4 PM: Hundreds Still Without Power

800 customers are still without power two days after a winter storm swept through northern parts of the state. Georgia Power expects people around Athens to have power by 7p, with customers in Hartwell restored to power by 10 pm. In all, the storm knocked out power for about 100,000 customers. At least seven school districts in northeast Georgia are closed again today. 50 districts closed yesterday.

4 PM Power Outage Update

20,000 metro Atlantans and north Georgians are still without power right now after snow and ice damage yesterday and overnight. Hardest-hit are Jackson and Madison counties, where up to 7 inches of snow fell. At the height of the storm, approximately 45,000 customers were without power due mainly to the weight of snow and winds causing trees to fall on power lines. The Georgia Electric Membership Corporation has 70 crews working around the clock to restore power. It could take well into tonight to restore all power. Students in at least 50 school districts across central Georgia are enjoying a snow day.

Inmates To Be Deported

Deportations loom for many of the 914 foreign-born inmates discovered at the Gwinnett County jail during a 26-day review that concluded this week. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has taken custody of about a third of those inmates, while the others are being detained for possible deportation. Gwinnett County's Sheriff says no one outside the jail was checked for citizenship during the surge and that all jail inmates, who average about 2,700 per day, were screened regardless of their claim to citizenship.

(Associated Press)

Advocates urge undocumented immigrants: prepare a ‘go-bag’

Fear rippled through a group of Latino parents in suburban Chamblee, near Atlanta when a friend was deported to Mexico and temporarily separated from her two young U.S.-born children. The kids weren't able to immediately join her because she and her husband hadn't gotten passports for them.

More than nine months later, anxiety about being taken from their children is still palpable among the members of the support group for Spanish-speaking parents — most of them undocumented — of children with Down syndrome.

To guard against such separations — a widely decried effect of recent large-scale workplace raids — social workers and activists are urging undocumented immigrants to put together emergency kits similar to the kind emergency officials encourage people to keep in case of fire or natural disaster.

"Information is power," said Sonia Parras Konrad, a lawyer in Iowa who helped undocumented immigrants in the wake of a raid at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant in May. "If they know their rights and are prepared, they can be more in control of their lives and what happens to them."

The immigrants' kits include passports for U.S.-born children, contact info for an attorney, information on their legal rights and other material that can keep families together or help relatives retrieve a last paycheck.

Susy Martorell, a social worker and president of the board of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia who has run the Down syndrome group for about 10 years, said the group's members are constantly preoccupied with their legal status. That prompted her to depart from the group's main focus on health issues once or twice a year to bring in an immigration lawyer.

At a meeting last month, the parents listened raptly, concern visible on their faces, as attorney Luis Alemany answered questions and offered advice. Alemany urged them to prepare for the detention of one or both parents by securing passports and having a well thought-out plan for who will care for the children and how the family will be reunited if the parents are deported.

"Guests like him help us a lot because we learn a lot about immigration law and what we can do to prepare in case something happens," group member Leticia Gonzalez said in Spanish.

A 42-year-old stay-at-home mom from Mexico who lives in the Atlanta area, Gonzalez said she and her construction worker husband have been even more nervous since a man her husband works with was arrested and deported two months ago. The couple, who entered the U.S. illegally and have lived here for 17 years, have been trying to make sure they have all of his papers in order, including records of U.S. taxes he's paid on his income. But she said they don't yet have passports for all of their six children, four of whom are American-born.

Immigrant rights activists in different parts of the country said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seems to have stepped up its efforts in the last year or so, leading to more deportations. That seems to be supported by ICE removal numbers which have increased every year since 2003, the earliest year for which the agency provides numbers.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this and related issues.

Panel hears about alleged misconduct in ICE raids

A panel of national commissioners heard testimony in Atlanta Thursday, accusing immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, agents of misconduct.

The National Commission on ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights was started by the United Food and Commercial Workers' Union.

