Georgia Detention Watch Encourages Strong Community Participation in the May 1st March for Immigrant Justice
10:00 am: Meet at the Capitol
10:30 – 11:00: Interfaith Progam
11:00 – 1:00: March
1:00 – 2:30: Political Event/Speakers
Activists to march in Solidarity with immigrants and people of color in Arizona
Georgia Detention Watch is to join in the May 1st nationwide rally for immigrant justice to call for humane immigration reform, termination of 287(g), and an immediate end to racial profiling. In joining the march, Georgia Detention Watch also joins thousands of organizations across the country in strong condemnation of the recent passage and signing into law of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB1070.
“Communities nationwide are mobilizing to show their support in this national mobilization for immigrant and workers’ rights,” said Adelina Nicholls, Executive Director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), the organizer of the march in Georgia. “We march to show our solidarity with immigrant communities in the aftermath of Arizona’s huge step backwards in the struggle for human rights,” continued Nicholls. Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, requires local law enforcement officers who have “reasonable suspicion” about someone’s immigration status to demand to see documentation.
What happens in Arizona, stops in Arizona,” said Azadeh Shahshahani, National Security/Immigrants’ Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia. “Arizona’s law encourages racial profiling and is unconstitutional. This extreme law puts Arizona completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality,” continued Shahshahani.“It is wrong to institutionalize racial profiling and prejudice, as we have so painfully learned from our history,” said Priscilla Padron of Georgia Detention Watch.
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.
“Arizona’s bill makes the false promise of improving security, but what it actually does is to drive a wedge between the police and the communities they serve and protect, ” contined PJ Edwards of Georgia Detention Watch. ”We urge our own state to assuem a highter moral ground by refusing to entertain such draconian legislative initiatives in the future. We have faith that Georgia will not fall in line behind Arizona”, continued Edwards.
The march in Atlanta is co-sponsored by dozens of Georgia-based human rights groups and coalitions, including Georgia Detention Watch. The march will begin at the Capitol Building on Washington Street. Marchers are to pass several landmarks of significance to the civil rights movement in the downtown area. The event will conclude with speeches by community leaders.The march in Atlanta is co-sponsored by dozens of Georgia-based human rights groups and coalitions, including Georgia Detention Watch. The march will begin at the Capitol Building on Washington Street. Marchers are to pass several landmarks of significance to the civil rights movement in the downtown area. The event will conclude with speeches by community leaders.
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 their website:
