ATLANTA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the end results of what agents call “Operation Safe Community Atlanta” this month.
The agency did not specify a time frame of the operation but said it resulted in the arrests of 1,226 people.
Of those, 720 had prior charges or convictions, ICE said. The other 506 did not.
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While ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Acting Assistant Director Patricia Hyde praised the results, a Decatur-based mutual aid group called STAND said it forced innocent families into hiding.
“We know that people are being detained even when they’re trying to follow the normal immigration routes that this country affords them. So, because of that, the entire community gets scared. The entire community locks down. The entire committee loses access to food, loses access to schooling, which is why what we do is so important. We try to find aid and bring it to folks that can’t get it any other way,” said Matt Woodruff.
Woodruff allowed Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco to meet him and a fellow volunteer before they dropped groceries off to families at a local apartment complex who’ve lost access due to their fears.
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“We have communities where we know that there are 50 households, for example, on lockdown. We know kids are really struggling to get to school. We know schools are noticing, which creates an entirely new set of problems,” said Woodruff.
In April, City School of Decatur addressed the concern, promising not to collect records regarding a students’ immigration status.
This month, Dekalb County School District’s Board of Education began considering a proposal requiring immigration agents to show a warrant or court documents before accessing a student.
That could come up for a vote next month.
“This is a ridiculous proposition. If an alien has the legal means to be in the United States, then they are not subject to arrest and removal. If they don’t have the legal means to be in the United States then they are subject to arrest and removal,” an ICE spokesperson said.
When asked about confirmed cases of mistaken identity, he said, “Any citizen that has been detained has been released immediately after their status was verified. These are just tired rumors and myths being propagated to support some narrative. If you have legal means to be here, you’re fine. If you don’t have legal means to be here you are subject to arrest and removal.”
“This is a community fear, and it is a well-justified community fear,” said Woodruff. “We are a band-aid on this problem as we watch families get broken, but the reality is that there is a much larger issue here in the way that enforcement is taking place, and we need our public officials to tackle that problem.”
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