Cebu_4_2
7th September 2018, 05:42 PM
Atlanta Mayor orders city to end relationship with ICE and remove ALL of the agency's detainees from jail
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ordered city to stop holding ICE detainees
She signed an executive order on Thursday and removed most detainees
As of Thursday evening just five detainees remained in the city jail, a major drop from 205 detainees counted in June
She said: 'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population'
In June the Democratic Mayor also signed a separate executive order that blocked the jail from taking in any new ICE detainees
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6139785/Mayor-Atlanta-stop-holding-federal-detainees-jail.html
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has ordered the city to stop holding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in prison.
The executive order signed Thursday cut city ties with ICE, declaring Atlanta will no longer hold anyone for the federal agency and transferred most remaining detainees out of prisons where they were being held.
'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thought to the fallout,' Lance Bottoms said.
'As the birthplace of the civil rights movement, we are called to be better than this,' she added.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/14/4FD5FC1000000578-6139785-image-a-1_1536327308902.jpg
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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has ordered the city to stop holding ICE detainees in an executive order signed on Thursday
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/14/4FD5FC1800000578-6139785-image-a-2_1536327323068.jpg
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She tweeted Thursday saying: 'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population'
As of Thursday evening several ICE detainees had been removed and five people remained in Atlanta City Detention Center, a major drop from 205 held there in June, according to 11Alive (https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/atlanta-mayor-orders-city-to-end-relationship-with-ice-remove-all-detainees-from-city-jail/85-591481219).
Over the summer the number of detainees has dropped as ICE has released several of them, deported others, or transported migrants to other detention centers.
The decision to cut ties with ICE was recommended by a task force that reviewed the city's immigration policies following Trump's zero-tolerance- policy that detained and divided hundreds of immigrant families entering via the Mexican border.
In June the Democratic Mayor also signed a separate executive order that blocked the jail from taking in any new ICE detainees, according to MyAJC. (https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/atlanta-calls-for-ice-move-its-detainees-out-the-city-jail/s2FAuYLosJfRRyqVTsWvHO/)
Lance Bottoms has condemned the separation of immigrant families, resulting in her refusal to accept detainees into city jails.
However holding ICE detainee's has been profitable for the city as Atlanta has been paid $78 a day for each detainee held in the jail through a contract with the US Marshals service. The city raked in $7.5million through the deal for this fiscal year as of June - more than a fifth of the jail's annual $33milllion budget.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/15/4FD6115E00000578-6139785-image-a-1_1536329800682.jpg
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As of Thursday evening on five ICE detainees remained in Atlanta's city jail, detained migrants at another jail pictured above
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/16/4FD6C52D00000578-6139785-image-a-12_1536333009409.jpg
+4
Lance Bottoms is an outspoken critic against Trump's zero-tolerance policy. In June 205 ICE detainees were held in Atlanta's city jail, pictured above
Video playing bottom right.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp - who is also Georgia's Republican nominee for governor - said the decision to not hold detainees would add crime to the city.
'The City of Atlanta should focus on cleaning up corruption and stopping crime - not creating more of it,' he said in a Thursday statement.
A spokesperson for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor, applauded the Mayor's 'efforts to combat the impact of the administration's cruel and inhumane family separation policy. Anyone who stands against keeping families together lacks any kind of moral compass.'
Lance Bottoms added that the city has a partnership with Uber and Catholic and Lutheran charities that will provide free transportation and meals for immigrant families separated at the Mexico border who will be reunited with family members in Atlanta.
The Mayor is exploring eventually selling the city jail that has a declining number of inmates and increasing maintenance costs.
Also on Thursday the Trump administration moved to withdraw a 1997 decree that limits the government's ability to detain immigrant children.
If the decree dubbed the 'Flores settlement' is removed, the government can detain immigrant chiildren with their parents for longer than 20 days. But federal officials said children would be 'treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors'.
'Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country. This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress,' US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement.
Read more:
Atlanta calls for ICE to move its detainees out of the city jail (https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/atlanta-calls-for-ice-move-its-detainees-out-the-city-jail/s2FAuYLosJfRRyqVTsWvHO/)
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ordered city to stop holding ICE detainees
She signed an executive order on Thursday and removed most detainees
As of Thursday evening just five detainees remained in the city jail, a major drop from 205 detainees counted in June
She said: 'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population'
In June the Democratic Mayor also signed a separate executive order that blocked the jail from taking in any new ICE detainees
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6139785/Mayor-Atlanta-stop-holding-federal-detainees-jail.html
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has ordered the city to stop holding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in prison.
The executive order signed Thursday cut city ties with ICE, declaring Atlanta will no longer hold anyone for the federal agency and transferred most remaining detainees out of prisons where they were being held.
'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population without giving any thought to the fallout,' Lance Bottoms said.
'As the birthplace of the civil rights movement, we are called to be better than this,' she added.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/14/4FD5FC1000000578-6139785-image-a-1_1536327308902.jpg
+4
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has ordered the city to stop holding ICE detainees in an executive order signed on Thursday
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/14/4FD5FC1800000578-6139785-image-a-2_1536327323068.jpg
+4
She tweeted Thursday saying: 'We will no longer be complicit with a policy that intentionally inflicts misery on a vulnerable population'
As of Thursday evening several ICE detainees had been removed and five people remained in Atlanta City Detention Center, a major drop from 205 held there in June, according to 11Alive (https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/atlanta-mayor-orders-city-to-end-relationship-with-ice-remove-all-detainees-from-city-jail/85-591481219).
Over the summer the number of detainees has dropped as ICE has released several of them, deported others, or transported migrants to other detention centers.
The decision to cut ties with ICE was recommended by a task force that reviewed the city's immigration policies following Trump's zero-tolerance- policy that detained and divided hundreds of immigrant families entering via the Mexican border.
In June the Democratic Mayor also signed a separate executive order that blocked the jail from taking in any new ICE detainees, according to MyAJC. (https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/atlanta-calls-for-ice-move-its-detainees-out-the-city-jail/s2FAuYLosJfRRyqVTsWvHO/)
Lance Bottoms has condemned the separation of immigrant families, resulting in her refusal to accept detainees into city jails.
However holding ICE detainee's has been profitable for the city as Atlanta has been paid $78 a day for each detainee held in the jail through a contract with the US Marshals service. The city raked in $7.5million through the deal for this fiscal year as of June - more than a fifth of the jail's annual $33milllion budget.
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/15/4FD6115E00000578-6139785-image-a-1_1536329800682.jpg
+4
As of Thursday evening on five ICE detainees remained in Atlanta's city jail, detained migrants at another jail pictured above
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/07/16/4FD6C52D00000578-6139785-image-a-12_1536333009409.jpg
+4
Lance Bottoms is an outspoken critic against Trump's zero-tolerance policy. In June 205 ICE detainees were held in Atlanta's city jail, pictured above
Video playing bottom right.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp - who is also Georgia's Republican nominee for governor - said the decision to not hold detainees would add crime to the city.
'The City of Atlanta should focus on cleaning up corruption and stopping crime - not creating more of it,' he said in a Thursday statement.
A spokesperson for Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor, applauded the Mayor's 'efforts to combat the impact of the administration's cruel and inhumane family separation policy. Anyone who stands against keeping families together lacks any kind of moral compass.'
Lance Bottoms added that the city has a partnership with Uber and Catholic and Lutheran charities that will provide free transportation and meals for immigrant families separated at the Mexico border who will be reunited with family members in Atlanta.
The Mayor is exploring eventually selling the city jail that has a declining number of inmates and increasing maintenance costs.
Also on Thursday the Trump administration moved to withdraw a 1997 decree that limits the government's ability to detain immigrant children.
If the decree dubbed the 'Flores settlement' is removed, the government can detain immigrant chiildren with their parents for longer than 20 days. But federal officials said children would be 'treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors'.
'Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country. This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress,' US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement.
Read more:
Atlanta calls for ICE to move its detainees out of the city jail (https://www.myajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/atlanta-calls-for-ice-move-its-detainees-out-the-city-jail/s2FAuYLosJfRRyqVTsWvHO/)