Troopers say ICE training will give them guidance on how to handle criminals in country illegally
Gov. Brian Kemp wants hundreds of state officers to help the feds detain criminals who are in the country illegally.
The governor has requested ICE train capitol police, Georgia State Patrol and Motor Carrier officers to apprehend people here who 'pose a risk to the public.'
The Georgia Commissioner of Public Safety told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that Georgia has applied to get immigration training from the feds for all Georgia troopers and other officers under his command.
He says details are still being worked out and Georgia is in the queue for this along with other states.
'We're going to try and stay in our lane and do what's proper and what's right. And if people are here illegally, I think it's important for us to take those out of here. We're trying to create a safe community for our citizens to live, work and enjoy life,' Georgia Department of Public Safety Commissioner Billy Hitchens said.
Winne rode along with Georgia State Patrol Sgt. David Whitehead on Tuesday and rolled up on a traffic stop.
Whitehead said the driver said he crossed the border illegally from Venezuela but turned himself in and is here legally now. But later he was found with a bogus work permit at the jail.
The stop illustrates the complexities of immigration law troopers encounter and why training on it would be useful.
RELATED STORIES:
Immigration protesters rally after governor asks ICE to train Georgia State Patrol Troopers
ICE partners with Georgia state troopers for immigrant training
Georgia lawmakers split along party lines over ICE-targeted operations
'Will this ICE training be useful and if so, why?' Winne asked Whitehead.
'It will because it's going to give us a point of—to know we should go next with it,' Whitehead said. 'It will give us guidance should these people be here, should they be removed from the state of Georgia.'
'Our goal is not to come out and round up illegal immigrants that aren't doing anything,' Hitchens said.
Hitchens said at the direction of Kemp, he has requested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train all 1,100 Georgia State Patrol Troopers, Capitol police officers and Motor Carrier Compliance Division officers on how to handle situations involving men and women in this country illegally who have committed crimes.
'It'll just give us another tool in our tool belt that allows us to deal with, you know, criminals that are here illegally when we come in contact with them during our daily operations,' Hitchens said.
'Immigration law is complicated, right?' Winne asked Hitchens.
'Yes. It very much is very complicated. And that's why this training will not turn us into Ice agents,' Hitchens said.
'Are you confident this training will not take away from having enough troopers on the road?' Winne asked Hitchens.
'Yes, sir. I'm very confident of that,' Hitchens said.
Whitehead said he's part of the GSP's Criminal Interdiction Unit which works often with DEA and other federal agencies on big drug cases involving foreign-based cartels -- cases frequently involving people in this country illegally.
'I would note that you can't train someone on immigration law in a couple hours. Immigration law is wildly complicated,' immigration attorney Chuck Kuck told Channel 2's Brittany Kleinpeter on Tuesday. 'Some people will be detained but this is not going to result in mass arrests by the DPS.'
As for the driver who was pulled over, Whitehead said the driver would go to jail for having no license, a window tint violation and having a 4-year-old in the car unrestrained.
Whitehead described a February chase by his unit in metro Atlanta ending in a PIT maneuver and the discovery the driver was in the US illegally and had roughly 20 pounds of methamphetamine.
In another stop last week, the driver was here illegally and had rape and assault-strangulation charges on his history though we don't know the status of those charges.
But Whitehead said ICE told GSP they'd been looking for that man for deportation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Vance Says He Hopes Musk Returns to Fold After Public Feud With Trump
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President JD Vance said Elon Musk is making a 'huge mistake' in going after Donald Trump and expressed hopes the billionaire will come back into the fold following the public feud that unfolded. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. 'I'm always going to be loyal to the president and I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold,' Vance said in an interview on the podcast 'This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von' released on Saturday. 'Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear, but I hope it is.' Musk helped elect Trump and Vance in 2024 and assumed a role heading the Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting effort that has so far fallen well short of the Tesla Inc. chief's initial promises. Trump and Musk's political alliance imploded on Thursday after Musk criticized the tax and spending policy bill backed by the president. The two men traded jabs that grew personal on social media, stunning watchers in Washington and on Wall Street. While Vance posted on X in support of Trump, saying that the president he was 'proud to stand beside him' and praising him as having 'done more than anyone in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads,' the interview with Von marked his first direct comments on Musk since the spat erupted. The president had encouraged Vance to speak diplomatically about Musk before his appearance on the podcast, according to a person familiar with the situation who shared details on condition of anonymity. 'The president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk, and I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine,' Vance said. --With assistance from Sam Kim. Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Failed Muni Bond Draws FBI and Sparks `Ponzi-Like Fraud' Claims
