As Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have spiked and bed space has dwindled at detention centers, the agency has turned to detaining immigrants for long stretches in the basement of its Atlanta field office, a facility that traditionally served only as a holding area.
In addition to immigration attorneys, the AJC spoke to advocates, family members of detained immigrants and a man currently in ICE custody who are all familiar with conditions inside Atlanta’s ICE office, located at 180 Ted Turner Dr.
They describe a facility that does not have the space or amenities to hold people overnight: no beds, no showers, and no opportunity to receive visits from loved ones or from attorneys — a situation that may be exposing immigrants to worse conditions than those found in Georgia’s ICE detention centers.
One attorney said her client, a nursing mother, spent nine days sleeping on the floor at the Atlanta field office’s holding room. Another said she is representing a man who was detained at the field office for a weekend, where he had to sleep next to an open toilet.