Photos: An Appeal to ICE in Atlanta, Georgia — Detain and Deport These Men

Unlike most crimes, the illegal presence of foreigners in America can be seen in broad daylight. Enforcement should therefore be easy. Apparently, it is not.

There are few large American cities without well-known areas where illegal immigrants congregate. Most Americans can drive by a Home Depot and spot Hispanic men loitering nearby.

That is certainly the case in Atlanta. There is a shopping center on Piedmont Avenue with a Home Depot where one short, swarthy men idle about.

They tend to be found on Adina Dr. NE, a minor road that bisects this commercial hub:

You can see Adina Dr. towards the right, separating the Target from the Post Office and the Dump Furniture Outlet.

I assumed they would not like being photographed by an unknown white guy, so I took these pictures surreptitiously from a distance.

After taking these pictures, I spoke to the men. In Spanish, I told them that I was a journalist hoping to ask them a few questions, and that they needn’t give me their names if they didn’t want to. Out of a group of about 20 men, five immediately told me they would not speak to me and walked away. The rest seemed surprised, and asked me what I wanted to know. As I began talking, another group of Hispanics from further up the street wandered down towards me yelling, “Labor! Labor! You need labor!?” in accented English. When I chuckled and explained what I was doing (again, in Spanish), they gave me a curious look and went back where they’d been standing.

I asked only a few questions, and got fairly uniform answers. Everyone was from Mexico except one man  from Guatemala. They stick to Adina Dr. because if they get too close to Home Depot or Target — or their parking lot — management shoos them away. The sidewalk on Adina is public. The most surprising answer I got was when I asked how long this block had been known for “day laborers.” They told me “a long time,” and when I pressed for something more specific, they said “20 years, at least.” The most disappointing answer was when I asked if ICE, local police, or la migra ever swept the area. None of them could recall this ever happening, and many of the guys said they had been coming to this block for years.

Part of what makes this surprising is that Georgia’s politicians have a decent record on enforcing immigration law. In 2006, when the national GOP  was pushing for a federal amnesty, Georgia’s Republic Governor Sonny Perdue (cousin to GA’s current senior senator, David Perdue) passed the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act. It was considered one of the toughest anti-immigration laws in the country, since it made contractors working for the state verify the legal status of all new workers, and required that immigration officials be notified when illegal immigrants were charged with a crime. Then in 2009, the same governor strengthened and expanded the law. In 2011, his successor, Nathan Deal defied mass protesters and threats of boycotts by mandating long prison sentences and stiff fines for using fake IDs to get hired (during his time in the Congress, Mr. Deal pushed to end birthright citizenship).

Georgia’s current Governor, Brian Kemp, outraged the Left during his 2018 campaign by running ads in which he joked about rounding up illegal immigrants himself:

After a narrow win against a radical black woman, Gov. Kemp has now been in office for a whole year, but apparently he has never driven down Adina Drive.

Atlanta is home to an ICE office, which can be reached at (404) 893-1210 or atlanta.outreach@ice.dhs.gov.

It’s time to ask agents to head over to Adina Dr. NE — between Morosgo Dr. NE and Sidney Marcus Blvd. NE — zip code 30324.

Even if politicians won’t act, maybe the heroes of ICE will.