Where they stand: Bottoms, Jackson on immigration
This story is the first in a weekly series highlighting where the two candidates for Georgia governor stand on important issues.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced more 1,200 immigrant arrests in Georgia as part of a federal enhanced immigration enforcement operation. Partnerships between ICE and local law enforcement have strengthened, in part because of the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act, a law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2024.
The law requires local law enforcement to check the immigration status of inmates, cooperate with ICE agents and submit quarterly reports on immigrant detainees.
The number of immigrants in ICE detention in Georgia has grown 90% under President Donald Trump’s second administration. Georgia has the fourth-most immigrant detainees out of all U.S. states behind Texas, Louisiana and California. Last fall, Georgia was the site of the largest single immigration raid in the history of Homeland Security Investigations.
Here’s where candidates for governor, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and healthcare CEO Rick Jackson, stand on immigration.
Bottoms
Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, has expressed concern over states’ collaboration with federal ICE agents, especially under the Trump administration. She called the ICE campaign earlier this year in Minnesota “reckless” and condemned the shooting of Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.
“The tactics we have seen from ICE under the Trump Administration have terrorized communities and harmed Americans,” Bottoms said in a statement.
During her tenure as Atlanta mayor, Bottoms issued an executive order prohibiting the city jail from accepting any new ICE detainees. In 2018, she called the forced separation of migrant families at the U.S. southern border “despicable” and said the city won’t accept any new immigration detainees until the separations have stopped.
If elected governor, Bottoms said in a statement she will “support lawful and responsible collaboration between local and federal law enforcement.”
“As governor, I will support giving Georgia law enforcement tools to get dangerous criminals out of communities, but I will not support ICE tactics designed to terrorize Georgians,” she said.
Jackson
Jackson, the Republican candidate, has said will make the deportation of unauthorized immigrants one of his top priorities if elected governor.
On the campaign trail, he vows to make Georgia No. 1 in the nation for deporting immigrants who break the law and work with President Donald Trump to enforce federal immigration laws.
In a statement, the Republican said his focus will be “cracking down on illegal immigration.”
“As governor, I will approach public safety and immigration through the same lens, and that is enforcing the law,” he said. “Immigration law is federal law, not state law, and I will enforce the law and make sure Georgia is a partner in doing it.”
During the primary, Jackson released an ad warning that people living in Georgia without permission who violate the law would be “deported or departed” that drew backlash.
“Too often, criminal illegals commit sick, violent crimes, victimize our children and get away with murder,” Jackson said in the ad. “Do that when I’m governor, and you’ll end up deported or departed.”