Editor’s Note: The following newsletter was originally published by 285 South on June 10th, 2025.
The narrow sidewalk in front of Buford Highway’s Pollo Campero was packed with hundreds of people on Tuesday night. They spilled onto the grassy verge, and into the parking lot, many carrying flags and signs. When cars passing along the seven lanes in front of them honked their horns, the crowd responded with cheers.
A thunderstorm had rolled through earlier and the smell of rain was still in the air.
The deep line of protesters, there to show solidarity with immigrants and to protest ICE arrests, raids, detentions, and deportations, stretched out from Briarwood Road all the way to the Marathon gas station.
Across from them, on the other side of the highway, dozens of residents including people living in the nearby apartment complexes, watched, many with their phones out, recording the rally.
Police officers roamed around, occasionally reminding protestors to stay off the road.
Sarah, a Duluth resident who grew up in the Sugar Hill area, got to the rally almost an hour early. It was the first protest she’d ever been to, she told 285 South, as she crossed the highway and joined the protestors on the Pollo Camperon side.
“I saw what happened in LA. I got upset with it. I couldn’t contain myself. And I’m just, I’m very angry. I’m very upset and sad about the whole thing. I don’t know what else to do. You know? I feel like this country is not the same anymore.”
The demonstration was one of several that have sparked across the country.
In Los Angeles, protests have been ongoing since Friday after it emerged that ICE had been carrying out raids in neighborhoods with large Latino populations. Protesters have clashed with local and federal officers there, and dozens have been arrested. President Trump has deployed the National guard and US Marines, which local officials have claimed is further fueling tensions.
In recent days protests have sprung up in Houston and San Antonio, as well as in Chicago and New York.
Evelyn, a child of immigrants from Mexico, stood on the sidewalk, as the crowd started to grow. She apologized to 285 South for tearing up as she spoke. “Sorry, I get emotional when I talk about this,” she said, her voice shaking. Her grandmother migrated to the U.S. with her mother, who was a baby at the time, from the state of Guerrero in Mexico. After 30 years living without documents, she said her mom finally got legal residency documents last year. Now, she said, “I want to use my voice, you know, to help my parents, because when I was younger, I couldn’t really do much, but now that I’m an adult, I know my rights. I know what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s my American right to protest.”
As more people gathered throughout the evening, an elderly gentleman pushed his ice cream cart through the protest. Ortega moved to the U.S. from Mexico 18 years ago. He’s been selling ice cream for the last 15 years. As he looked on at the protestors, he said, in Spanish. “El pueblo va a arreglar poco a poquito.” The village will fix this, little by little.
While people gathered to listen to speeches, a man named Guillermo stood at the far end of the sidewalk, nearer to the gas station. He said he and his family came here illegally; his mom worked two jobs – at KFC and at overnight warehouses- just to get by. “A lot of people don’t know how hard it is now. We’re citizens, after years, we’re citizens, but it’s just a hardship.” He told 285 South he has friends from all different backgrounds – Indian, Pakistani, Ethiopian,Vietnamese. That was the point of America, he said. “My view of why America was made was everybody under one nation, under God, not under Trump. The pledge of allegiance says under God. So we are all brothers and sisters. We all come from one place.” His shirt, said as much.
Across the road, outside a low income apartment building, a young woman who was a resident of one of the apartments, watched the scene in front of her. Her two small children wandered back to the apartments, and then back to her. She came here by foot with her older son, who was three years old at the time, from Guatemala around five years ago. At one point, not long after she arrived, ICE agents entered her apartment. They arrested and deported a man who was living with them, she said. She was spared. She still doesn’t have documents, but she goes about her day, walking to the shops, going to church. She told 285 South if she was meant to be deported to Guatemala, so be it, and if she’s meant to stay here, she will. It was God’s will, she said. “No tengo miedo. I’m not scared.
As the rally stretched into the evening, and the sun began to go down, the police presence increased. After most of the protesters had left, some fireworks were thrown, and officers dressed in riot gear moved in to disperse the remaining crowd using smoke bombs. Video on social media platforms showed at least two police cars being vandalized. Around six people were reportedly taken into custody.
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