www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-26 11:01:00
(The Center Square) – The chairman of a Georgia Senate committee investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said he wants to be “nice guys again first” in an effort to get Willis to comply with a subpoena to testify.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Judge Shukura L. Ingram denied Willis’ efforts to quash the subpoena issued by the Senate Special Committee on Investigations last year. The panel is tasked with determining the use of tax dollars in the prosecution of President Donald Trump and others.
Josh Belinfante, an attorney representing the committee, told the panel Wednesday he asked Wills’ attorney, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, for a time she could appear. Barnes told him that because of Willis’ travel plans and court obligations, it would be the end of April or early May, Belinfante said.
“Let’s be nice guys again first,” said Chairman Bill Cowsert, R-Athens. “Let’s reach out to her counsel and suggest either a Thursday or Friday beginning the last week of April, the first two weeks of May. And if they agree to a date, then we will issue a subpoena. And I believe they will honor their word.”
Other committee members were not so sure that Willis would honor the subpoena.
“We’ve gone through these steps several times,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia. “Would it be appropriate and would the committee consider authorizing counsel if a date cannot be set for appearance before May 10 to authorize him to file a motion with the court asking the court to set the date for the personal commission?”
The committee approved Tillery’s motion with Democrats Jason Esteves and Harold Jones casting “no” votes.
Tillery also recommended that Belinfante request any attorney fees for work he does after May 10. Cowsert said a formal motion was not needed and that was Belinfante’s instructions.
“Make her comply if she won’t, make her pay for your fees, make her do what the judge has already told her she’s got to do,” Cowsert said.
Belinfante told the committee he was also seeking records from former Barnes that were a part of other cases. He said he asked several times before Wednesday’s committee meeting. Barnes told him he had to ask his client, according to Belinfante.
“We candidly don’t know what document they are objecting to and what documents are there,” Belinfante said. “What we asked is give us what you have already given opposing counsel in the litigation that led to the Court of Appeals order, give us the documents that you have provided to the U.S. House of Representative pursuant to its subpoena.”
Last week, a Fulton County Superior Court judge ordered Willis to pay $54,000 to an attorney for not responding to an open records request.
Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a defendant in the case against Trump, posted the court order on social media. Judge Rachel Krause said the lack of response by Willis’ office was “intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.”
Willis’ office told WSB-TV that an appeal over the Open Records Act ruling is planned.
SUMMARY: Brandon Blackstock, the 48-year-old ex-husband and talent manager of singer Kelly Clarkson, has died after battling cancer for over three years. Clarkson postponed her Las Vegas residency to support their children during his illness. Blackstock passed away peacefully, surrounded by family. He shared two children with Clarkson, whom he divorced in 2020 after a contentious split involving custody and support disputes. Blackstock also had two children from a prior marriage and was a grandfather. His father, Narvel Blackstock, was Clarkson’s manager, and his family is well-known in the country music industry. The family requests privacy during this difficult time.
Alma Bowman, a Macon immigration activist and U.S. citizen by birth, has been detained by ICE since March 2025 despite her citizenship claims. Born in the Philippines to a Filipina mother and an American Navy father, her citizenship is disputed due to a 1977 U.S. Embassy letter questioning her paternity. Bowman, previously held at Irwin County Detention Center where she reported medical abuse, was targeted after a routine ICE check-in accompanied by supporters. Lawyers argue her detention—likely retaliation for her advocacy—is unconstitutional and filed a complaint for her release. Bowman continues advocating for detainees and citizenship rights from detention, despite denied medical care.
A Macon activist who helped call attention to conditions at a federal immigration detention center in south Georgia in 2020 has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since March, despite her claims that she is a U.S. citizen.
Alma Bowman, 58, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in and is being held by immigration authorities for the second time in what her lawyers say appears to be retaliation for her efforts to advocate for herself and other immigrant women.
Now, her lawyers are filing a complaint against state and federal immigration authorities, arguing that Bowman’s detention violates her constitutional rights and calling for her release.
Dispute over citizenship
Bowman was born in the Philippines to a Filipina mother and an American father, who was serving in the U.S. Navy at the time of her birth. Her parents later married, and brought her to the U.S. when she was 10 years old. Under the immigration laws that were in place at the time, Bowman’s lawyers say, this should make her a citizen.
But the U.S. government has refused to recognize her as such, citing a 1977 letter sent to Bowman’s mother from the U.S. Embassy in Manila casting doubt on whether her father was biologically related to her.
Alma Bowman with her parents, Lawrence Bowman and Lolita Catarungan. Photo courtesy of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta.
