Rep. Ruwa Romman speaks at the state Capitol Jan. 29 in opposition to ICE tactics. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota – and particularly the shooting death of a U.S. citizen by federal officers – shaped much of the conversation in Georgia’s Capitol this week.
Alex Pretti’s death inspired widespread protests over federal immigration policy, and discontent was exacerbated by statements from Trump administration officials painting the 37-year-old nurse as the aggressor in the fatal confrontation that day. Video from multiple angles contradicts those statements.
Lawmakers’ week began Tuesday with fiery floor speeches decrying the killing and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics and ended Thursday with a press conference outlining policy and advocacy efforts to push back against intensifying enforcement tactics.
“There are two realities right now for our country, where those of us that are expressing deep concern and outrage at the killings in Minnesota and what’s happening around both our state and the country, and then there are those that are telling us that we need to tone it down, we need to be quieter, we shouldn’t be talking about this,” said state Rep. Ruwa Romman.
Democrats call for reform
Romman, a Duluth Democrat and candidate for governor, said Georgia Democrats were invited to visit Minnesota with lawmakers from other states this week but hosted the press conference at the Capitol because the Legislature is in session and out of a desire to make a difference in Georgia.
Speakers stressed on Thursday that Georgia is among the states with the highest ICE arrest rates in the nation. Since January 2025, Georgia had the fourth highest number of ICE arrests at over 9,000, according to data from Immigration Enforcement Dashboard. Only Texas, Florida and California had more.
Democrats argued that problems with the agency are not limited to Minnesota.
State Rep. Eric Bell, a Jonesboro Democrat, called for justice in the case of 34-year-old Heber Sanchez Domínguez, who died Jan. 14 while in ICE custody in the Robert A. Deyton Detention Center in Clayton County.
According to ICE, Sanchez, a Mexican national, was found hanging by the neck in his sleeping quarters. He came into contact with immigration enforcement officers a week prior to his death after being arrested and charged with driving without a license.
“He was a man, he was a family member, was a father, a son, and so much more,” Bell said. “He deserved to be here. Herber deserved to be alive and not die behind concrete walls, barbed wire fences and hate.”
Snellville barber Rodney Taylor has become another immigration flashpoint in Georgia. Taylor, who is a double amputee and suffers from other medical conditions, was arrested by ICE last January, according to WABE.
Taylor was born in Liberia but came to the U.S. when he was two years old for a medical procedure.
When he was a teenager, Taylor pleaded guilty to felony burglary but was later pardoned by Georgia’s State Board of Pardons and Parole. He applied for citizenship over the years but was denied and remains in ICE custody.
Taylor’s wife, Mildred Pierre, told lawmakers at the Capitol that Taylor’s health has been worsening and he has developed new medical issues including neuropathy, bone spurs and uncontrolled high blood pressure.
“We are here today to demand legislative intervention, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now,” she said
Democrats have proposed a series of bills this session aimed at restricting immigration tactics they say have gotten out of hand, including requirements that immigration officers be unmasked and wear badges while conducting their duties and banning immigration raids from places like schools or places of worship.
Republicans call for calm while reviving immigration measures
Republican lawmakers are trying to move immigration legislation intended to make ICE’s job easier.
If Carrollton Sen. Timothy Bearden’s Senate Bill 116 becomes law, anyone charged with a felony or misdemeanor who also has been flagged by ICE as potentially subject to deportation would be subject to a DNA test. Under current law, only those convicted of – not just charged with – a felony are subject to receive a DNA test.
The bill passed a Senate committee Wednesday along party lines, with opponents questioning whether it would violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Another bill, House Bill 295, that could affect how ICE operates in Georgia passed a House committee on Wednesday. Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican who is running for Congress, aims to allow property owners to get compensation from local governments if they do not enforce state laws dealing with issues like homelessness – or cooperation with ICE.
Georgia’s GOP leaders who spoke up in the House and Senate this week called Pretti’s death a tragedy but also characterized the Democratic response as jumping the gun.
In a speech Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Jason Anavitarte, a Dallas Republican, said people should hold off judgement until a full inquiry is conducted.
“For people to come down to the well, to share your thoughts about the loss of life, I think it’s completely appropriate,” Anavitarte said, referring to the area where senators give speeches.
“And we should talk about Alex, but to come down here when you weren’t there, just because it was on social media, because it was on video, for whatever it is, until the facts come out that the public transparently sees with their own eyes and hears the entire story, I think it’s going a little bit too far,” he added.
Other Republicans, like Jackson Republican Clint Crowe said heated rhetoric criticizing law enforcement could lead to more violence. Crowe objected to people at protests comparing ICE agents to members of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police that helped carry out the Holocaust.
Crowe said the majority of immigration officials enforce the law at risk to themselves.
“We should respect them for that, we should honor them for that,” he said Tuesday on the House floor. “We should eradicate the ones that do it wrong, and we will do that, but that is the vast, vast, vast minority, and we don’t need to lump all of them together and paint everybody with a broad brush. And the hyperbolic rhetoric that we hear about what they’re doing and what kind of people they are is leading to dangerous situations that are leading to negative outcomes of people getting hurt.”
But Democrats believe they have a winning issue in opposing ICE – a YouGov poll conducted on the day of Pretti’s death found more Americans support abolishing ICE than oppose it – and they don’t seem likely to tone down the anti-ICE talk.
“We are not going to tone down our rhetoric,” said Grayson Democratic Sen. Nikki Merrit Thursday. “We are not going to be afraid because we are here to protect our communities and speak out against the injustice and the erosion of our democracy.”
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