Activists blocked traffic in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to end U.S. President Barack Obama’s deportation relief programs that helped some undocumented immigrants avoid being forcibly removed from the country, Fusion reported.
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Around 50 protesters—who also demanded that Obama end his mass deportation policies—blocked an intersection and marched towards Atlanta’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlanta ICE office is responsible for the most arrests during recent immigration sweeps than any other office in the country.
Several activists, upon arriving near the ICE offices, chained themselves to ladders. Four activists were reportedly arrested.
Immigrant right activists have fiercely criticized Obama for the dramatic expansion of deportations under his watch. Since taking office, his administration has removed more than 2 million immigrants from the United States.
Monday’s protests were organized by Not1More, a coalition of groups including the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Atlanta Jobs with Justice, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“We are defending the security and stability of our families, sending a direct message to the Obama Administration. We know that he has the ability to stop deportations at any given time. Our fight will not stop. The only thing that we will stop is the sinister machine that is the deportation machine created by this administration,” protester and Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights member Carlos Medina said in a statement.
A similar protest also shut down traffic Monday in Hartford, Connecticut, after activists held up a long banner calling for an end to mass deportations.
Obama, despite his unfettered mass deportation policies, reportedly expressed frustration at the lack of legislative progress to address the country’s immigration challenges.
“Leaving the broken system the way it is, that’s not a solution,” Obama said recently. “Sooner or later, immigration reform will get done. Congress is not going to be able to ignore America forever.”