The criminalization of LGBTQ people comes in many forms. One form is the profiling, harassment, and arrests of undocumented immigrants. In places all around the South, if you go to the store for groceries and run a stop sign you can be profiled, stopped, and potentially deported, for minor violations. We know this impacts LGBTQ communities of color in a particular way, because we already have high rates of profiling and police harassment just for being LGBTQ and of color.

In Atlanta, GA, SONG has been working with our partners in the Georgia Not1More Coalition to combat this type of criminalization. For months we have been organizing to end the link between local police and the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This linkage allows ICE to use what are known as detainers, or holds, to enter any person profiled and picked up by local law enforcement, regardless of the charges, into deportation proceedings. A ruling by a federal court in Oregon found that these types of arrests lack probable cause and are in violation of the 4th Amendment and other courts have clearly shown that enforcement of detainers by local entities is voluntary.

On September 3rd, Atlanta’s Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted 6 to 0 to pass a resolution urging the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department to no longer enforce ICE detainers. Fulton County, GA, became the second county in the South to pass such a resolution, after Miami-Dade County in Florida. Before voting on the resolution, Futon County commissioners spoke with strong convictions about the underlying racial profiling and the unconstitutionality of ICE detainers.  Commissioner Joan Garner, a SONG founder and one of the sponsors of the resolution, shared some of her reflections after making the decision.

“Sponsoring the resolution was the right thing to do.  I am opposed to any form of discrimination against any person or group.  The practice of holding individuals on an ICE detainer seemed to target a group of people and I had to speak up, and will always speak up, in order to oppose racial profiling and oppression.  Fulton County opposes racial profiling.  Fulton County is concerned when people are held for 48hrs or more and the impact it has on the individual, the community, and the taxpayer.  I encourage the Sheriff to take the impact of ICE detainers into consideration by adhering to the newly passed resolution.”

This victory was made possible by our community and the work of the Georgia Not1More Coalition, co-anchored by SONG and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR). We must continue out dedication and unity in moving forward to ensure the implementation of this policy to its full extent, the accountability of Fulton County law enforcement, and fight to expand this win to other locales.

Policy wins can be rolled back but cultural change is undeniable. Our communities across the South and the country are fighting back against this type of enforcement because it undermines public safety and is intimately connected to the culture of hyper-policing and targeting of Black communities, LGBTQ communities and poor people. We need your support to continue this work. Please donate to SONG’s work today!