Baldwin County has a relatively small Hispanic community. The Census Bureau most recently placed Baldwin’s Hispanic population at 2.9 percent, which ranks 128th out of 159 counties in Georgia.
For this reason, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office has few interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, relative to many other Georgia counties.
Nevertheless, an “immigration hold” recently was placed on a 25-year-old man with a Milledgeville address – Carlos Humberto Xol Pop. It was the first immigration hold to appear in the BCSO’s jail records in months.
All Georgia counties have been required to keep more detailed records of “illegal aliens,” the phrase used in the state law, since 2025. All sheriff’s offices also are required to make the information available on their websites.
In 2025, ICE agents took approximately three dozen inmates at the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office into custody, according to the data. However, ICE declined to pick up the majority of inmates identified as illegal aliens. Out of the 178 times an illegal alien was booked at the county jail 2025, ICE agents declined custody 140 times. In other words, illegal aliens at the county jail were not transported to ICE detention centers 79 percent of the time.
“We don’t know what (ICE’s) criteria is, and they don’t tell us,” said Chief Deputy Scott Deason. “We just do what we are mandated to do by law.” Deason added that the vast majority of illegal alien arrests in Baldwin County are related to “either driving without a license situations or domestic situations.” Even if ICE declines custody, according to Deason, the criminal cases continue through the court system at a local level.
If an inmate is booked and records can’t confirm that the inmate is an American citizen, jail staffers will ask for a work visa, student visa or passport. If none of those documents are produced, jail staffers submit an “inquiry” to ICE, which is required to provide verification and a “response” within 48 hours.
It’s all part of House Bill 1105, officially known as the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Reporting Act of 2024.
“Sanctuary cities” were the primary driver of HB 1105, and HB 1105 aims to make if tougher for certain law enforcement agencies to withhold information about the legal status of its inmates.