Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Photo By The Immigrant Magazine
As the world watches in horror the treatment of immigrant families and migrant children at the boarders and as the President of the United States signs an executive order undoing the mess created by his zero tolerance policy that has separated 2300 kids from their parents the city of Atlanta mayor has signed an executive on behalf of the city to stop her jail houses from receiving any more new ICE detainees. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms states in her order, “Until the City of Atlanta receives assurance that this despicable policy of the Trump administration has been rescinded, I will not allow the City of Atlanta to risk being complicit in separating families as a result of this policy”.
Expressing the “ personal angst” caused by this policy the mother of four and mayor expressed compassion for families affected by President Trump’s policy while clearly making it her responsibility not to have her city be complicit in this national calamity, “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,”
Noting that she was “concerned” that the city’s refusal to house ICE detainees may “result in individuals being sent to private, substandard, for-profit facilities in the state, as these facilities do not offer publicly-funded access to legal representation that may help detainees successfully challenge their immigration status, but the inhumane action of 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,”
Read the entirety of her statement here