According to Bowman’s lawyers, it’s not uncommon for foreign-born children of U.S. service members to face roadblocks to having their citizenship recognized.
“There was a common practice in the mid-1900s, when the U.S. was involved in all of these wars in other places, of trying to deny the citizenship of the children that were born from American military men going abroad,” said Kayla Vinson, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing Bowman. “The laws of the time made those children citizens, and the U.S. military and the U.S. government have a practice of trying to deny the existence of those children and the U.S. citizenship claims of those children.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may also face logistical roadblocks as they seek to deport Bowman. In July, the Philippine government told ICE that it was unable to issue travel documents for Bowman, according to the complaint, “because under Philippine law in effect at the time of Ms. Bowman’s birth, her citizenship would follow that of her father—an American.”
It’s unclear whether new policies allowing the Trump administration to deport immigrants to third-party countries will play a role in Bowman’s case.
For most of Bowman’s life, she believed she was a U.S. citizen, according to her attorneys. But in 2013, she was convicted for writing bad checks amounting to roughly $1,200, according to reporting from the Macon Telegraph. She also pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of possession of methamphetamine, and learned that her immigration status — according to the U.S. government — was one of a lawful permanent resident, not a citizen.
She was transferred into federal immigration authorities’ custody in 2017, where she remained for the next three years, until her release in 2020.
ICE detention
Up until March 2025, when Bowman was detained by immigration authorities for a second time, check-ins at the federal agency’s Atlanta Field Office had been a matter of routine.
Bowman had been required to attend check-ins at the field office every three months as a condition of her release in 2020. Eventually, the check-ins were reduced to an annual visit to the Atlanta field office.
But President Donald Trump’s push to increase the number of people arrested to 3,000 per day has resulted in immigration agents pursuing new tactics.
“We started hearing reports in January of this year that people were, in fact, being detained at their check-ins,” said Samantha Hamilton, a staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta who is representing Bowman.
In March, Bowman attended her check-in accompanied by family members and her lawyer, Hamilton, as a precaution. Supporters rallied outside the entrance, holding signs with her name and calling for the end of mass deportation policies.
But during the check-in, authorities quickly separated Bowman from her lawyer and family, transporting her to a detention facility in south Georgia.
“They said that they were going to take Alma to a separate room to get fingerprinted,” Hamilton said. “But what she says happened was that they immediately took her out of that waiting room, into the elevator and downstairs onto an SUV, where they promptly drove her to the Stewart Detention Center.”
The circumstances surrounding Bowman’s arrest indicate “that the decision to detain her had been made before she even arrived that day, and suggest that she was targeted, likely in part because of her advocacy work,” Vinson added.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment.
Alma Bowman, left, poses with her child Christian Mitchell. Photo courtesy of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta.
During Bowman’s previous ICE detention, she was held at the now-defunct Irwin County Detention Center, which ended its partnership with federal immigration authorities in 2021. She was also one of the women who came forward to report allegations of medical abuse they said they experienced at the hands of a doctor at the facility.
In the years since her initial release from ICE custody, she has advocated for Congress to pass the Equal Citizenship for Children Act, which would have made it easier for children of U.S.-citizen fathers to be recognized as citizens.
Now, as she once again sits in detention at a facility with a long history of misconduct allegations, she is working to help connect her fellow detainees with resources and support, even as her lawyers say she is routinely denied necessary medication prescribed for her diabetic neuropathy.
“The fact that she is continuing to do that work in the face of such restrictive repression in these dire conditions that she finds herself in is truly remarkable,” Hamilton said.
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Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This article presents the story of Alma Bowman with a focus on human rights, immigration justice, and government accountability, themes commonly associated with a center-left perspective. The language highlights systemic issues within immigration enforcement and portrays Bowman sympathetically as an activist facing potentially unjust detention. The piece emphasizes calls for reform and legal advocacy, aligning with progressive concerns about immigration policy and civil liberties. However, the article remains factual and does not adopt an overtly partisan tone, maintaining a largely balanced narrative while clearly leaning toward advocacy for immigrant rights and criticism of enforcement practices.
SUMMARY: Augusta Housing & Community Development is urging Richmond County residents to apply for the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which provides short-term help with rent, utilities, and housing-related payments. Since its intake began at May Park, demand has surged, highlighting rising housing costs and economic challenges. District 1 Commissioner Jordan Johnson emphasized that increasing rent and stagnant wages have intensified the need for affordable housing support. The city is committed to assisting those in need without judgment. Applications are open until September 19, with additional intake events scheduled at Robert Howard Community Center and May Park throughout August.
