Warner Robins residents decry city’s cooperation with ICE. Officials say they must

A Warner Robins city council meeting grew tense Monday evening as council members responded to a group of citizens speaking out against the city’s cooperation with Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers in the city.

The group’s comments focused on ICE raids being conducted in Warner Robins, and concerns that people’s constitutional rights were being violated in the process. They called on city officials to end cooperation with the federal government in identifying and arresting undocumented immigrants in the community.

“While ICE is a federal agency, it is our state government, our city council, our mayor, our sheriff that decides whether or not our local resources will be used to cooperate with ICE,” said Taiyah Lockett, a Warner Robins resident and organizer who spoke during the meeting.

Speakers pointed to several instances where ICE allegedly arrested people who were in the country illegally, and instances where immigrants — undocumented or otherwise — were allegedly unable to go before a court and argue their case.

Corbin Jones, a Warner Robins resident who spoke during public comment, recalled the case of of Ximena Arias-Cristobal, a 19-year-old college student who was detained by immigration authorities in May after the Dalton Police Department pulled over the wrong car during a traffic stop.

Police dropped the charges after realizing the error, but ICE kept her in custody at Stewart Detention Center due to her status as an undocumented immigrant. Arias-Cristobal was born in Mexico and has lived in the U.S. since she was 4 years old, but was ineligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals established in 2012 because she arrived in America after applications were halted following a slew of lawsuits from Republican-led states trying to end the program.

Her story garnered national attention, and she was released at the end of May after she was granted bond.

It’s unclear how many people ICE has detained in Warner Robins or Houston County. ICE keeps data on arrests, detainments, removals and more on its website. But the data is divided up by regions, and the agency’s Atlanta-based region covers multiple states.

“If we permit ICE jurisdiction in Warner Robins, we are not just condoning denial of constitutional rights, we are facilitating them,” Jones said during Monday’s meeting.

Protests against ICE, as well as local governments and law enforcement who cooperate with the federal agency, have proliferated across the country in recent weeks as President Donald Trump continues to crack down on immigration.

Attendees at those protests have decried ICE over similar concerns.

How Warner Robins officials responded

Following the public comment portion of the meeting, council members and Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick responded to citizens’ concerns.

Councilman Charlie Bibb, who serves Post 2, said Warner Robins and its officials must comply with the law, and therefore must cooperate with ICE as they seek to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

“Whether we realize it or not, we are in a country that is ruled by law,” Bibb said. “We don’t get a bypass for that. You don’t go around law, because if you could go around law, there’s no sense in having law.”

The Peach State does have a law that requires local jurisdictions to comply with ICE activity. The Georgia General Assembly passed a bill in April 2024 requiring local governments and law enforcement agencies to coordinate with ICE when someone in custody is suspected of being in the country illegally. The bill was signed into law and went into effect on May 1, 2024.

Bibb also argued that because undocumented immigrants were not citizens and entered the country illegally, they are not entitled to constitutional rights.

“People that come into this country illegally and break the law are not given constitutional rights because they are not citizens of America,” Bibb said. “As bad as that sounds, that is a fact.”

Clearwater Law Group, a law firm based in Washington that offers immigration law services, said that while undocumented immigrants don’t have the same guarantees as U.S. citizens and legal residents, they do have some constitutional rights. Most notably, the law firm said on its website that undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process and legal counsel.

The University of North Texas’ Dallas College of Law agreed, with immigration lawyer Andres E. Martinez Millan writing in the school’s law review that while the definition of a “citizen” is debated in legal circles, it is clear that the Constitution guarantees some legal rights — including due process and the right to legal counsel — to undocumented immigrants.

The Supreme Court of the United States also ruled in May that undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process — or in other words, they are entitled to a fair hearing in the judicial system — before they can be deported.

Councilman Keith Lauritsen, who represents Post 3, echoed Bibb’s points, but said Warner Robins can still recognize immigrants as community members even as the city cooperates with ICE.

“You can have compassion and still enforce the law,” Lauritsen said.

Councilman Larry Curtis Jr., who represents Post 6, did not have as strong an opposition to those who spoke Monday. Curtis praised the speakers for standing up, and urged them to shift their ire to state and federal officials due to their role in creating laws that he said leaves local officials with their hands tied.

“Yes, we have to abide by the laws, but remember the ones who make the laws,” Curtis said.

Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick closed the meeting by urging citizens to treat each other with respect, even if they disagree on certain issues.

“Not everything is easy, there will be times when you have a community … who may be at odds on certain issues,” Patrick said. “But it’s important that we respect each other and act as the family that we are even if we do not see things in the same way.”