Dozens of Atlantans protested outside the state capitol Thursday evening in response to Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to mobilize the state’s National Guard in support of President Donald Trump’s federal immigration crackdown.
According to the governor’s order, shared with Capital B Atlanta via email earlier this week, approximately 75 Georgia National Guard soldiers and airmen will begin assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials with administrative and logistical tasks by mid-September once they have completed training.
The protest’s organizers — The Party for Socialism and Liberation, ICE Breakers, Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America, and Immigrant Rights Alliance — are demanding Kemp reverse his order, which they describe as an attempt to impose a police state.
“This is a political move designed to intimidate dissent, suppress the movement for racial justice, and carry out the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda,” Angel Cordova with the Party for Socialism and Liberation said in an email to the media.
“The people of Georgia will not accept the occupation of our communities or the collaboration between the National Guard and ICE,” Cordova continued.
Kemp has previously ordered the National Guard to be ready to intervene in Atlanta during protests for the Black Lives Matter and Stop Cop City movements, as well as to distribute aid and clear roads during natural disasters like Hurricane Helene.
While National Guard troops haven’t been authorized to patrol streets or make arrests like in Washington, D.C., activists are concerned this order could be a step in that direction.
“Kemp’s decision to deploy Georgia National Guard soldiers to respond to a manufactured crisis is a reckless abuse of state resources and a transparent ploy to win favor with Donald Trump and his MAGA base,” Charlie Bailey, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement to media earlier this week.
In his statement announcing the move, Kemp said he supports the current administration’s ongoing efforts to secure the border.
This isn’t the first time Kemp has gotten state agencies and officials involved in federal immigration enforcement activities. Last year, he signed the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act, which requires local law enforcement agencies to coordinate with ICE and train officers in how to identify and detain undocumented people.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE reported that they have arrested 4,500 undocumented people in Georgia since Trump’s inauguration, representing a 367% increase compared to the same period under the Biden administration.
Based on recently released federal data, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that ICE’s Atlanta field office — which covers Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina — had the fifth-highest number of arrests between January and July of this year.
Earlier this summer, ICE awarded the GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison corporation, a nearly $50 million contract to expand the Folkston ICE Processing Center from 1,100 beds to almost 3,000.
The plans would make the small south Georgia city home to the largest ICE detention facility in the country.
