Latino Immigrants in Atlanta Terrified by Immigration Raids and Street Arrests
Protests in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 10, 2025. X/ @bluestein
June 11, 2025 Hour: 11:37 am
Immigration officers are conducting joint operations with the Georgia State Patrol, intercepting vans carrying workers.
Latino immigrants in Atlanta, Georgia, are terrified by massive raids at construction supply stores and arrests on public streets, which have already sparked the first local protests following those that began last Friday in Los Angeles.
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Immigration officers are conducting joint operations with the Georgia State Patrol, intercepting vans carrying workers in Hispanic neighborhoods, including the Buford Highway area, which is considered the heart of Atlanta’s Latino community.
Steven Schrank, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Atlanta, warned that these types of operations will not only continue but will intensify. He said more than a hundred migrants are being arrested each day in Georgia. Meanwhile, the protests taking place in Los Angeles against immigration raids have spread to Atlanta, with the latest ending in several arrests.
What began Tuesday as a peaceful demonstration on Buford Highway turned violent when a group began throwing fireworks and rocks at police, damaging three patrol cars and leading to at least six arrests.
Fear Amid the Storm
Immigration operations around home improvement stores and other businesses in the Atlanta metro area are spreading fear among Hispanic workers, many of whom are choosing to stay indoors while they weather the storm triggered by President Donald Trump.
In recent weeks, only a few Latino day laborers have dared to seek work in the parking lots of Home Depot stores after hooded federal agents raided several locations and arrested most of those gathered there.
“No one comes anymore. There’s a lot of fear,” said Romero, a Guatemalan immigrant waiting for work outside a Home Depot in Atlanta—a spot where nearly 50 Mexican and Central American day laborers used to gather daily.
Now Romero is only accompanied by Marcos, a Nicaraguan, as the rest of the workers fear that ICE or HSI agents—who have been frequenting predominantly Hispanic areas of Atlanta like Doraville and Norcross—could show up at any moment.
“Before, over 30 of us would come here. Now it’s just two of us. Occasionally, a new day laborer shows up. And there’s no work,” said Romero, who has lived in the United States for 20 years and says he has avoided ICE by “staying out of trouble.”
At a nearby gas station, another group of day laborers kept a nervous watch on their surroundings and also expressed fear about what is happening in Atlanta and other cities across the country, where they say migrants are being cornered by the Trump administration.
Like weathering a storm, the migrants said they are just trying to “ride out the hurricane” unleashed by the president. They wait there in hopes someone will offer them work despite their fear, as they have no other option—they need to support their families.
They Are Not Criminals
Federal agent operations around Home Depot stores and other Atlanta businesses are not common, so the recent series of raids has shocked the broader Latino community—especially since many of those arrested have no criminal record and because local police have, in some way, been involved.
In one case, in South Fulton, a city west of metro Atlanta, local authorities confirmed that their officers were present because it was a public safety operation responding to complaints from residents and businesses. However, they acknowledged that nearly all the arrested individuals—apparently day laborers—were taken by HSI “on federal charges.”
Agents have also been showing up at other immigrant-owned businesses, such as grocery stores and salons. One such incident occurred at a nail salon in Marietta, a city northwest of Atlanta, where a dozen workers were reportedly arrested for being undocumented.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
