Atlanta may welcome all, but Mayor Kasim Reed is stopping short of dubbing it a sanctuary city despite a growing push by some to make it so.
In big cities across the country, mayors are standing up and declaring sanctuary for immigrants dubbed illegal. But Reed doesn’t appear interested in crossing that threshold in defiance of the federal government. However, he told 11Alive on Sunday that the city is far from hiding away from victims of foreign crises.
“I would challenge anyone to identify a city in the southeastern region of the United States of America that has done more to be welcoming to refugees and immigrants than the city of Atlanta,” he said.
But Azadeh Shahshahani with Project South said there are more steps the city can take.
"How can this city be welcoming or a good place for immigrants when the city is profiting off the detention of immigrants,” Shahshahani said.
So why the debate about the title? Money. President Donald Trump's executive order would strip federal funds from so-called "sanctuary cities." And a court battle is already underway.
Meanwhile, President Trump's administration said Wednesday that eliminating sanctuary cities would make the country safer.
But Mayor Reed said this battle is missing a much bigger picture.
"We should not be baited in to these types of arguments together when there is a real, genuine, authentic threat to the constitutional rights of the people of the United States of America,” he said.
Colleges and universities across the country are also joining the conversation and taking a similar stance to sanctuary cities in regard to their students. But much like Atlanta, not all institutions of higher education are taking up the immigration battle.
The incoming president of Emory University also said they won't be a sanctuary campus despite petitions from students, faculty and staff for that declaration.
Incoming President Claire Sterk said the cut in funding would hurt the school - and it would give a bad impression that the school is breaking federal law.
