During an interview aired on Monday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Democratic Georgia gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms responded to a question on whether she’ll work with federal immigration authorities on violent criminals by pointing to ending Atlanta’s relationship with ICE during her tenure as the city’s mayor and saying that “we don’t have a problem with lawful immigration tactics that are respectful, that are responsible, that aren’t wreaking havoc in our communities. But that’s not what we’re seeing from Donald Trump’s ICE.”
Co-host Joe Mathieu asked, “You have a long track record, Mayor Bottoms, of opposing immigration enforcement, going back to the president’s first term when you were mayor of Atlanta. Will you seek to ban ICE enforcement from the state, or as governor, would you work with federal authorities when it comes to enforcement, particularly for violent criminals?”
Bottoms responded, “We want responsible, lawful immigration enforcement. When I ended our relationship with ICE on behalf of the city of Atlanta, it was during the family separation policy. And when we reached out to the Trump administration to find out if we would be complicit in that policy, in families that were being separated, we were holding ICE detainees at our city jail, it was a longstanding contract, a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract. I ended that agreement because they couldn’t give us any assurances as to what our role would be. I’m not afraid to step forward and take action that’s never been taken before. When we took that step, states and cities and counties across America followed suit. So, we don’t have a problem with lawful immigration tactics that are respectful, that are responsible, that aren’t wreaking havoc in our communities. But that’s not what we’re seeing from Donald Trump’s ICE. We are seeing people being run over in the street, we have seen people get killed by ICE, and it is also disruptive for law enforcement across Georgia. I’ve talked with several members of law enforcement who’ve talked about the added burden that they have having to act as ICE agents because of state law. So, we want to make sure that whatever it is that we’re doing, we are being respectful. Nobody wants hardened criminals on our streets, but we also know that we have citizens who are hardened criminals on our streets. This is about being respectful and lawful.”
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