According to a report published by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, more than 60 percent of people transferred from the Walker County Jail to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last year were originally arrested on charges of driving without a valid license.
Data obtained by the newspaper through an open records request showed 120 people were eventually transferred to ICE custody from the Walker County Jail during 2025. Fourteen of those arrests involved charges of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, making it the second most common charge among those transferred.
The report found only a small number of inmates transferred to ICE custody faced violent crime charges. Three people were charged with family violence, one with aggravated assault, and another with cruelty to children. More than three-quarters of those arrested also faced additional secondary charges, including various traffic-related offenses.
The analysis comes as immigration enforcement remains a major focus nationally and locally. During the first three months of 2026, ICE issued 21 detainers for inmates housed at the Walker County Jail, according to the Walker County Sheriff’s Office.
The Times Free Press story also highlighted the recent case of 19-year-old Elder Aguilar-Macario, a high school student arrested in Walker County on May 1 during a traffic stop and charged with driving without a license before later being transferred to ICE custody.
Under Georgia law, officers are directed to arrest drivers who cannot produce a valid license and process them through the county jail system, where fingerprinting occurs. State officials use that process to track repeat offenses.
The newspaper’s analysis compared Walker County data with neighboring areas and found similar trends in Whitfield County, where about half of those transferred to ICE custody faced charges of driving without a license. In Hamilton County, Tennessee, the most common arrest involving individuals unable to verify citizenship status was drunk driving.
Federal data cited in the report showed roughly 4,000 people in Georgia and 4,600 people in Tennessee were transferred to ICE custody from local jails and detention facilities between January and mid-October of last year.