Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) signed an executive order Wednesday blocking the city jail from accepting any new detainees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) signed an executive order Wednesday blocking the city jail from accepting any new detainees from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Bottoms signed the order Wednesday as President Trump signed an executive order intended to stop the separation of immigrant families at the U. S.-Mexico border. Bottom’s order states that the jail will no longer accept detainees until the family separation policy has ceased.
Bottoms said in a statement that she has “been horrified” over the Trump administration’s policy separating immigrant families at the border, and that Atlanta’s agreement to house ICE detainees in its city jail has “compounded” her “personal angst.
“As we work as a nation to end this despicable immigration policy, the City of Atlanta will not take the risk of being complicit in the separation of families at the border,” she said in the statement.
The mayor added that while she’s concerned that refusing to house the detainees will result in individuals “being sent to private, substandard, for-profit facilities,” the Trump administration’s stance on family separation “demands that Atlanta act now.”
“On behalf of the people of Atlanta, I am calling upon the Trump Administration and Congress to enact humane and comprehensive measures that address our broken immigration system,” Bottoms said.
The Trump administration faced overwhelming criticism for the policy separating immigrant families. Trump initially insisted that lawmakers would have to pass legislation to end the practice, but changed course and signed the order to keep families together.
Immigrant families apprehended at the border will remain together in custody, under Trump’s order.
