We closed our detention center to ICE detainees, and we would not pick up people on an immigration violation." We don't have a relationship with the U.S. In July 2019, Bottoms said, "Our city does not support ICE. In 2018, she signed an executive order forbidding the city jail to hold ICE detainees. Tenure īottoms declared that Atlanta was a "welcoming city" and "will remain open and welcoming to all" following President Donald Trump's actions regarding refugees in the United States. On November 4, 2017, she called on the attorney general of Georgia to investigate fake robocalls made in her name, which her campaign said were laden with racist overtones and made primarily in areas of Atlanta largely populated by white citizens. In October 2017, she voluntarily returned $25,700 in campaign contributions she had received from PRAD Group, an engineering contractor whose office had been raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation the previous month. She is the 6th African American and the 2nd African American woman to serve as mayor.īottoms was investigated during the mayoral election for several lump payments to campaign staff totaling over $180,000 that were not properly reported. Main article: 2017 Atlanta mayoral electionīottoms was elected mayor in 2017, after receiving a plurality of votes (26%) in a crowded field of candidates on Election Day, then defeating fellow City Council member Mary Norwood in the runoff election. She was concurrently the executive director of Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority starting in 2015. īottoms was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 20, representing District 11 in southwest Atlanta. In 2008, she ran unsuccessfully for a judgeship on the Fulton Superior Court. In 2002, she became a magistrate judge in Atlanta. Early career īottoms was a prosecutor and also represented children in juvenile court. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
degree from Georgia State University College of Law in 1994. She earned a bachelor's degree in communications from Florida A&M University, concentrating in broadcast journalism. She was raised in Atlanta and is a graduate of Frederick Douglass High School. Bottoms was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 18, 1970, to Sylvia Robinson and R&B singer-songwriter Major Lance.