VALDOSTA — As President Donald Trump makes plan to crack down on undocumented immigrants nationwide, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said rounding up immigrants in the county is not his top priority.

Paulk, who has more than 16 years of experience as sheriff, said he simply does not see Hispanic immigrants as a problem in Lowndes. In fact, they help the area, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of Hispanics working the farms here. (The farms) can’t run without them,” Paulk said at the Lowndes County Commission retreat last week.

He added that although they don’t pay federal taxes, undocumented immigrants do pay other taxes that bring in revenue for the county.

“They pay sales tax, they pay gas tax. (Federal) is the only tax they don’t pay,” Paulk said.

Paulk made it clear that Lowndes County is not a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, but he said he’d rather go after active criminals as opposed to undocumented immigrants who make an honest living and don’t cause trouble.

“Do you want to concentrate on the criminals, who are doing the shooting and everything else, or go out and try to get people out in the fields picking vegetables?”

He added that rounding up illegal immigrants could lead to steep jail costs for the county while the immigrants await deportation.

“If (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) comes out with some warrants, yeah we’ll help them. But if you were to go out and make a sweep, put 50 of them in jail … it’ll cost you $2,500 a day (to hold them),” Paulk said.

“I’m not saying we’re a sanctuary, but we’ve got more important things to do as far as cleaning up this county.”