ICE Agents Arresting Immigrants In Decatur Area: Report

DECATUR, GA -- Federal immigration authorities have arrested refugees and immigrants this week in the Decatur area, according to news reports.

As many as 10 Somalis were taken into custody in Stone Mountain, Clarkston and Gwinnett County in recent days by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, citing African advocacy organizations.

The wave of arrests is reminiscent of ICE raids conducted in metro Atlanta in February, which netted nearly 100 undocumented immigrants.

Somalia's U.S. ambassador recently told Voice of America that ICE agents are mobilizing to deport about 4,000 people back to the African country.

"We learned through immigration sources that the total number of the Somalis that are in the books of [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to be removed are close to 4,000," Ahmed Isse Awad told VOA week. "Most of them are not in detention centers."

The move comes as the Trump Administration moves to ramp up military forces in the Somali to turn the tide against an extremist group, al-Shabab, which has ascended in the vacuum of a unified leader in the war-torn country. Dozens of U.S. troops recently were deployed there to help Somalia's troops with "logistics training," the Associated Press reports.

For more on this story, see the AJC.

Image via handout / Getty Images News