(Bloomberg) -- Before the lawsuits started piling up in courtrooms across Connecticut, before his employer accused him of running a 'massive Ponzi-like fraud,' and before the FBI showed up, Robert Cappelletti looked well on his way to pulling off one of the greatest muni-bond coups of all time. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. The plan Cappelletti had put together was so audacious it bordered on the fantastical. The housing agency he ran in Groton, a sleepy town of some 40,000 people along Connecticut's Thames River, would sell $750 million of bonds to jumpstart a $4 billion project to transform a bunch of run-down shopping plazas into a sprawling, up-scale development. There'd be a new train station, a hospital, almost 2,000 apartments and dozens of shops and restaurants. It would have been the biggest local bond issue in the state's history and expanded the tiny Groton agency far beyond its role managing two apartment complexes. And yet Cappelletti — a part-time employee with a mixed record running other housing agencies in the state — breezed through a series of crucial steps needed to complete the sale. He got approval from the five-person board that runs the agency; crafted a brief financial projections statement; scored an investment-grade bond rating; and started the process of lining up buyers for the debt. It was only when the bond sale collapsed this winter and Cappelletti was removed from office that the complex financial web that he had spun across Connecticut for years came to light. Cappelletti engaged in double-dealing, created shell companies and failed to disclose loans he took out, leaving, in the process, a trail of financial wreckage across the state, lawyers for the Groton agency alleged in the most high-profile case against him. In February, they sued Cappelletti for fraud, claiming he borrowed at least $3 million without the commission's knowledge through subsidiaries he controlled. In subsequent court documents, the authority alleged Cappelletti also took 'millions of dollars' from non-commercial lenders and other 'questionable entities' that were then transferred to others, including businesses owned by his brother, David, that received about $1 million. The housing authority's attorneys are working with the FBI, which is investigating, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. 'Everybody is disgusted,' said Ric Silver, who lives in an apartment in Pequot Village, a 104-unit complex managed by the authority. Cappelletti declined to comment through his attorney, Joseph Martini, who also declined to comment. Cappelletti's brother, David, who was named as a co-defendant in the suit last month, also declined to comment. On June 2, in court papers filed in connection with the Groton case, Ivan Ladd-Smith, another lawyer for Cappelletti, said he intends to deny the allegations. A press official for the FBI declined to comment. Robert Frink, the chair of the Groton Housing Authority, said the board has opened an investigation but is 'unable to go into greater detail at this time.' That Cappelletti drew so little scrutiny as he pushed ahead with the deal is a testament to the vulnerabilities in the vast network of government agencies struggling to provide affordable housing to low-income families across America. To finance new projects and try to address the housing crisis, the local agencies routinely sell municipal bonds, a loosely regulated corner of the securities market where deals are often just rubber-stamped. Many of the agencies have been plagued by mismanagement, poor oversight and corruption. Since 2023, prosecutors have brought bribery and fraud charges against housing authority officials in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Montana and New York, where 70 former and current New York City Housing Authority officials were ensnared in a historic case. In Connecticut, the events in Groton are drawing fresh scrutiny to the more than 100 independent housing agencies across the state, which only has enough affordable rental homes to meet the needs of about one-third of the lowest-income households. 'Until we fix the regulatory disconnect,' said Robert Boris, chair of Groton's economic development commission, 'bad actors will continue to exploit it and working families will continue to the pay the price.' Cappelletti, 58, has worked in public housing for two decades. A graduate of Assumption University, a Catholic school in Worcester, Massachusetts, he joined the housing authority in Stamford, Connecticut, in 2002 to run the city's Section 8 voucher program, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2009, he became the executive director for the Meriden Housing Authority and five years later tacked on a similar part-time job for the Waterbury Housing Authority. Just before starting at Groton in 2016, he left the post in Waterbury. There, an investigation found he had used $56,653 of public funds to buy a Chevrolet Silverado for business and personal use even though he wasn't entitled to a vehicle, had slid someone onto the payroll without the agency's approval and allowed a contractor to live rent-free in an apartment managed by the agency in exchange for painting work. Cappelletti and Waterbury reached a separation agreement that included no admission of wrongdoing. The Groton job was a relatively modest one — mostly the oversight of 174 rental units — that Cappelletti could do while still running the agency in Meriden some 50 miles away. Cappelletti, though, envisioned much bigger things for Groton. A manufacturing hub just off the Long Island Sound, best known for its naval base, General Dynamics Corp.'s submarine factory and the sprawling research facility for the drugmaker Pfizer Inc., the town had a relatively strong economy. But that had left it with a shortage of affordable housing, and its main commercial corridor was lined with aging, strip-style retail. Cappelletti called his development project Groton 2030. It'd reserve 20% of the 1,925 apartments for lower-income residents, a key selling point to the authority's board, which approved the project in June 2023. Per the plan, Cappelletti would oversee the project himself through a development arm of the housing authority instead of hiring an experienced developer or soliciting bids. One of the housing agency commissioners who signed off on the plan, Joe Greene, soon had regrets. In an interview, Greene said he had reluctantly approved the bond during a last-minute video call but had doubts after asking for details. Cappelletti never presented a real business plan, Greene said, and the town had not received formal notice that one of its agencies was planning a massive bond sale. At odds with the rest of the board, Greene resigned that September. Two years later, he remains mystified by it all. 'I still don't know how you're going to pay off a $750 million bond in a five-year timespan when you don't own the property and when there was no business plan,' he said. 