Lawyers say ICE detainees held for days in poor conditions at Atlanta office
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The U.S. Immigration Court in Downtown Atlanta. Photo: Thomas Wheatley/Axios
People accused of immigration violations say they've been detained for days in poor conditions in ICE's Downtown Atlanta field office.
Why it matters: Lawyers for detainees told the AJC their clients stayed overnight without easy access to showers or legal help in the field office's holding center blocks away from the Georgia Capitol and City Hall.
Zoom in: Since Jan. 20, more than 1,200 people have been detained in the Ted Turner Drive building for more than 24 hours, which also houses the Atlanta U.S. Immigration Court, according to the Deportation Data Project.
- According to the database compiled by lawyers and academics using ICE records, only eight people spent longer than 24 hours in the holding room from September 2023 until President Trump began his second term in office.
Context: The holding centers are meant to house detainees for short periods of time as their cases are processed.
- In late June, amid ramped-up immigration enforcement and dwindling bed space, ICE issued a one-year waiver increasing the maximum number of hours that holding centers can house detainees from 12 to 72, "absent exceptional circumstances.'"
- The same month, southeast Georgia's Charlton County approved a $50 million deal to expand an existing immigration detention facility in Folkston to house nearly 3,000 detainees.
One lawyer interviewed by the AJC said her clients included a mother of two who slept on the facility's floor for more than a week and a man who spent several nights sleeping next to an open toilet.
- A 42-year-old Guatemalan national with no felony charges spent nearly three months at the Atlanta holding center earlier this year, the outlet reported.
The other side: In a statement, DHS assistant secretary of public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said ICE follows agency standards "to ensure the safety, security, and humane treatment of individuals in custody."
- McLaughlin said "detainees are receiving three meals a day, have access to phones, showers, legal representation, blankets, and medical care."
- "When will the media stop covering sob stories of illegal alien processing and detention centers and start focusing on the victims of illegal alien crime?" she said.