Lights For Liberty Immigrant Rally Set For Brookhaven Friday

BROOKHAVEN, GA — Ahead of much-rumored federal immigration raids that could begin Sunday, an immigrant rally was scheduled for Friday night at Brookhaven's Plaza Fiesta shopping center on Buford Highway. The 7 pm rally is one of several hundred nationwide under the banner of Lights for Liberty, and this metro Atlanta rally is being organized by a group called the New Sanctuary Movement of Atlanta, among others.

The vigils Friday night come days before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are expected to begin raids in at least 10 major cities, including Atlanta, targeting thousands of immigrants who have been ordered to be deported, according to The New York Times. Agents will also sweep up other immigrants who are present for the arrests even if they are not among the targets, according to the Times.

President Donald Trump first announced the raids with a June 17 Twitter post, saying authorities would start removing "millions of illegal aliens." But he said days later that the operation had been delayed to give Congress a chance to address problems at the southern U.S. border.

On Friday, he confirmed to reporters at the White House that ICE would be conducting a sweep this weekend to pick up people who had outstanding deportation orders. "It's a major operation," Trump said, according to ABC News. He said the agents would be "focused on criminals...before we do anything else" and said undocumented immigrants would be returned to their countries or jailed.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke out Thursday morning in Washington against the rumored raids. "Families belong together," she said. "Every person in America has rights."

Last year, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed an executive order to prevent ICE from housing any detainees at the city jail. The Atlanta Board of Education has also posted a message on its website, urging people to know their rights should immigration authorities attempt to arrest them.

Some ICE agents worry the raids will not be as effective because many immigrants have learned not to open the door when authorities come to their homes and to escape arrest in other ways, the New York Times reported.

The planned raids have reportedly been controversial even within the Trump administration. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan urged ICE to call it off early last month because he worried about separating immigrant parents from their U.S. citizen children, the Times reported. But Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan pushed Trump to go ahead with it, according to the paper.