Dalton shaken after ICE arrests nearly 40 immigrants in late December raid

Federal law enforcement officials descended on the town of Dalton on Dec. 30 making approximately 40 immigration arrests, according to CLILA, an immigrant advocacy group.

The town is still reeling from the arrests with many workers and family members taken to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Atlanta and to the Stewart Detention Center, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“They did so much work here. They gave so much to this community,” Miguel Jacinto said during a CLILA livestream about his five employees that were detained. “It’s sad. I didn’t expect to start the new year this way.”

Jacinto said that all five of them agreed to be deported back to their home country of Guatemala, and Jacinto started a GoFundMe to help support their families.

Gilbardo Guerrero, a pastor in Dalton, told the AJC that people in Dalton are limiting their outings due to the raids.

“It was an overnight change, at the Walmart, in Mexican restaurants, the number of clients went down drastically,” he said.

Guerrero said he has been patrolling the streets of Dalton in the mornings to determine whether ICE agents have returned and informing residents.

However, some residents are not as sympathetic to the immigrant workers. Christian Hurd, a candidate to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene for District 14, posted an unforgiving video to Facebook two days after the raids.

“My message to the people who are scared and worried about this is you should’ve left when you had the chance. You no longer get to decide the time and the place at which you leave our nation,” he said. “You will be leaving.”