'People were amazed at the amount of money.' With the approval in hand, Cappelletti put the deal in motion. He had the Groton authority pay $25,000 to a New Jersey-based investment banker, according to a check register obtained under a freedom of information request. The authority also hired Connecticut law firm Pullman & Comley as bond counsel and obtained an 'A' rating from Egan-Jones based on a few financial projections it turned & Comley declined to comment. Eric Mandelbaum, general counsel for Egan-Jones, said the firm can't comment on particular transactions but 'stands behind its work and record, which are based on methodologies that are publicly available.' Related Story: A New Ratings Game: 3,000 Deals, 20 Analysts, Lots of Questions The sale bogged down after that. Month after month, its completion kept getting delayed. Then, in May 2024, it all started to unravel on Cappelletti when the Groton commissioners received subpoenas ordering them to travel across the state to provide sworn testimony. Months earlier, a lawsuit had been filed against Cappelletti's Meriden Housing Authority and a subsidiary, Maynard Road Corp., that had defaulted on a $16 million loan. The lender, Titan Capital, subpoenaed the Groton commissioners because Cappelletti had made $629,000 of loan repayments with funds pulled from their agency, not Meriden's. The Meriden agency is now on the hook for about $30 million — to repay the Titan loan with interest as well as $12.5 million owed to Citizens Bank for a project in Bristol, Connecticut. Back in a September 2023 board meeting, the Groton commissioners had asked Capelletti about the cash used to pay off Titan, which was recorded as an expense for the Groton 2030 project. They were assured they'd be reimbursed when the bond deal closed, minutes of the meeting show. But the Meriden lawsuit raised new questions, and when Groton commissioners started digging, they found that companies controlled by Cappelletti had bought properties in Winchester, Connecticut, and Fitchburg, Massachusetts to redevelop. Cappelletti also allegedly forged a resolution to approve $2.7 million of lease agreements for the authority, according to the February lawsuit filed by the Groton agency. 'This case involves the discovery of a massive Ponzi-like fraud,' lawyers for the agency said in a court filing. 'Over the course of at least seven years, Cappelletti accepted millions of dollars in funds from non-commercial lenders or other questionable entities.' In January, the agency suspended Cappelletti and canceled his contract. The FBI probe continues and the lawsuits are wending their way through Connecticut courts. 'Our focus now,' said Frink, the chair of the Groton Housing Authority, 'is to ensure a complete and fulsome investigation.' Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Community rallies in Tacoma, WA for release of detained green card holder Maximo Londonio
The Brief Supporters rallied for the release of Maximo "Kuya Max" Londonio, a detained labor union leader and green card holder. Londonio was detained after returning from the Philippines, with advocates highlighting systemic failures in immigration detention. The Tacoma ICE facility is reportedly over capacity, with worsening conditions and frequent deportation flights. TACOMA, Wash. - Supporters gathered outside the Northwest ICE Processing Center on Friday afternoon, calling for the release of Maximo "Kuya Max" Londonio — a longtime labor union leader, U.S. green card holder, and father of three. The rally, organized by immigrant rights groups and family members, drew dozens demanding immediate action from immigration authorities. Advocates say Londonio's detention highlights broader systemic failures and worsening conditions inside the facility. "Max is an amazing father and dedicated husband, selfless friend who deserves to be released.," his wife, Crystal Londonio said as she addressed the crowd, her voice full of emotion. Londonio, 42, was detained by Customs and Border Protection after returning from a trip to the Philippines. The visit was to honor his late mother and celebrate his wedding anniversary with Crystal. "He is not a threat, he is one of us, he is our brother," one protester shouted, as chants of solidarity echoed outside the detention center. Crystal shared her husband has a past – which they believe led to his detention. However, she said Max accepted responsibility for the mistakes he committed decades ago. "Max has taken accountability for his actions that he made more than 25 years ago, which was satisfied by all requirements set by the judicial system," Crystal said. Now, she says, he's been abandoned by both governments. "In response to being told we will just wait to see what the U.S. decides, then we will decide," Crystal said. Crystal has found support in Tanggol Migrante, a migrant advocacy network, and is now working with the organization to raise awareness about the effects of immigration detention on families. "This has impacts on the economy alright, and it's the downfall of it," said Jo Faralan of Tanggol Migrante. "Our migrants are what create our livelihood across the U.S." Advocates say Londonio's case is far from isolated — and they're demanding systemic change. "I want my husband home, my daughters want their father home now," Crystal said. The family has joined several immigrant advocacy organizations and labor unions fighting for every detainee to be released. During the rally, a bus, unclear how many passengers, entered the facility as Crystal joined the crowd chanting, "Free them all." La Resistencia, another advocacy group, reports that the Tacoma facility is currently over capacity, holding more than 1,600 detainees. The group says conditions inside are deteriorating, even as deportation flights continue at a pace of two to three per week. The Source Information in this story came from Tanggol Migrante, La Resistencia, and original FOX 13 Seattle reporting and interviews. Travis Decker manhunt: 'Remote' areas of 5 WA counties told to lock doors Former Army squadmate shares insight into Travis Decker's military past Miles Hudson found guilty on 2 counts of reckless driving in Seattle Key figures from Bryan Kohberger's youth summoned to Idaho for student murders trial Rochester dog training facility owner accused of killing employee during video shoot To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.
