GEORGIA DETENTION WATCH CONDEMNS GWINNETT FAST-TRACK EXPULSIONS OF IMMIGRANTS

For immediate release
January 12, 2008

Atlanta – Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office will begin a 26-day program that will fast-track deportations of immigrants. Georgia Detention Watch condemns in the strongest terms this effort at expulsion of immigrants, many of whom are hard working members of our communities.

We call for an immediate cessation of this intensified deportation program, as it is prone to serious human rights violations such as insufficient legal representation and racial profiling. Once in ICE’s custody, individuals are also often lost to their families as a result of being transferred from one detention center to another without notification. Gwinnett County’s purge of immigrants will thus cause even greater disruption of families and communities than has already resulted from our country’s broken immigration system.

This fast-tracking program was apparently intended to expedite Gwinnett County’s entrance into a 287(g) Agreement with ICE. Georgia Detention Watch also opposes 287(g) Agreements in Gwinnett County and all other Georgia counties. We believe local enforcement of federal immigration laws leads to racial profiling as well as erosion of trust between immigrant communities and the police, making our communities less safe. Instead of these inhumane, short-term, and insufficient responses to a broken national system, we call for comprehensive immigration reform in order to restore dignity and fundamental human rights to all immigrants and make our communities safer.

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.

# # #

For further information, please contact:

Azadeh N. Shahshahani
Georgia Detention Watch
National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director
ACLU Foundation of Georgia
75 Piedmont Ave., Suite 514
Atlanta, GA 30303
Phone (404) 523-6201
ashahshahani@acluga.org

Rev. Tracy L. Blagec
Georgia Detention Watch
ABLE- Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment
542 Moreland Avenue, SE
Atlanta, GA 30316
Phone (404) 218-7913
Fax (404) 377-4884
tblagec@aol.com