TailOverTeaKettle.com

The Associated Press is reporting that Cobb County (Georgia) Commission has approved a request by the sheriff to work more closely with federal officials to deport jailed illegal immigrants.

“Our focus will continue to be on identifying, prosecuting and deporting illegal aliens who are in our country illegally and committing crimes,” [Cobb County Sheriff Neil] Warren said.

What a great (and obvious) step towards enforcing the immigration laws already on the books. You commit a crime in this country and are found to be here illegally - then start to work with the federal immigration authorities. (Of course this assumes that they also have the will to actually send people home, but that’s another story). The most amazing part? That since 1996, only seven other agencies around the country have joined the program. Seven!

As Mike King notes:

A Government Accountability Office study in 2005 found that illegal immigrants jailed in this country, on average, are arrested eight times before being deported. And as homicides and other serious crimes rise in metro Atlanta counties — fueled, at least in part by immigrant-on-immigrant crime and gang violence — perceptions change. Residents of affected neighborhoods are demanding that something be done.

Of course, reporting this story could not go by without hearing from the counter argument:

Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said the county’s recent actions “send a chilling message” to Hispanics in the county.

Let’s hope it does… to those here in the US illegally.