The Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition has a message for the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “Whatever you do here in Athens, we are watching.”
The coalition has formed a “rapid response team” to “mobilize to observe and document the activities of immigration enforcement and support the people who are targeted,” according to Alys Willman, a local activist who works with immigrant groups, among other causes.
The team was formed in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, with the president promising mass arrests and deportations. “Our community here in Athens is under threat,” Willman said. “Our neighbors are under threat.”
The rapid response team has almost 100 members, Willman said at a City Hall news conference last week, divided into three groups: First responders “have proximity to the immigrant community” and find out when ICE strikes; legal observers wear yellow vests and “are trained in documentation and observing what’s going on and ensuring rights are respected;” and “agitators… are there to support the people being targeted.”
The AIRC also sends canvassers out into immigrant communities to educate residents about their rights. As Beto Mendoza, cofounder of Immigrante Dignidad en Athens, put it: “When you say, ‘Show me your papers,’ we say, ‘Show me the warrant.’” And the warrant should be signed by a judge, not an administrative warrant issued by ICE itself that does not carry the same force of law.
While no mass raids have taken place in Athens lately, there have been scattered reports of ICE taking people away. Local law enforcement officials have said that ICE does not inform them of their activities, and police and jail deputies do not cooperate with ICE except to the extent required by law. However, under new state and federal laws like the Laken Riley Act, even such low-level crimes as shoplifting or driving without a license can get people reported to ICE and potentially deported.
In addition, the Trump administration has lifted longstanding rules against ICE entering schools and churches. The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens is involved in a lawsuit against the new policy allowing church raids, which resulted in a stay order temporarily barring it from going into effect. Minister Pippin Whitaker said that some members of her congregation are afraid to attend services as a result of what she termed Trump’s “executive disorder.”
“One thing the lawsuit shows is that if we stand up, if we fight for the laws of the land, it works,” Whitaker said.
In addition to the rapid response team, a group called Support for Immigrants in Crisis provides financial assistance for families left behind. “When someone in your household is detained, it’s a huge burden,” Willman said.
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