Newsletter: November 12, 2025

Good morning, 285 South readers,

We hope you are staying warm, and that the weather doesn’t keep you from venturing out and and getting involved with different opportunities around the metro, like:

The Alif Institute’s tabla class on Tuesday, November 18, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. No experience is required, and you can bring your own tabla or borrow one. Register here, and check out the full list of events at Alif here (including a pumpkin kibbeh cooking class next week!).

Dropping off cold-weather gear for the nonprofit Ethaar and Roswell Community Masjid’s Winter Jacket Drive, to help refugee families stay warm during the winter. Contact Kinda at 678-818-2883 to arrange a drop-off. More information here.

And donating items like dried chilis, herbs, and cinnamon sticks for We Love Buford Highway’s Sugar and Spice Drive—these and other “flavors that make holiday meals meaningful” will be given to families who need them for holiday cooking. The nonprofit is collecting donations now through December 4. Here’s a list of drop-off locations.

Here’s what 285 South has been covering:

“I wanted to be what my community was missing”: Maria Villarreal seeks to be the therapist she needed as a child

When Maria Villarreal first tried to find therapy in Georgia, it felt almost impossible. “I would say I had about 11 therapists, and a lot of them were just not very understanding,” she said. Born in Mexico, Maria told 285 Souththat she experienced extreme poverty as a child, as well as the loss of family members and sexual and emotional abuse. At nine years old, she crossed the border with her mother and eventually resettled in Georgia. Some of the therapists she met with, she said, “after three sessions, would be like, I don’t think I can continue. This case is just too much.”

Those experiences inspired her to provide the kind of care she once looked for as a teenager. After completing a bachelor’s degree in studio art and psychology, she pursued a master’s in clinical mental health counseling from Agnes Scott College, with coursework focusing on minority communities, refugees, and immigrants. “I basically became a therapist because I wanted to be what my community was missing,” said Maria, who graduated with her degree earlier this year.

Read our Q&A with Maria, which includes tips on how to cope with fear and anxiety.

The first Muslim woman in the country to win statewide office has Georgia roots

In 1969, when Ghazala Hashmi moved to Statesboro, about an hour from Savannah, there was “nothing there,” said her mother, Tanveer: “There were very few grocery stores, and they had been closed at six o’clock. One or two stores for clothes and some other stuff.” At the time, Ghazala was four years old. Tanveer had brought her and her older brother from their native India to join Ghazala’s father, Zia Hashmi, who had moved to the U.S. a few years before and accepted a position as a political science professor at Georgia Southern University.

Now it’s Ghazala who’s got a new job: On November 4, she was elected Virginia’s lieutenant governor, making history as the first Muslim woman in the country to win a statewide election. Her election to the number two office comes amid a rise in prominence of Muslim candidates across the U.S.—not just in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani was overwhelmingly elected mayor, but also in states like Georgia, where in recent years four Muslim state lawmakers have been elected—among them Ruwa Romman, who’s now running for governor.

Last Tuesday, when the results of Ghazala’s race came in, the family’s old friends in Statesboro were among the first to reach out and congratulate Tanveer on her daughter’s win. “They were so happy,” she said. “They are very nice people.”

Learn more about Ghazala – pictured above with a trophy she won at the Optimist Club International Oratorical Contest in Atlanta in 1977 – and her Georgia connections here.

Stories we’re following:

Locally:

Sarah Park, a community leader whose family immigrated from South Korea to Gwinnett County when she was a teenager, won a “decisive victory” in her race for Duluth City Council. (Georgia Asian Times)

Meanwhile, Alex Wan—the first Asian American to serve on the Atlanta City Council—was reelected to a fourth term. (Georgia Asian Times)

As a popular site for day laborers looking for work, Atlanta-based Home Depot finds itself an epicenter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Advocates are demanding that the company—whose cofounder Bernie Marcus was a major Trump donor—take a stand. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

WABE’s Rose Scott spoke with Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis of Freedom University, which provides education to undocumented people, about how they’re navigating Trump’s immigration crackdown. (WABE)

Nationally:

Seeking places to put immigrant detainees awaiting deportation, the federal government is looking at purchasing warehouses—described by one official as potential “mega detention facilities”—originally built for retailers like Amazon. (NBC News)

In October, a man who had fallen into a “vegetative state” in ICE custody died after being deported back to Costa Rica. His family is now demanding answers. (Guardian)

A federal judge said the Trump administration can’t withhold transportation funding from states that don’t comply with its immigration policies. (Politico)

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, nearly a quarter of ICE arrests have taken place in Texas. (Texas Tribune)

Since 2011, nonprofit organizations have been on hand to register people to vote at the ceremonies where they become naturalized citizens. Now the Trump administration is banning such voter registration groups, and being sued for it. (Democracy Docket)

Before we go: They last only a moment, but the fall colors have been especially dazzling lately (the red beauty below, really took my breath away!). Leaves are at their peak in Georgia from late October to mid November, so open your eyes now before it’s too late. And check out Leaf Watch 2025 on the Georgia State Parks website, where you can share your photos of the beautiful foliage and see pictures others have posted.