President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act cuts about $930 billion dollars in Medicaid. It sets aside around $150 billion for his mass deportation plan, four times more money annually than the current budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, according to the Associated Press.
Veronica Martinez is a local DeKalb teacher and immigrant rights activist. She and other volunteers are holding guardianship workshops for families who fear being a target of ICE. A parent can fill out the form necessary to designate a person to be responsible for their children temporarily in the event they are arrested by immigration officials.
She said at the last session in June, it was mostly fathers who showed up instead of mothers.
“They're like taking turns leaving the house now,” she said, “and if anybody's going to risk being taken it's going to be the men. It was shocking, to be quite honest.”
She said about 40 forms were filled out and another 30 were picked up to be filled out later.
Martinez said DeKalb residents have formed a rapid response team to verify and alert the community of reported immigration arrests. She said their efforts are about protecting their neighbors.
“They're simply hard-working residents of our community,” she said. “They pay into our community, they work in our community, and they're being ripped away.”
Martinez said there’s been at least four verified ICE arrests in DeKalb County, including a construction worker for a local roofing company.