17 year old Marie Justeen Mancha, a U.S. citizen of Mexican origin, testified that ICE agents searched her house two years ago, when she was home alone.

"I looked around and there were about 4 or 5 men in my home," she said, "And they were coming up the stairs. They began to ask me questions. I started to feel closed in, like I couldn't say no or not answer them because they were blocking the front door, and it was just me and them."

Several attorneys said Georgia communities are using a federal provision that lets local officials enforce immigration law. They claim it's led to racial profiling. ICE officials deny that they have illegally searched homes or detained individuals.

More officers train for immigration enforcement

North Georgia police officers have begun new training to help them deport illegal immigrants. The Hall County Sheriff Department is the latest in Georgia to join the federal program called ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The training includes how to use Department of Homeland Security databases to identify criminals and illegal immigrants. Once they complete the course, officers will be able to begin deportation procedures for illegals already in their custody.

Immigration and Customs Training

Northwest Georgia police are receiving federal training to help identify illegal immigrants. Whitfield County is the second in Georgia to gain access to the federal database of ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s a record of fingerprints taken from arrested illegal immigrants. It will help officers determine the residency status of newly arrested people faster since a person can only be detained for 48 hours.

Whitfield County Sheriff, Scott Chitwood said his department applied for the program after hearing from worried locals.

“Well, in the last several years we’ve seen a large increase in the Hispanic population here in our community and there’s a very large concern by our local citizens,” said Chitwood.

Chitwood said the community thinks the overall crime rate is growing, but the majority of crimes committed by the Hispanic population are misdemeanor traffic violations.

Northeast Neighbor, Gwinnett County is under pressure from local officials to apply for the program as well. Last year, 360 inmates were deported from Gwinnett County’s jail.

Feds detain illegal workers at Nat'l Infantry Museum

National Infantry Museum, under construction in June, 2007.
(Dave Bender)

Federal law-enforcement officials arrested 30 undocumented workers at Columbus's National Infantry Museum, under construction adjacent to Ft. Benning earlier this week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained the construction workers at the site on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Agents caught two who tried to flee.

Museum spokesperson Cyndy Cerbin says the workers were not on the base itself:

“The National Infantry Museum is being built on property owned by the National Infantry Foundation, and it is not federal property – part of Ft. Benning.”

Ft. Benning's Public Affairs Office refused to comment on the case, and directed all inquires to Batson-Cook, general contractors for the museum.

Eddie Sanders, site project manager for Batson-Cook, says his company is cooperating with federal authorities on the case. Sanders says the workers were employed by subcontractors "to perform various trades on the project," and not by Batson-Cook:

"Batson-Cook files all federal, state and local laws, as well as our subcontractors regarding hiring practices."

Sanders says the workers "are innocent until proven guilty," and were not on Ft. Benning property at any time. He declined to name the subcontractors, only saying that, "Since they [ICE] are conducting an investigation, we would not be able to release that information at this time."

Project Executive Paul Meadows told the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper that those arrested worked as masons, fireproofing, and metal stud tradesmen and included local and out-of-town subcontractors.

Referring to the subcontractors, Sanders said, "There are several contractors we work with frequently," adding, "...they abide by the federal, state and local laws and regulations."

Sanders said that the number of workers, including subcontractors and employees on-site averaged "from 75 to 90 -- right around there. It kind of fluctuates from day-to-day."

Richard Rocha, a spokesman for ICE says the detainees are mostly from Mexico:

“Most of the people apprehended on Tuesday are from Mexico. There are 27 from Mexico, three from Guatemala, Those individuals will be processed throught the immigration court system...”

Seven of them were arraigned today, several on charges that included illegal re-entry, misuse of a social security number, and fraudulent use of an alien registration card, according to US Georgia Middle District attorney Max Wood in Macon.

The detainees were taken to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, and will face deportation hearings in coming days.

The museum is set to open next year.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the National Infantry Museum.

Click here for GPB coverage of immigrant affairs.