Atlanta’s city jail will no longer accept immigrants detained by federal officials, the mayor announced Thursday, saying it was the best way to demonstrate her administration’s opposition to current “inhumane” national immigration policies.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed an executive order directing the Atlanta City Detention Center to stop accepting detainees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The jail had been receiving the detainees under an agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service.
The order directs Atlanta’s corrections chief to formally request that ICE transfer all detainees as soon as possible.
“As we work to achieve our vision of an Atlanta that is welcoming and inclusive, with equal opportunity for all, it is untenable for our city to be complicit in the inhumane immigration policies that have led to the separation of hundreds of families at the United States southern border,” Bottoms said.
Until immigration policies are reformed, refusing to hold the federal detainees is the only way Atlanta can live up to its “legacy of compassion and tolerance,” the mayor said.
