MABLETON, Ga. — On Wednesday night, the Mableton City Council unanimously passed a moratorium on the development of federal immigration detention centers.
The move, which came ahead of any signs of a potential facility being built in Mableton, was done in response to concerns over local economic and safety impacts.
In the metro Atlanta area, facilities from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are already underway in the cities of Social Circle and Oakwood.
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Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell spoke to Mableton Mayor Michael Owens, who said the measure was proactive, so the “calamity and unrest” he says happened in Social Circle and Oakwood doesn’t happen in his city.
“At this point, there are no active zoning cases for detention centers,” Owens confirmed. “Before we move forward with any potential zoning cases that could potentially be an ICE facility or detention facility,” the city wanted to take a closer look at its zoning codes and ordinances.
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Owens told Channel 2 Action News that the city knows what it’s like to build a jail or something similar to detention centers, but said they were very different.
“They are stood up much faster and a lot of times without taking into account the burden that’s going to be placed on a local community,” Owens said.
That echoes similar concerns in Social Circle and Oakwood, where city leaders told Channel 2 Action News they were worried about how local infrastructure, and community safety, would be impacted by having a detention center nearby.
In response to those concerns, an ICE spokeswoman previously said they were unfounded and that bringing detention centers to Social Circle and Oakwood will bring jobs and economic benefits, and that before approving facility plans the government examines how it would impact infrastructure.
For Mableton, the mayor said the city “cannot handle an ICE facility” with its infrastructure.
“We don’t want our citizens, we don’t want our community, in a situation where we could have an ICE facility right here,” Owens said.
The vote in city council on Wednesday was unanimous, with all seven members voting to put a moratorium in place through Dec. 31, 2028.
Owens told Newell the time would “ensure we are going back looking at all of our current zoning codes, look at any applications that may come through,” as well as the city’s core infrastructure to see if it was even possible to support that type of facility.
The mayor said in short, the city was “not prepared for a detention center” and said the moratorium was not a political move, but to ensure preparedness.
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