Does the Athens-Clarke County Police Department cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? If so, how?
A local oversight board questioned the Athens-Clarke County Police Department and Sheriff’s Office last week about the extent of their cooperation with federal immigration police as the nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigration continues. ACC Sheriff John Q Williams, Lieutenant David McAllister and ACCPD Deputy Chief Harrison Daniel were present at last Monday’s meeting of the ACC Public Safety Civilian Oversight Board (PSCOB) to explain the details of their policies and procedures when it comes to immigration enforcement.
How law enforcement cooperates with ICE in Athens
Generally, Athens law enforcement agencies cooperate with ICE only if they are legally required to do so. In the past, when ICE has asked the ACC Sheriff’s Office, for example, to hold undocumented immigrants in jail so that they could be more easily picked up and deported, Williams has always refused. This is because Williams believes that detaining anyone without a legal cause can be a violation of their 4th amendment rights, even if the person in question was not born in the United States.
“The Constitution applies to everybody that’s on the soil that is America, the United States,” Williams said.
US courts have affirmed Williams’ view. However, Governor Brian Kemp and the Georgia legislature took discretion away from local sheriffs on immigration matters last year with HB 1105, the “Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act.” Throughout 2025, Williams has been required to detain undocumented immigrants who wind up in jail for up to 48 hours past the point when they should otherwise be released. This gives ICE agents time to pick immigrants up at the ACC jail, although these federal agents often fail to arrive during the 48-hour window.
Due to new state and federal laws, ACC police are now forced to take undocumented immigrants into custody when an officer believes there is probable cause that a crime has been committed. In 2025, even something as minor as shoplifting or driving without a license can cause someone to be detained and later deported.
For more details on police procedure regarding undocumented immigrants, check out APN’s earlier reporting on this issue here.
This is typically the full extent of how local law enforcement assists ICE in their deportation efforts.
ICE and ACCPD: Different agencies with different goals
While local police and sheriffs’ offices are sometimes forced to cooperate with ICE, their primary responsibility is to keep the peace, not to enforce federal immigration law. In fact, ACCPD and ICE only rarely communicate directly with each other. Even if ICE were planning a deportation action in Athens, they might not inform ACCPD about it.
“We’re not always notified [of ICE activity in Athens],” Daniel told PSCOB members in response to their questioning. “I don’t know if we’ve been contacted at all in 2025.”
Likewise, Williams told PSCOB members that ICE had not contacted the Sheriff’s Office in years.
“Since I’ve been in office, they haven’t called us one time [to help out with ICE operations in the field],” said Williams. “They’re law enforcement, so if they called us for help with something that’s legal, we would kind of be obligated to help at that point. But if they don’t give us a heads-up, we’re not going to be out there doing their job for them.”
Williams said that undocumented immigrants are treated exactly the same way as any other inmate while in jail. He also said that the ACC Sheriff’s Office hasn’t seen an increase in ICE detainer requests since President Donald Trump took office in January.
“We have not seen any increase [in ICE detainer requests] since this administration came in. It’s been typical, if we get 10 or 20 [undocumented immigrants in jail] per month, maybe for one or two, they’ll say, ‘hey, please place a hold.’ But they don’t always come and get those people,” Williams said.
Another question PSCOB members had was if Athens law enforcement agencies maintained a list of undocumented immigrants in Athens. They wondered if ACCPD or the sheriff would be required to share that information with ICE if requested. Williams replied that his agency didn’t maintain records of that kind.
“We don’t have a database for that,” Williams said. “We don’t have the capacity or the desire to collect information in that manner. So even if they asked us, that wouldn’t be something that we would have to produce.”
Further questions
Despite these responses, some PSCOB members still seemed uneasy with the possibility that local law enforcement might be used to assist in the rounding up and deportation of Athens’ undocumented immigrant community. Oversight board members continued in their questioning, even when it was difficult for ACC staff to give full and complete answers.
Secret police
PSCOB member Pamela Orpinas asked if the ICE policy that allows agents to wear masks and hide their identities could be challenged in court. “Probably not, people wear masks,” ACC Attorney Courtney Davis replied. “I mean anything can be challenged, but would it be successful? I’d suggest probably no.”
No law exists in Georgia to prohibit federal law enforcement from wearing masks while operating in the state. California does have such a law – the ‘No Secret Police Act’ – but it is currently being challenged in court by the Trump administration.
Excessive force
ICE agents are sometimes accused of using excessive force to abduct immigrants, a practice which PSCOB members opposed. Daniel responded that ACCPD has a “duty to intervene” policy that requires officers to take action to stop excessive force when they see it happening.
Yet, PSCOB members wondered if the “duty to intervene” policy would still work if ICE agents are keeping their identities secret.
“There’s a lot of video of plain clothes people claiming to be ICE agents,” said PSCOB member Lane Pratt. “If they’re not clearly wearing badge and identification and they’re cuffing people, where does that fit into the ‘duty to intervene’ when you can’t identify that this person is law enforcement? It could be just a citizen in a windbreaker off Amazon.”
Daniel explained that ACCPD already encounters this problem when bail bondsmen perform their job responsibilities, which can provide them legal grounds for seizing someone off the street, even as civilians. ACCPD officers are sometimes called to these incidents and are forced to make a judgement call when they arrive on scene.
“If we get a call from the public, [officers] will show up and assess what’s going on,” Daniel said. “They’ll have to make a judgement decision. I don’t know all of ICE’s policies, but I imagine it would be reasonable on their part, if a uniformed law enforcement officer has shown up and is questioning you, that you would identify yourself to them at least.”
Typically, law enforcement agencies will inform each other if they are carrying out an operation in another’s jurisdiction in order to avoid potential conflicts like this, Daniel said. But that’s not been the case for ICE this year, which has begun to limit its communication with police departments across the country.
Access to surveillance cameras
Lastly, PSCOB members asked if ICE had access to local surveillance cameras and other surveillance tools like license plate readers. Daniel replied that ICE does not have direct access to the live feeds, but that ACCPD would provide this information upon request.
“If something is asked of us related to that type of information from any other local, state or federal agency in a law enforcement investigation, then we would certainly provide that information,” Daniel said.
This answer did not satisfy some PSCOB members, who wanted ACCPD to do whatever they could to refuse or delay cooperation with ICE. In their view, the immigration crackdown should be resisted because it causes unnecessary fear and has broken apart immigrant communities around the country. While Daniel expressed sympathy, he remained firm in his answer.
“There’s people living in fear based on what they’re seeing [in the news],” said Daniel. “I hear that. I understand that…but if somebody has a lawful warrant or detainer, then we will enforce that. We will hold a person based on [Georgia] law and based on federal law as well. But that doesn’t take the humanity out of the situation and we understand treating people humanely during that process.”
Williams agreed, saying that federal and state laws would need to change before local agencies could alter their procedures.
“It’s not the feel-good answer that you want, but [ICE] has certain duties that they’re mandated to uphold and it’s at [the federal] level where you have to decide if they’re justified or not,” Williams said. “It’s not for the local level to decide how they can conduct business. Now, y’all can create laws, petition, lobby and get that changed, but right now, what ICE is doing is under their scope and it’s what they can do.”
PSCOB chair Sarah Halstead told APN that this discussion of immigration enforcement wasn’t sparked by an immigration raid or any other local event in Athens. Instead, this conversation arose because PSCOB members had “general unease given the recent ramp up of [immigration] operations across the country” and they decided to address it at an official meeting as part of their responsibility to oversee local law enforcement.
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