Federal and state enforcement officials are working together to catch and deport illegal immigrants.  Fingerprints are playing an important role in immigration enforcement in Atlanta and the rest of Georgia.

As of Tuesday, November 27, 2012, all 159 Georgia Sheriffs are sharing fingerprints of all people booked into jails with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.  The coordinated efforts between state and federal agencies is another way that the feds are catching and deporting illegal aliens.

Supporters of this effort say you can’t argue with the statistics.  They argue that the increased deportations are a result of the shared fingerprint information which is proving the value of using fingerprint services to check the immigration status of everyone who is arrested.  Since November 17, 2009, the program has been phasing in Georgia when the sheriffs of Gwinnett, Dekalb & Clayton counties became the first in the state to participate in the nationwide “Secure Communities” Immigration and Customs Enforcement program.

Other Sheriffs started to participate over the next two years, resulting in all 159 of them joining the program as of December 6, 2009.