that Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last year, HB 1105. The state law requires Georgia sheriffs to report to federal authorities when undocumented immigrants are arrested and threatens penalties for municipalities that don’t comply.
Nearly 6% of Glynn County’s residents are foreign-born, according to Census estimates covering 2019 through 2023. That’s about 5,100 people not U.S. citizens at birth, including undocumented immigrants or naturalized U.S. citizens.
Glynn County Schools began providing specialized education to immigrant children in fiscal year 2023 “due to an increase in the migrant population in Glynn County,” its website states. Of more than 12,500 students in the school system, nearly 1,800 are students whose first language is not English.
Sheriff’s immigration enforcement priority
Partnering with ICE has long been a goal of the Glynn County sheriff.
Jump publicly expressed his discontent with ICE officials not picking up immigrants when they notify them of their illegal status — which the warrant program would help address. Last November, he said that if ICE does not come to get them, they have to be released.
“They have to complete their court ordered punishment for what they got arrested for, and then its unfortunate on the weekend, they love to drink and to get stopped for DUI’s or family violence, domestic violence, things of that nature, fighting,” he said to the Glynn County Commission back at a special called meeting about his overtime overages.
Jump was approved for a $1.5 million budget increase, in part because he said his officers have to work overtime to “monitor” those they say are in the country on an illegal status.
“In the days when ICE was coming to get them, in six months, I’d see them back on the street down here, because they already made their way back to the great USA, and that is part of our overtime, monitoring,” he added at the November meeting.
Delagado, with Migrant Equity, emphasized that Jump’s decision aligns with what is happening across the state, as law enforcement agencies have changed how they handle undocumented immigrants.
“Undocumented folks are being essentially put under deportation processes for a broken taillight, or maybe speeding a little, or being accused of being on their phone while they’re driving,” he said.
