Last night, a crowd of protestors organized outside of Plaza Fiesta on Buford Highway to protest changes in immigration policy.  Beyond the protest, March 3 was called a “Day Without Immigrants” by many protestors nationally, intended to emphasize immigrants’ contributions to the economy. 

“It’s important for people to recognize the role that immigrants play in this country,” Tasfia Jahangir, the protest’s media liaison, said. “That’s why we’re having this rally today. It’s actually called A Day Without Immigrants, so no shopping, no school and no work, essentially to bring attention to what the United States would look like if immigrants were not contributing to our society.” 

Jahangir said she believes that immigrants support the U.S. economy, and deportations are harming immigrant communities..

“We believe that immigrants and all working class people make this country run, not Trump or Musk or the billionaires that are organizing this campaign of mass deportations to terrorize working class immigrants,” Jahangir said.

The protest was held at Plaza Fiesta, a central meeting place along Buford Highway, in an effort to make the protesters visible to passing cars. Security personnel at Plaza Fiesta didn’t allow protesters to use their property and required everyone to stay on the public land by the road. Alan Martinez, an organizer of the protest, was frustrated that the Plaza Fiesta wasn’t supportive.

“It’s a shame that Plaza Fiesta, which is supported by our immigrant communities, isn’t allowing us to do our protests on their property,” Martinez said. “We’re having to do it on public property. And even still, they’re trying to intimidate us with their presence.”

Security refused to comment, but Martinez said their resistance didn’t detract from the protest’s success.

“We know that when you are protesting for a righteous cause, there will always be detractors and people who are not happy with that, mainly the state, mainly the police,” Martinez said. “So this is expected and it has not affected our energy levels at all.”

RIGHTS MATTER: Li Ann Sanchez spoke at the protest and said that deportations of immigrants need to stop. “This is a strip of the immigrants,” Sanchez said. “This beautiful highway is three counties, we are here because we want to say ‘stop deportation.'” (Audrey Lyons)

Protester Raphael Bautista’s parents are immigrants and he said he knows personally the fear of ICE. 

“I know what it [feels like] to have the fear of ICE ever knocking at my parents’ door or ICE ever stopping my parents,” Bautista said. “I have always had that fear, so I know that I can use my voice to fight, not only for my parents, but for all the immigrants that can’t.”

Bautista said they are important, not only to Atlanta, but to the U.S. as a whole. 

“I grew up with a big community of immigrants, and a lot of my friends are immigrants or have immigrant parents,” Bautista said. “I know that we play a big role. We’re not just the people Trump’s claims that we are. There are a lot of immigrants, and not only in Atlanta, but all over the United States, that are hard workers. We pay our taxes, we do so much.”

Li Ann Sanchez, who lived on Buford Highway after immigrating to America, said that mass deportation and targeting of marginalized groups needs to end. 

“Stop deportation,” Sanchez said. “Stop prosecuting. Stop prosecuting immigrants, immigrant communities. Stop prosecuting [people] for being trans, for being indigenous, or for being a woman, we don’t want this administration to target us.”

Since the Trump administration removed barriers for ICE agents, public and private detention centers have opened to house immigrants. Sanchez was detained after coming to the U.S. for a better life.

“I came here to the United States looking for protection and safety and when they arrested me I went to immigration jail for one year, so I know firsthand what suffering people experience who’ve been under the same immigration custody.”

Immigrants make up 30% of the Atlanta construction workforce, and 47% of painters in Georgia. 

“They’re actually the main core of the Atlanta community,” Jawahir Kamil, an activist, said. “They are hardworking people. They work in factories, they work in cafes, they work in restaurants, they work everywhere. The first day when Trump signed his executive order, a lot of immigrants didn’t show up to work, not because they were undocumented, but because they were scared.”

Martinez views Trump’s deportation policies as a direct attack on the safety of immigrant communities.

“They say that he wants to deport all of the undocumented immigrants,” Martinez said. “There’s 10,000,000 of us. That’s a call for violence against our community, because you cannot deport 10,000,000 people peacefully, and so bringing that violence into schools and hospitals and churches is a disgusting tactic, and it just goes to show that they have no respect for any of these places that they claim to have respect for.”

Martinez said that as an undocumented person, he has felt abandoned by the Democratic and Republican Parties and found support in the Party for Socialism and Libertarianism.

“Kamala wasn’t defending immigrants,” Martinez said. “She was trying to actually say that she would be tougher on immigrants than Trump would. That was her campaign message. And so these communities felt alone, but we’re here to let them know that ‘we have your back, and we want to let you know what your rights are and we don’t want you to feel like you’re alone.’ I, myself, am a member of that community. I’m undocumented, and I feel the support of the PSL, and I want to extend that support to my other community members.”

HIGHWAY PROTEST: Near an entrance to Plaza Fiesta, protesters lined the highway, screaming chants and holding signs for passing cars to see. (Fairlie Mercer)

The same organizers, alongside community members, coordinated a previous pro-immigration protest at Plaza Fiesta on Feb. 1, where hundreds of protesters participated, resulting in part of Buford Highway being shut down. While the March 3 protest was smaller, it fought for the same cause. 

“Our immigrant rallies have gained a lot of momentum,” Jahangir said. “We have held protests, actually right here in Buford Highway since January. [On] Feb. 1st  we had a Buford Highway rally, and the turnout was incredible. It was 4,000 people that showed up to support.”

Kamil said that Palestinans support immigrants and their fight for freedom and equality. 

“As a Palestinian, we [stand] in solidarity with the immigrants because everybody has the right to live by their color, their gender, their religion, their belief,” Kamil said. “They have the right to live the way they want to live, free. So our right, our main right, is to protest freedom. Immigrants are no different than me. I’m no different than an immigrant is like a human being.”

The PSL website has a resource named “Don’t Open for ICE” which lists in both English and Spanish peoples’ rights if ICE arrives at their doorstep. Beyond that, they have hosted weekly town halls in different communities around Atlanta to teach immigrants about their rights.

“In addition to protests, we’ve also launched Know Your Rights mass education campaigns, so that immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, are aware of their rights,” Jahangir said. “And so they’re not fooled by ICE agents, and they can make kind of informed decisions should an ice agent kind of arrive at their doorstep.”