Legal Resources for Black Immigrants in Atlanta – Capital B News

Uchechukwu Onwa likens his three-month detention by immigration agents — when he was apprehended at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in 2017 after fleeing homophobic violence in his Nigerian homeland — to the treatment of African ancestors being transported to America during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

“I was handcuffed from my hands down to my waist and my legs,” said Onwa, who now serves as an organizer at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, an advocacy group for Black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. He recalls the discomfort and inhumanity of having his ankle and wrist chained to a hospital bed while he received medical treatment — all because he was wrongly told his visa was insufficient to enter the country. “I saw first hand the injustices and abuse that Black migrants are experiencing in detention.”

Onwa shares the rising concern that such experiences will become more common for Black Atlantans due to a nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigration, reflected through both federal law and policies. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, along with other local and federal law enforcement, have reportedly detained MARTA riders and made arrests at metro-area churches in January.

That same month, President Donald Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain any undocumented immigrant who admits to or has been arrested, charged, or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting; assault of a police officer; or “any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury.”

Immigration attorneys and immigrant rights groups have decried the law as another tool to target undocumented migrants that won’t actually help make communities any safer.

Racially biased policing practices result in Black immigrants being stopped, searched and arrested more frequently than non-Black immigrants. There were 190,000 Black immigrants living in the Atlanta metro area in 2019, making it the fourth-largest population of its kind in the United States, according to Pew Research. 

“Our experiences as Black immigrants is different,” said Onwa. “With the current political climate, I think this is really the time for Black communities to get together and organize.”

Amid ICE raids and other deportation efforts happening with growing frequency, legal services and advocacy groups have stepped up to offer assistance to those in need. 

Capital B Atlanta has compiled a list of legal and organizing resources for Black immigrants in metro Atlanta. Organizations that have an existing relationship with detention facilities are noted.

Legal Resources

Access to Law Foundation

Location: Norcross

Phone number: (770) 685-1499 

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Yes

Detention facilities: Atlanta City Detention Center, Cobb County Jail, Hall County Jail, Irwin County Detention Center, North Georgia Detention Center, Stewart Detention Center, Whitfield County Jail

Bridging the Gap Project

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (770) 938-1112

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Yes

Catholic Charities Atlanta

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (678) 222-3920

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Sometimes

Detention facilities: Folkston ICE Processing Center, Stewart Detention Center

Georgia Asylum & Immigration Network

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (678) 335-6040

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: No

Detention facilities: Atlanta City Detention Center

Immigrant Connection Georgia

Location: Riverdale

Phone number: (404) 907-1927

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Yes

Immigrant Hope – Atlanta

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (404) 500-8097

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Yes

International Rescue Committee

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (404) 292-7731

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: No

Fee charged?: Yes

Kids in Need of Defense (Juveniles only)

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (404) 334-9170

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: No

Fee charged?: No

New American Pathways

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (404) 844-5205

Text: (470) 620-5157

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Yes

Latin American Association

Location: Atlanta and Norcross

Phone number: (404) 471-1889 or (678) 205-1018

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: Yes

Tapestri

Location: Tucker

Phone number: (404) 299-2185

Email: [email protected]

Non-legal status accepted: Yes

Fee charged?: No

Organizing Resources

Black Alliance for Just Immigration – Atlanta

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (347) 464-5422

Email: [email protected]

CASA – Georgia

Location: Atlanta

Phone number: (470) 890-2932

Inspiritus

Location: Atlanta; Decatur; Clarkston

Phone number: (404) 875-0201

MyCity ATL

Location: Atlanta

Email: [email protected]

Refugee Women’s Network

Location: Decatur

Phone number: (404) 437-7767

The International Rescue Committee in Atlanta

Location: Atlanta 

Phone number: (404) 292-7731