Thousands Stage Immigration Rally Downtown

Thousands of immigration rights advocates packed downtown Atlanta Saturday morning, calling on the government to give amnesty to undocumented immigrants, and for the release of an area college student facing deportation.

By one estimate, there are nearly 400,000 undocumented immigrants living in Georgia. About half of them live in the metro Atlanta area.

Protestors held up signs and yelled, "Yes We Can," in Spanish.

They told Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik they fear Georgia lawmakers will propose legislation similar to a law just passed in Arizona, making it a misdemeanor to be undocumented. The new law also requires law enforcement to determine whether a person is here legally.

Organizers also called for the repeal of the 287G program, which gives local authorities the power to enforce immigration laws when they arrest illegial aliens.

ALIPAC Response To Immigration Rally

They pointed to the case of Jessica Colotl, a 21-year-old Kennesaw State student facing deportation after Kennesaw State University Police arrested her for driving without a license.

Colotl moved to the United States when she was 10.

Petchenik talked to one man at the rally who wants the borders closed.

D.A. King heads up the Dustin Inman Society, a local organization that opposes a repeat of the 1986 amnesty for illegal immigrants.

King told us the protesters were "un-American," and that the government needs to secure the borders.

King said it wouldn't be long before a Georgia lawmaker floated a bill like the one that recently passed in Arizona.