It’s hard to keep up with this administration’s outrages, on so many fronts. But the effort to target, humiliate and mistreat immigrants may be its most malignant campaign.
Whether it’s tackling a disconsolate mother in a courthouse hallway or dragging women and kids from their beds in a Rambo-style raid, ICE is living up to its moniker as a cold-hearted wing of a heartless government. It’s like there is no bottom, that each day brings a new affront.
The latest indignity from Immigration and Customs Enforcement is right here in downtown Atlanta. Detainees are being kept overnight — sometimes for days — in abusive conditions in the basement of the agency’s overcrowded field office on Ted Turner Drive. The conditions defy the department’s own written standards.
The basement’s temporary holding area has become a de-facto jail, where detainees often linger for days without beds, showers or a chance to see their family members or attorneys, according to a story last week written by my colleagues Lautaro Grinspan and Stephanie Lamm.
They noted in the 16 months leading up to Donald Trump’s return to office, just eight detainees spent more than 24 hours at the Atlanta ICE field office’s holding rooms. Twelve hours is supposed to be the limit.