The City of Atlanta joined the cities of South Fulton and Oakwood in passing resolutions outlining its objection to Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchasing and converting warehouses in the municipality into immigration detention centers. 

The resolution passed unanimously. 

Public officials around metro Atlanta have taken up immigration issues after the Department of Homeland Security spent nearly $200 million on two warehouses in Georgia as part of a nationwide plan to convert them into detention facilities. 

In Social Circle, about an hour East of Atlanta, DHS bought a more than 1 million square foot warehouse with plans to detain 7,500 to 10,000 people in the warehouse. In Oakwood, about an hour Northeast of Atlanta, DHS bought a smaller warehouse with plans to detain up to 1,600 people there. 

Mildred Danis-Taylor, an advocate with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, spoke during public comment at the Monday Atlanta City Council meeting. Her husband, Rodney Taylor, is currently detained at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin.

She said she is concerned about rising arrests in Georgia due to more local law enforcement partnerships with ICE through the federal 287(g) program, which Georgia requires local law enforcement to try to join. 

“It means that local police are now acting as federal immigration agents, fueling immigration racial profiling arrests and feeding Black and immigrant communities into detention facilities like Stewart,” she said. “This is not about public safety only.”

Atlanta City Council also passed a resolution asking Atlanta Police to establish procedures around documenting federal immigration actions in the city where APD is present, including keeping body camera footage from immigration actions and documenting federal immigration agents’ names and identifying information.