|
 |
 |
 |
|
 | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Atlanta – On the occasion of the scheduled implementation of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social justice and faith-based community organizations in Georgia today issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, calling on her to put an end to 287(g) and other ICE-local police collaborations which lead to racial profiling and separation of families, and to halt the expansion of the inhumane, profit-driven immigration detention system.
“As veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social-justice and faith-based organizations in Georgia, we urge you to take the bold steps necessary to end this unjust system that creates divided families and improbable prisoners,” says the letter. Signatories of the letter include: Constance Curry, a veteran of the civil rights movement and Atlanta-based writer and activist; Edward Dubose, President of the Georgia State Conference NAACP; Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the U.S. Human Rights Network; Jerome Scott, Founder and Board Chair of Project South; Reverend Gregory Williams, President of Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE); and many others.
A ruling by a federal court Wednesday blocked key sections of the Arizona racial profiling law, pending a final court ruling on the law’s constitutionality. “The administration should be applauded for stepping forward to challenge this unconstitutional law,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia. “But racial profiling as a result of ICE/local police collaboration and inhumane detention impacting communities in Georgia and across the country continues. It is time for the administration to step up and put an end to costly and ineffective enforcement mechanisms that run counter to fundamental American values of fairness and due process.”
A press conference and vigil was held earlier today in front of the ICE office in downtown Atlanta. Organizers attempted to deliver the letter bearing the signatures to local ICE officials, but nobody from ICE would receive the letter.
###
Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more.
Member organizations of Georgia Detention Watch include: The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, American Immigration Lawyers Association Atlanta Chapter, Amnesty International-Southern Region, Amnesty International -Atlanta local group 75, Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE), Coalición De Líderes Latinos (CLILA), Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Immigrant Justice Project- Southern Poverty Law Center, International Action Center, Open Door Community, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), and others.
For more on Georgia Detention Watch, visit our website: http://www.georgiadetentionwatch.com
