Atlanta ICE office monitoring 30,000 immigrants
VIDEO 

ATLANTA — An El Salvadoran woman that took refuge in a Lilburn church for two weeks is back in her metro Atlanta home, laying low to avoid deportation. But 11Alive has learned she’s only one of nearly 30,000 people being monitored by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Atlanta office right now.

Claudia Juardo was being monitored by ICE through an ankle bracelet. She cut it off to avoid deportation, claiming she feared for her family’s life if forced to return. She says she left when violent gangs in her home country tried to extort her for money.

ICE policy discourages agents from going inside a church or school to detain someone, unless the person poses a serious safety risk. Now that Juardo has left the church, ICE seems content to continue to look the other way.

“I was taught that our country was based on the rule of law. We should recognize that concept is diminished if not gone now,” said D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society.

11ALIVE
El Salvadoran woman seeks sanctuary inside metro Atlanta church

King is an advocate for tougher immigration laws and better border security to prevent situations like Juardo’s in the first place.

ICE won’t comment on Juardo’s case, but we talked with a spokesperson in 2012 while getting a rare inside look at the largest immigration detention facility in the country. Right now, Vincent Picard says there are about 1,900 people at the facility in Lumpkin, Georgia.

“As long as we’re reasonably confident that somebody does not pose a threat to public safety and is going to comply with immigration law, show up in court, it’s likely we’re going to release that person,” said Picard.

That was the trust given to Juardo before she cut off her ankle bracelet – and the trust she is still being given now.

According to our open records request, the Atlanta field office which covers Georgia and the Carolinas, monitored 628 other people through ankle bracelets last month. 571 people checked in by phone. But there were roughly 28,000 other unauthorized immigrants out on bond or released on their own recognizance as their immigration status is worked out.

“We have to make a whole new set of standards. And when people come in, they have to come in legally,” said Presidential candidate Donald Trump in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.

He made no apologies as he explained his new immigration plan, which would send people like Juardo home as soon as they were detained. Trump also wants to triple the number of ICE officers and make Mexico pay for a wall on the US border.
“They’re sending drugs and they’re taking money out. They’re making a lot of money,” said Trump defending his belief Mexico has the money and the responsibility to pay.

Juardo is seven months pregnant. Her child, if born here, would be a U.S. citizen, further complicating the issue. That’s another controversial issue Trump is taking out on the campaign trail. He believes the constitution should be amended to prevent what he calls ‘birthright citizenship.’

Many candidates have been quick to criticize his plan.

“I’ve talked to the Southwest Governors. Nobody thinks that we should be building a fence as the solution to security,” said Jeb Bush on a campaign stop.

“This plan on immigration is just literally gibberish,” argued Lindsey Graham.

But Trump still leads in the polls and some candidates admit, Trump has hit on a sore spot.

“Clearly the immigration issue is one that drives a lot of emotion and passion in the Republican primary. It’s why I think the #1 goal of the next president is to bring a secure border. People are frustrated,” said Mike Huckabee before a fundraiser in Atlanta.

The Atlanta field office did deport 12,222 people last fiscal year – most of them convicted criminals. Juardo is now technically an immigration fugitive. But whether that’s a crime in our culture depends on who you ask.

“There are people I would rather see as President, but those of us who go on fighting to have our immigration laws enforced or even recognized in Republican politics, one more time, thank you Donald Trump,” said King.