Community comes together for peaceful protest supporting immigrants

WARNER ROBINS – The community came together for a “We Stand Together” protest on Saturday, Feb. 8 in Warner Robins against mass deportations and in support of immigrants.

American flags, Mexican flags, Honduran flags and Guatemalan flags waved in front of Sabor Latino, a local Venezuelan restaurant. Attendees made signs showing their support and raised their voices on an ongoing issue nationwide. Overall, the crowd showed their pride fearlessly. 

Organizer Stephanie Hernandez said she saw a similar protest in Warner Robins on Sunday, Feb. 2. She saw the motivation to protest but also fear due to mass deportations. She made a post on Facebook showing her intent to protest and asked who would want to join. From there, the post was shared numerous times, which shocked Hernandez. 

“I know a lot of people want to be there, but it’s the Hispanic community, so a lot of people are scared. I want to do this the right way so that way they’re able to come out here and not be scared,” she said.

Being her first time organizing a protest, Hernandez contacted Assistant Chief of Police Todd Edwards, who helped her throughout the process. Originally, the protest was going to start at Walmart on Watson Boulevard, with a peaceful march to the Galleria Mall. However, Walmart, along with other businesses, denied permission, she said.

The day before the protest, Hernandez called Sabor Latino to ask for permission and they welcomed her with open arms. WRPD was also present at the protest to ensure rights were protected.

According to the Associated Press, President Donald Trump signed multiple executive orders during the first week of his presidency, one initiating mass deportations. This caused many afraid to leave their homes.

Hernandez shared her father was deported when she was 14, and she understands the fear many families are going through right now. She was born in Vienna and raised in Warner Robins, while her parents migrated from Central America.

Hernandez noticed there weren’t as many Hispanics out in stores while she was shopping at Walmart. She also noticed people staring at her differently, which she didn’t experience before.

“At the end of the day, we’re all Americans. We all can be here no matter where we come from. We are our only community,” she said.

Hernandez has seen nationwide protest. She said Warner Robins has a sizable Hispanic community and there has been a lot of fear. She shared a lot of parents are afraid to send their children to school, people are afraid to go to work and that is something they should not be scared to do.

“People have to go support their families, but they’re scared. People don’t know that fear; sometimes they don’t know the empathy to feel with others,” she said.

Hernandez shared she understands the belief of people immigrating the “legal way.” However, she said financial matters make the process difficult and time consuming for immigrants, lasting up to years.

“Hopefully we’re able to all gather and speak up with everybody [and] stand together. I don’t want just the Hispanic community. I want all of us to be able to come out here,” she said.

Hernandez did not expect much community support and anticipated a few participants. She said people started to text her to offer help and it made her emotional to see the community’s response.

“I thought it was just going to be 10 to 15 people, to a lot of people letting me know, ‘We’re here for you. We’ll be there for you just let us know whatever you need.’ Hopefully, people like the Hispanic community know we’re out there for them and we’re still out there for them. We’ll stand there for them, we’ll speak up for them whether they’re too scared to come here,” she said.

Hernandez wants the community to stand together and believes everyone living in the United States is American. She said everyone is a community; they’re all neighbors and everyone should be treated the same.

Naomi Glodowski was one of many attendees at the protest. She shared her family migrated from Mexico in the late 1920s and she has friends who are receiving a visa or a green card.

She said it hits home for her because her family came to the United States and flourished. She shared they worked in the field their whole lives and worked enough to put Glodowski’s mother and her siblings through school. Now, Glodowski is a mother of two daughters.

“It just really hits close to home, and it pisses me off about what the government is doing because it’s disgusting,” she said.

Glodowski said it is important to raise awareness on the issue because she believes America won’t be a united country until it starts accepting and loving everyone for who they are. She believes immigrants built the country and no one has a birthright here except the Native Americans. 

She said she loved seeing the crowd supporting each other and hopes the protest will create a domino effect, sending a message that her community refuses to be a government doormat.

“That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about our culture is that if you piss one off all of us are going to come together. It’s a prideful heritage and it’s beautiful to me to see so many people coming out in solidarity and just fighting,” she said.

Glodowski is from Columbus and drove to Warner Robins to attend the protest. She is a part of an organization called Middle Georgia for Choice, which was established in Macon after the overturning of Roe V. Wade. She believes people need to realize, regardless of who they voted for, both parties are always going to be about the politicians and themselves; not the people.

Katherine Contreras-Jara and Alexis Flores also attended the protest. Both come from Mexican families and shared they attended the protest to support their people. Contreras-Jara said their parents are here legally, but they recognize there are people who don’t have that privilege.

She shared they believe it’s important to raise awareness because they believe immigrants are the backbone of the United States. Contreras-Jara said immigrants do jobs others don’t want to do and crossing the border is not easy.

“It’s a sacrifice and I feel like everybody deserves a chance to be here,” she said.

Flores said it was great seeing multiple cultures, ages and backgrounds coming together to support immigrants.

“It really speaks as a whole what this country really is. It’s not just about hate, it’s about coming together and standing up for what we all believe in,” Flores said.

Contreras-Jara and Flores wants the community to know they are there to support them regardless of if they are Mexican, Latin American, Central American, Black or white.

“At the end of the day we all have one another and it’s all about love,” Contreras-Jara said.

View more photos of the protest below.