During a recent outreach visit to a South Georgia Hispanic church, immigrant advocate Daniela Rodriguez said a woman told her she’d begun discussing with her children the possibility that she’d be deported and separated from them. With the second inauguration of Donald Trump under two months away, she was hoping Rodriguez could help her prepare for the worst.
“There is definitely a lot of fear in the community, a lot of our uncertainty,” said Rodriguez, executive director of Migrant Equity Southeast, a Savannah-based nonprofit that assists immigrant and refugee populations across south and coastal Georgia.
The campaign that delivered Trump a new term as president featured a recurring pledge to create the largest deportation program in U.S. history, capable of removing unauthorized immigrants by the millions.
Early moves since his win appear to reaffirm his commitment to that idea. He has tapped Stephen Miller, a staunch immigration hard-liner, for a senior White House role. As “border czar,” Trump selected Tom Homan, one of the architects of his first administration’s controversial family separation policy. On social media, the president-elect confirmed his intention to declare a national emergency and deploy the military to help carry out mass deportations. Homan has also said that the incoming government will resume workplace immigration raids, a policy that has been discontinued under Biden.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has spoken with immigrant community leaders and advocates across the state about their outlook on the next four years — and what they’re telling increasingly jittery immigrant families in the wake of the election.
In South Georgia, Rodriguez said her group will prioritize “rapid response” work in 2025 and beyond, assisting families who find themselves in crisis due to new federal policies. Other leaders spoke of the need to learn from previous periods of intense immigration enforcement — including the first Trump term and some years under Barack Obama — to better protect immigrant residents this time around.
For now, advocates are focused on educating immigrants about their rights, and encouraging them to make plans for their children’s care should detention and deportation split families up. They are also encouraging community members to set up mutual aid networks and report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sightings to one another.
“We’re asking them to get organized within their own communities, to stay as up-to-date as possible with anything that could happen, like if there are police checks near their trailer park or if ICE is showing up to a neighborhood and arresting people,” said Adelina Nicholls, co-founder of the Atlanta-based Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights. “We think that what’s coming is really big, and that one nonprofit, or two, or 10 won’t be able to cope.
“We’ll need the community itself to join in this effort.”
‘The intention is clearly to scare people’
America Gruner has been an immigration advocate for nearly 40 years. She spent over a decade of that time as an undocumented immigrant. Now, Gruner leads CLILA, a Latino-serving nonprofit in North Georgia.
Dalton, the town in which CLILA is based, is over 50% Hispanic. But it’s far from a safe harbor. The local county sheriff is one of just five statewide who have signed collaboration agreements with ICE. A Georgia bill passed earlier this year aims to make that type of partnership, which deputizes local officers to enforce immigration law, more widespread across the state.
At the federal level, the Trump immigration agenda will likely have a staunch supporter in U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman who represents Dalton, and who has rallied voters by saying Trump will “start mass deportations on Day 1.”
“I feel like we’re being attacked at the federal level, the state level, and the local level,” Gruner told the AJC.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Last month, Gruner went live on Facebook to solemnly warn the community about what may be coming, in part by reminding them about past experiences with beefed-up enforcement, including several “years of panic” under Obama, “when our people didn’t even want to come out to the street corner, they didn’t even want to look out their window.”
During the first Trump administration, large scale deportations left many children in Dalton without their parents. Gruner recalled how, during one stretch, there were up to sixteen children looked after by volunteers from the community, who took turns taking the kids in, feeding them, and driving them to school.
“I’ll never forget that time,” she said. “I invite you to remember the history of all we’ve been through, and remember also that we have resisted, that we are resilient.”
Both Gruner in Dalton and Rodriguez in Savannah are encouraging parents who lack legal status to start making plans for their children’s care should they be detained and deported. They recommend parents start gathering all pertinent documentation and designate a trusted guardian to step in as needed.
“We don’t want [separations] to happen. Hopefully people won’t even have to use the plan they make. But it’s better to be prepared,” Rodriguez said.
The goal, she added, is to avoid having the children of immigrants, many of whom are U.S. citizens, wind up in state custody, because she said parents have had trouble in the past locating and communicating with their kids once they are in the system.
Rodriguez’s organization, Migrant Equity Southeast, plans on partnering with legal providers to host what she called “family preparedness clinics.”
In their post-election conversations with community members, immigrant advocates said they are also sharing know-your-rights information.
For example, they are letting people know that they aren’t obliged to open their doors should ICE agents come knocking without a warrant signed by a judge. They are also reminding immigrants of their right to remain silent, and advising them to refuse to sign any forms handed to them by ICE without a lawyer present. Immigrants are also not required to answer should police ask them questions about their immigration status.
Even before actual changes to immigration policy and enforcement materialize next year, advocates say that immigrant communities have already started facing problems. Amid the uncertainty and confusion preceding the change in administration, some are falling victim to scammers who pose as qualified immigration attorneys.
Advocates are also documenting more negative attitudes toward immigrants taking hold.
Last month, anti-immigrant flyers were found in a South Fulton park. “ICE will be checking this park for IDs very soon,” they read. Fraudulent text messages threatening Hispanic residents in metro Atlanta with deportation were also reported.
“The intention is clearly to scare people,” said Gigi Pedraza, executive director of the Atlanta-based Latino Community Fund. “I do think that it’s going to continue to be hostile, and it’s probably going to get worse.”
Credit: Courtesy of Gigi Pedraza
Credit: Courtesy of Gigi Pedraza
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