Activists locked themselves to the gates outside a federal government building in downtown Atlanta Tuesday as part of a boisterous demonstration by dozens of people against the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Witnesses said authorities used bolt cutters to break the bicycle locks the activists used and took 15 people into federal custody. The arrests happened outside a Spring Street building that houses U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices and federal immigration courtrooms.
The activists called on President Barack Obama to halt the record numbers of deportations that have occurred while he has been in office. They also requested an expansion of a controversial federal program that grants illegal immigrants two-year reprieves from deportation.
Tuesday’s demonstration is part of an increasingly confrontational campaign activists have been mounting this year as comprehensive immigration legislation remains stalled in Congress. In June, the Democratic-led Senate passed an omnibus immigration bill that would tighten border security and grant a 13-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Last week, Vice President Joe Biden appeared at a citizenship ceremony in Atlanta to show his support for such a route to citizenship. He visited Atlanta a day after Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared he had no intention of taking up the Senate immigration bill. House Republicans are instead taking a piecemeal approach with smaller immigration bills.
Several groups joined Tuesday’s demonstration, including the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Southerners on New Ground and Project South.
“We are here to tell Barack Obama that if he won’t stop the deportations, we will,” said Adelina Nicholls, executive director of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights.
ICE issued a statement saying it “fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion within the confines of the law.”
“While we continue to work with Congress to enact reform,” the agency said, “ICE remains committed to sensible, effective immigration enforcement that focuses first on convicted criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety.”
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