Two years ago, Georgia passed one of the most stringent immigration laws in the country, House Bill 87. Both supporters and opponents of the bill now agree that it has a major flaw which needs to be fixed quickly. As written, the law subjects U.S. citizens renewing a professional license to months of delay, costing many of them their jobs and livelihood.
Legislators from both sides of the aisle wisely pledged to work together to do away with this unacceptable consequence. Straightforward, fix-it bills were introduced in the state House and Senate. Unfortunately, a few legislators have pushed for last-minute changes to the bills, sending them in a completely different direction. The changes threaten to embroil Georgia into another protracted and rancorous debate.
In the last 15 years, we've witnessed a dramatic expansion in the jailing of immigrants, from about 70,000 people detained annually to about 400,000. In the mid-1990’s, during the height of an anti-immigrant backlash, Congress passed a series of harsh measures that led to a vast increase in unnecessary detention. This trend has been exacerbated by the private prison industry and county jails looking to exploit immigrant detention for profit.
The ACLU of Georgia recently released a comprehensive report on conditions of detention for immigrants in Georgia, three of which are operated by for-profit corporations and one of which, the Stewart Detention Center, is the largest immigration detention facility in the country.
For purposes of this documentation project, the ACLU of Georgia interviewed 68 individuals who were detained at the Georgia immigration detention facilities, as well as detainees' family members and immigration attorneys. We also toured the detention centers and reviewed documents obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. The findings in “Prisoners of Profit: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia” raise serious concerns about violations of detainees’ due process rights, inadequate living conditions, inadequate medical and mental health care, and abuse of power by those in charge.
Just when it seemed that Georgia was coming to grips with the damage caused by H.B. 87, the state's Arizona-inspired anti-immigrant law, some lawmakers are again attempting to rush through new measures that would further marginalize and exclude immigrants from our community.
This week the ACLU and ACLU of Georgia along with a coalition of other civil rights groups filed a class action lawsuit challenging Georgia’s discriminatory anti-immigrant law inspired by Arizona’s notorious S.B. 1070. The Georgia law authorizes police to demand “papers” demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops and makes it unjustifiably difficult for individuals without specific identification documents to access state facilities and services. The lawsuit charges the extreme law endangers public safety, invites the racial profiling of Latinos, Asians, and others who appear foreign to a police officer, and interferes with federal law.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s one of the most common questions we ask our children. And no matter what answer they give — veterinarian, astronaut, president — we tell them the same thing: work hard in school, and you can do it.
But for thousands of young adults raised in this country, it’s not that simple. For those who were brought to the U.S. by their parents without proper documentation, current laws continue to keep their dreams out of reach. For them, unlike the classmates they have grown up next to, pursuing a college education and a career isn’t just a matter of working hard and achieving academically. Instead, they face many roadblocks in their path to success: crushing financial burden, discriminatory enrollment policies, and the constantly looming threat of deportation.
Last week, seven undocumented students were arrested in Atlanta for engaging in a sit-in in front of Georgia State University. The students had gathered to call for the repeal of Georgia's discriminatory policy that denies undocumented students access to higher education at five of the most selective institutions in the University System of Georgia (USG). The students were part of a network of youth activists organizing in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a bill that promotes fundamental fairness in access to higher education for all high school students, regardless of immigration status.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. In observation, Georgia lawmakers should reject legislation that attacks immigrant women, including H.B. 87, a bill currently pending in the Georgia legislature that is a copycat of Arizona's S.B. 1070 racial profiling law. H.B. 87 would endanger victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by creating more fear and distrust of local law enforcement in communities across the state, much like 287(g) has done. Similar to 287(g) agreements, which are agreements between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police/sheriff departments, H.B. 87 would charge local law enforcement with enforcing federal immigration law.
On Monday, the ACLU of Georgia submitted testimony to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on conditions at Stewart and Irwin County Detention Centers as well as racial profiling in Cobb and Gwinnett counties. IACHR has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and is authorized to examine allegations of human rights violations in all member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) including the United States.
