Local officials in red and blue communities around the country are puzzled as to how they landed on a since-retracted U.S. Department of Homeland Security list of about 500 “sanctuary cities,” and Athens is no different.
The list renewed a debate that dates back to the February 2024 arrest of a Venezuelan man who crossed the border illegally on charges of murdering nursing student Laken Riley—a case that continues to make national headlines. Although it’s unclear what criteria DHS used to compile its list, past accusations that ACC is a sanctuary city have stemmed from a resolution the commission passed unanimously in 2019, during the first Trump administration, stating that the community is welcoming to immigrants.
“A resolution does not carry the weight of legislation or a mandate or any specific action,” John Culpepper, who joined the commission in 2023, told right-wing demonstrators at a March 2024 meeting. “Rather, it serves as an expression of the perspective or opinion of the commission at the time it was passed. Regarding the resolution of 2019, the county attorney has explicitly stated it does not establish a sanctuary policy.”
That remains true today, Mayor Kelly Girtz told Flagpole last week. “You may not like state or federal immigration law, but we’re compliant with it, and we always have been,” he said. Like other local governments and law enforcement agencies, the ACC government and the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office are required to certify to the Georgia Department of Audits each year that they comply with a 2009 state law banning sanctuary cities.
Yet the perception still exists. “Back a couple of years ago, the Athens-County Commission… passed a resolution that very clearly stated that we were a welcoming community to all immigrants, documented and undocumented, and essentially said, in effect, that we were a sanctuary city, but very carefully did not designate Athens-Clarke County as a sanctuary city,” state Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) said in a recent interview with Georgia Public Broadcasting. “And that was important because of the loss of potential state benefits, if you officially called yourself a sanctuary city. On the other hand, our government made it clear we were welcoming to undocumented people, and our sheriff’s department was not cooperating with ICE. So, we were a de facto sanctuary city.”
At the time of Riley’s murder, Sheriff John Q. Williams’ policy was to notify ICE when an undocumented immigrant is booked into jail, and to comply with judicial warrants ordering him to hold undocumented inmates for pickup by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jail officials did not honor so-called “ICE detainers” or “administrative holds,” which are bureaucratic requests that inmates be held up to 48 hours past their release date that are not signed by a judge. Williams’ predecessor, Ira Edwards, enacted that policy under community pressure in 2018.
The sheriff’s department did not respond to a request for comment, but Girtz said its policy has changed again since the passage of House Bill 1105, the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act, after Riley’s murder. That law requires Georgia law enforcement agencies to cooperate more closely with ICE, including obeying requests for holds.
In his newsletter “Bearing Witness,” volunteer courtwatcher John Vodicka described how a Honduran immigrant he called “Mario N.” was taken into ICE custody after finally being released in April from the Athens-Clarke County Jail, where he had been held on misdemeanor charges for a year and a half because he could not afford bail. ICE requested 28 detainers between October 2024 and March 2025, according to statistics tracked by the sheriff’s department in accordance with HB 1105.
Although DHS retracted the sanctuary city list shortly after releasing it in late May, it’s still fed fears that the Trump administration could use it as an excuse to crack down on Athens the way it has in Los Angeles. “Although that list has been retracted for now, it is a question of when, not if, we are targeted,” resident Erin Galvin-McCoy said at a recent commission meeting while commenting on surveillance equipment and a new real-time crime center.
While it’s generated fears, perplexed sheriffs and municipal officials are also scoffing at the list. “Among our peer cities, it’s been subject to an incredible amount of ridicule,” Girtz said.
State Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens) poked fun at the list’s redundancy during a GPB appearance with Cowsert, while also calling into question its accuracy. “If you put Athens and Athens-Clarke County on the same list, don’t you even know that you’ve actually said the same thing twice?” Frye said. “It’s a unified government, so it’s the exact same area.”
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