Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice
Chants of “Abolish Ice”, hey, hey, ho, ho, HB 1105 has got to go”, and “Everywhere we go/people want to know/who we are/so we tell them/we are the immigrants/the mighty, mighty immigrants” rang out just steps from the Georgia State Capitol on Wednesday morning. A protest in opposition to House Bill 1105, the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024, took place at Liberty Plaza with dozens of people in attendance.
The signs that people were holding read “We are all Georgians”, “Decriminalize Migration”, “We are not Scapegoats”, “No racial profiling, veto HB 1105”. In a spring of pro-Palestine/Anti-Israel protests taking place on college campuses across the country, including at Emory University, HB 1105 took its turning being a focal point of public outrage and opposition.
“We are here to show our opposition against this anti-immigrant legislation,” said Dalia Perez, a communication associate with Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR).
Wednesday began three days of action for GLAHR that will include a walk to the Governor’s mansion, according to Perez.
A number of speakers took the microphone during the protest, including Jennifer Lopez, a representative with GLAHR, who said she remembered being across the street outside the capitol as a young girl, protesting anti-immigration legislation alongside her parents.
“Here I am at the age of 25 saying not one more deportation,” she said. “The immigrant community has been the target for anti-immigration legislation for years. We have been in this fight before and here we are again. Not one more day, hour, or second will we spend being scapegoats.”
Other organizations attended the protest in support, including Friends of The Congo, Women Watch Africa, and Atlanta-based non-profit Project South. A number of students that have been involved with protest on the University of Georgia’s campus also took time to speak to the crowd. All were there to show community-wide disagreement with a bill that might be signed into Georgia law within days, says Project South Staff Attorney Priyanka Bhatt.
“We are here to ask Governor Kemp to veto HB 1105. It’s an extremely harmful bill,” Bhatt said. “Our community is going to continue fighting. This is not the end.”