While much of the country has eyes trained on the unrest in Minneapolis after the shooting death of Alex Pretti by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, some in metro Atlanta are concerned as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders appear to be expanding operations in College Park. Elected officials in the southwest Atlanta suburb say the federal government hasn’t been communicating with them about what’s happening.
Videos of vehicles adorned with ICE logos being trucked into metro Atlanta started circulating on social media over the weekend, along with texts alerting residents to cooperate by showing ID if stopped. College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom and members of the City Council said they began receiving reports from local residents around the same time.
ICE’s local division in Atlanta didn’t immediately respond Wednesday morning to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment. ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams told WABE on Tuesday that more of the agency’s officials are working in a new office, but she declined to say where it’s located.
ICE has operated a field office on Ted Turner Drive in Atlanta for years. The agency’s satellite office in College Park was reportedly established to accommodate more administrative officers.
While the opening of the new office appears to be a continuation of the Trump administration’s efforts to bolster the ranks of ICE agents in cities across the country, there are community concerns that it could be part of a coordinated effort with the Department of Homeland Security operation that has raised alarm in cities like Minneapolis.
In an emailed statement on Wednesday, College Park officials said they’re aware of a “possible” ICE administrative office recently opening in their city.
“We are committed to complying with all applicable laws while remaining transparent with our residents and businesses,” spokesperson Gerald H. Walker said via email. “Our priority is sharing accurate information, dispelling misinformation, and reducing fear within our community.”
Motley Broom and other College Park officials didn’t immediately respond Wednesday morning to requests for comment from Capital B Atlanta. The mayor told Fox 5 Atlanta on Tuesday that she’s not getting much direction from the federal government about what’s going on with ICE in College Park.
“I would welcome communication with ICE at this point because we are hearing rumors, but we don’t have anything actually confirmed,” Motley Broom told the news station. “From our perspective, for the safety of our community, we would want to know if [ICE is] here definitively. … They have not contacted us.”
College Park City Council member Jamelle E. McKenzie said Sunday on Instagram that the city hasn’t received reports of ICE targeting or harassing residents, but she advised her constituents to carry ID in case they’re stopped by ICE agents.
“Make sure that you have something that shows that you’re a U.S. citizen when you are going out,” McKenzie said. “This is a sound practice for travel, employment and any type of interactions with law enforcement. If you are approached by an ICE officer, please cooperate with that agency.”
Michelle S., an elementary school parent who has lived in the area for over 5 years and who declined to give her full name, said she’d like to see the city hold an informational meeting to explain to residents how the city will and won’t be supporting ICE’s work.
She said she is also concerned with the possibility of ICE expanding operations to her son’s school, which she said is majority Black but has a decent-sized Hispanic population.
“[The school] said their policy was they would not let [ICE] in, but it’s just like, what if they get in under subterfuge? What are they going to do? What could happen?” she said.
The new concerns over ICE activities in College Park emerged less than five days after federal agents fatally shot Pretti in Minneapolis and three weeks after ICE officers shot and killed Renee Good in the same city.
Both incidents sparked national uproar and protests across the country, including in metro Atlanta, as many Americans pushed back against an apparent ramp up of ICE raids and arrests in support of President Donald Trump’s anti-illegal immigration policies.
In November, U.S. Rep Buddy Carter, R-Georgia, who is running for the U.S. Senate, asked the federal government to increase ICE’s presence in Atlanta to address the city’s “criminal illegal immigration problem” following the Clayton County arrest of accused murderer and undocumented Mexican migrant Salvador Rodriguez-Mendoza.
The lawmaker doubled down on his position over the weekend in a statement to WSAV following recent ICE protests in Savannah.
“ICE has every right to defend itself,” Carter told the news station. “If ICE wasn’t in Minneapolis, the 12,000 criminals that they’ve removed would still roam free, leading to much more violence than what we are seeing on the streets today.”
There have been multiple reports around the country of masked ICE officials targeting U.S. citizens in their raids, stops, and arrests, in addition to protestors being harmed and killed during encounters with the agency’s officers.
Ossoff and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock are two of the Democrats who’ve vowed not to support a budget bill that includes funding for ICE in response to the shooting deaths of Pretti and Good.
ICE critics in Decatur voiced support on Tuesday for a DeKalb County Board of Commissioners resolution calling for an end to the agency’s alleged militarized operations in the region. Commissioners delayed their vote on that resolution Tuesday night, according to Decaturish.
Orazo Abrams is a veteran and former federal worker who has been in College Park for about 18 months. He said he’s not concerned about ICE agents who follow the law, but is worried about agents who go too far.
“I am opposed to any interrogation or detainment of citizens,” Abrams told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “We have prided ourselves as a region to be inclusive, so I stand with the region in resisting any lawlessness.”
Staff writer Madeline Thigpen contributed to this report.
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