an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration

Another Sunday, more church people against private prisons.

A year ago, on 29 July 2010, Letter to Secretary Napolitano Calling for an End to ICE/Local Police Collaboration and a Halt to Expansion of Immigration Detention System:

On the occasion of the scheduled implementation of Arizona’s racial profiling law, SB 1070, veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social justice and faith-based community organizations in Georgia today issued a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, calling on her to put an end to 287(g) and other ICE-local police collaborations which lead to racial profiling and separation of families, and halt the expansion of the inhumane, profit-driven immigration detention system.

“As veterans of the civil rights movement and representatives of social-justice and faith-based organizations in Georgia, we urge you to take the bold steps necessary to end this unjust system that creates divided families and improbable prisoners,” says the letter. Signatories of the letter include: Constance Curry, a veteran of the civil rights movement and Atlanta-based writer and activist; Edward Dubose, President of the Georgia State Conference NAACP; Ajamu Baraka, Executive Director of the U.S. Human Rights Network; Jerome Scott, Founder and Board Chair of Project South; Reverend Gregory Williams, President of Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE); and many others.

Only seven months later Rev. Gregory Williams and others got to speak against the all-too-similar Georgia law, HB 87. Jeremy Redmon wrote for the AJC 3 March 2011, House passes Arizona-style bill aimed at illegal immigration:
The Rev. Gregory Williams, the senior pastor at College Park CME Church, said he was concerned what the bill could do for the image of Georgia as a birthplace of the civil rights movement.

“If this does not get vetoed, we might as well go back to the back of the bus,” Williams said. “The progress of the civil rights movement takes a step back with this legislation.”

Remember the real beneficiary of this law is CCA, which runs ICE’s North Georgia Detenction Center.

We don’t need a CCA private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education.

-jsq