About 1,000 protesters on Saturday gathered along Buford Highway, the immigrant hub of metro Atlanta, to call for an end to the targeted operations by immigration agents that began last week.
Waving flags from Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala and Puerto Rico, and carrying signs condemning deportations, hundreds of community members began lining along both sides of the corridor in front of Plaza Fiesta near the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport around noon.
Some motorists slowed down and honked in support. Trucks revved engines, filling the air with smoke as protesters cheered and waved their flags and pumped their signs with more fervor.
Some of the signs read “No one is illegal on stolen land”; “We are not criminals”; and “No mass deportations.”
After a long day of peaceful marches, protesters took over the northbound lanes of Buford Highway about 4 p.m., and eventually the entire roadway, not allowing any cars to pass.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started making arrests in Atlanta on Jan. 26 along Buford Highway in Chamblee and Brookhaven, as well as other parts of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Since then, ICE has made more than 6,000 arrests nationwide in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans, the agency said.
Vanessa Uscanga, 34, drove nearly an hour from Newnan to participate on behalf of her family, who she said were “deeply affected” by the ICE arrests.
“I’m here to be the voice for my family because they could not be here today,” she said, carrying a sign painted in Mexican flag colors and cut out in a heart shape that read: “Love thy neighbor.”
Uscanga, a mother of three, described having to explain to her children that they would not be able to see certain members of the family anymore. She added her family is scared to leave the house.
“Trump needs to focus on other things like sex trafficking that is way more important than deporting immigrants, who all we do is work hard to break bread at the table,” she said. “We are not criminals.”
Elizabeth Garcia, 41, said while no one from her family has been affected by the ICE arrests, she thought it was crucial to speak out for her many friends who have been.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
“We want to help the innocent people that are immigrants to help them not be afraid speak up,” Garcia said in Spanish. “Because our children are the ones that suffer the most from all this.”
Garcia is a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years. She called on Trump and immigration authorities to stop labeling immigrants as criminals and recognize their contributions to the country.
“It doesn’t matter what country you come from, El Salvador, Mexico, or what race you are, we all need to come together and unite,” she said.
Karen Russian, who carried a sign that read, “No human is illegal,” came from downtown Atlanta to support her friend who is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.
“People are just trying to live their lives and they shouldn’t be pulled out of the country for it,” she said.
While Russian said she knew to expect the immigration crackdown from the Trump administration, she said she could not sit aside while seeing his policies affect her friends and their communities.
“You always have hope that things are not going to be as dire, but now they are and we all have to stand up and defend our neighbors,” she said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Just a half mile down Buford Highway, the Party for Socialism and Liberation staged another protest a couple hours later.
As the crowd expanded, at least six Chamblee Police vehicles were parked in the middle lane of Buford Highway where authorities observed the peaceful protest.
Cars were backed up along the half-mile stretch of Buford Highway from Clairmont Road to Dresden Drive as motorists slowed or came to a full stop in the middle of the road to observe, honk or wave their flags in unison.
Natalie Villasana, a PSL member and protest organizer, called Trump’s immigration policies a “full-scale attack on immigrants.”
“The agenda of Trump and the billionaire-class is to destroy rights of the working class and our immigrant brothers and sisters,” she said.
Villasana said PSL is calling for an end to the ICE arrests, asylum for immigrants and no mass deportations.
“Every person has a right to be here, and it’s the billionaires who are the real criminals trying to destroy the working class,” she said.
The Trump administration mobilized an immigration crackdown in his first days in office, ushering in a flurry of policy changes and launching “targeted operations” against undocumented immigrants with criminal records. He also rescinded policies that kept immigration agents from arresting undocumented immigrants in sensitive locations such as churches, hospitals and schools.
“The only way to stop deportations is by forming a mass movement of all backgrounds and fight back,” Villasana said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
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