[Washington Examiner] Democrats' successes in electing sheriff seats in two counties outside Atlanta are likely to curtail cooperation with federal immigration authorities by local law enforcement.Larger graphic is candidate Taylor.
Gwinnett County Sheriff-elect Keybo Taylor and Cobb County Sheriff-elect Craig Owens both vowed to end agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which allowed deputized local law enforcement at county jails to identify, arrest, and detain people illegal immigrants on behalf of ICE. Taylor said the program led to profiling people and hurt the immigrant community’s ability to trust law enforcement for fear of being deported if police learned that they lacked residency documents.
ICE, a federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has worked closely with the Republican sheriffs in Gwinnett and Cobb counties for years. But recent demographic changes in the region upended the Republican Party's hold on both counties' sheriff and district attorney seats.
The shifts more broadly reflect a political realignment in Georgia, long a Republican bastion. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads President Trump in Georgia by about 14,000 votes heading into a statewide recount next week. Biden, the former vice president and 36-year Delaware senator, would be the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 on his way to the White House.
Democrats have also nabbed a pair of House seats over the past two election cycles covering Gwinnett and Cobb counties, which were long held by Republicans.