The policy of separating families and caging children is unquestionably one of the greatest human rights violations in recent American history. Though President Trump nominally signed an executive order recently to end the so-called “zero tolerance” policy that he himself orchestrated, it does little to rectify the broader problems with his administration’s immigration policies. Anyone who consciously fails to act to alleviate this problem will not be fondly remembered by history.
Fortunately, the City of Atlanta has a mayor who has the integrity and will to take a stand on this immigration crisis. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms recently signed an executive order prohibiting the city’s jail from accepting new detainees of the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. In a statement, Bottoms said that “the inhumane action of family separation demands that Atlanta act now.”
This is an example that the state and the country should follow. Mayor Bottoms’ action proves that she will not allow herself nor the City of Atlanta to be complicit in the atrocities being committed at our border under the false pretense of national security. Unlike so many others, such as those in Congress, she has taken a moral stand despite the blowback she knew she might receive from the administration and Georgia politicians.
That blowback started immediately. Both Republican gubernatorial candidates, Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp, immediately criticized Bottoms in an effort to score cheap political points. Both have cited “public safety” repeatedly in their campaign rhetoric, despite the fact that immigrants commit significantly less crime than native-born Americans.
The people of Atlanta elected Mayor Bottoms because they recognized that she is a woman who will stand up for what is right, be it on transparency, equality, or immigration. With this action, she continues to show her constituents that they made the right decision last December.
Tharon Johnson is a consultant with Paramount Consulting Group and a Democrat strategist.
