Anti ICE protest met with force on Chamblee Tucker Road

On Saturday afternoon under a hot Atlanta sun, angry shouts rang out and smoke bombs and tear gas canisters skittered across the road, choking the air and the lungs of demonstrators on a major thoroughfare in Dekalb County.

It started in a similar way to the protest on Buford Highway just a few days earlier; hundreds of people waving flags and holding up signs lined up, squeezed along the sidewalk running between Chamblee Tucker Road, and the parking lot of Embry Village retail center. Cars and trucks honked their horns in support, the crowds cheered. It was the site of one of many protests in the metro area on Saturday.

“I know firsthand what it’s like to have ICE rip away a parent from me,” one of the protesters, Natalia, told 285 South. She said her father was deported to Mexico when she was three years old. “I’m here because I have family members who still, after years of being here, have not had the funds to start their process.”

Henry, a semi-retired Duluth resident, who immigrated from Korea 40 years ago, stood along the grass verge in the shade of a myrtle tree. When asked why he had come to the protest, his eyes welled with tears, and he was unable to speak for several moments. “What’s happening in America is sickening,” he finally managed to say. “I want to speak for all the country, for entire immigrants whether legal or illegal. You know, we have our own rights.”

His wife by his side, his voice choked. “It’s very upsetting. I cannot really express myself, how angry I am at what’s happened. 

He said it was the first protest he had ever joined. “I just don’t want to sit in the house to watch the news. I want to be there and be part of the voice.” Being there, he said, felt “wonderful.”

But after about 30 minutes the mood shifted. Dekalb County police officers came into the crowd to arrest a man for refusing to take off his medical face mask, and the crowd responded with shouts and chants. A few minutes later, they arrested another man who didn’t take off his balaclava. 

At about 1:30pm the protesters decided to march onto the street, towards I-285. They were met by police in dressed riot gear, carrying a variety of weapons, many of whom had been preparing near the Planet Fitness. After a brief standoff on the street, the protesters were ordered to disperse, there were some bangs, and smoke filled the air.

The protesters were pushed back, some trapped by smoke and tear gas in the Texaco gas station forecourt, where they had to jump over a spiked metal fence to escape the fumes. 

At least three more times, police fired what appeared to be tear gas canisters and advanced on the crowd, moving them into the Embry Village parking lot. More people were arrested, including local journalist Mario Guevara.

Before the confrontation, 285 South spoke to a Mexican man, who didn’t wish to be named. He said this was also his first protest, and that the recent ICE raids had made his parents afraid to leave their house. “They’re afraid to get out. They’re afraid to go to work. Everything. You know, it’s a mental state that’s being damaged.”

As a father of two he worries for his children, he said. “I’m working harder for them. I work in a restaurant. I have a nine-year-old and a two-year-old. I tried to explain to them they are US citizens, but their families can be taken apart at any moment.” Everyday, he told 285 South, “I feel like crying.”

In pauses throughout the afternoon, police took off their riot masks and poured water over their heads to cool down. Demonstrators tried to flush the irritants out of their eyes. As early evening approached, more arrests were made, with protesters led onto transport buses, their hands bound with zip ties.