American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey
ACLU of Georgia Annual Membership Meeting
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Blackburn Center
Atlanta's John Marshall Law School
1422 W. Peachtree Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
2013 Election of Officers
By Martha Dalton
90.1 WABE
Officials announced Monday the North Georgia Detention Center in Gainesville will close before the end of the year. The facility is one of four federal immigration detention centers in the state.
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement will move detainees to other detention centers in Irwin and Stewart counties. While ICE oversees the centers, they’re operated by a private company, Corrections Corporation of America.
The ACLU of Georgia issued a report in 2012 condemning conditions in the state’s detention centers. Attorney Azadeh Shahshahani says while the group is glad to see the North Georgia Detention Center close, the move doesn’t fully address the ACLU’s concerns.
Rights and Benefits Eligibility Chart for Individuals with Various Immigration Status
The ACLU of Georgia has released a chart on eligibility of individuals with various immigration status for rights and benefits in Georgia. The chart is available in both English and Spanish and can be accessed here.
Unleashed and Unaccountable
The FBI's Unchecked Abuse of Authority
On September 4, 2013, James B. Comey was sworn in as the 7th director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Comey is taking the helm of an agency that has been radically transformed during the 12-year term of Director Robert S. Mueller, III, into a domestic intelligence and law enforcement agency of unprecedented power and international reach.
The FBI remains widely admired on Capitol Hill and within the Obama administration, despite a record of extraordinary abuse—particularly targeting racial and religious minorities, immigrants, and protest groups under the guise of counterterrorism after 9/11.
The abuse, enabled by a roll-back of post-Watergate intelligence reforms and encouraged by long-standing Justice Department and FBI practices, has subverted internal and external oversight by squelching whistleblowers, imposing and enforcing unnecessary secrecy, and actively misleading Congress and the American people.
Unleashed and Unaccountable: The FBI's Unchecked Abuse of Authority documents this extraordinary expansion of FBI power over the last 12 years.
The ACLU has released a New Report on License Plate Readers
The ACLU has released the most comprehensive report to date on law enforcement’s use of license plate readers, one of the fastest-proliferating technologies in the government’s surveillance arsenal. Learn about how your movements on the road are being tracked and recorded: www.aclu.org/plates
The report on automatic license plate readers is titled You Are Being Tracked: How License Plate Readers Are Being Used To Record Americans’ Movements
Will America be a place where the gov't tracks you every time you drive? Learn more at the ACLU Blog of Rights.
ACLU of Georgia Releases Fact Sheets on SB 160
SB 160, a bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal, goes into effect today. Although the primary purpose of this bill was to fix problems created by Georgia’s anti-immigrant law, HB 87, the new bill added some new provisions that we at the ACLU of Georgia fear will harm our state’s immigrant communities and their families.
These provisions include the addition of new items to Georgia’s list of public benefits subject to verification of citizenship and immigration status, as well as limits to the use of foreign passports as acceptable identification in Georgia. These changes to Georgia law make a bad situation worse.
The ACLU of Georgia National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project is celebrating its fifth anniversary!
Founded in March 2008, the project works to bring Georgia into compliance with international human rights and U.S. constitutional standards in treatment of refugees and immigrant communities, including those in detention. This project engages ACLU of Georgia staff and volunteers in litigation, legislative advocacy, human rights documentation, coalition-building, public education, attorney training, and community organizing to address a range of issues. Here you can find a few of our accomplishments over the past five years.
