Alan Mauldin wrote for the Moultrie Observer 29 June 2011, Stay-at-home protest: Latinos hope to show their impact:

Colquitt County’s Latino community is gearing up to make its presence known by, well, disappearing, at least as much as possible for the largest minority group.

On Friday, the day a strict new immigration law takes effect, many will stay home from work and refrain from shopping to help make others aware of the impact of their contributions in the county.

It’s not just workers participating:

With many farmers on board with the Friday boycott, Garza said that many people have been encouraged to participate in the boycott and attend the rally.

Colquitt County vegetable grower Kenny Bennett, who sponsored one of the buses making the trip on Saturday, said that Hispanics have a large base of support among farmers for the boycott even though it will cost them money from the loss of labor that day.

“We’re backing it 100 percent,” he said. “I wish they’d do it national. The average person does not realize how important the Hispanics are. Everything they eat all over this country is put up by them. The general public doesn’t know how important they are.”

Without migrant labor, Bennett said that American fruit and vegetable production would shift to countries south of the U.S. border and prices would jump significantly. Those countries also allow the use of pesticides banned here.

The bottom line:

“They pay taxes,” he said. “They pay Social Security, they pay income taxes. When they pay Social Security they don’t get that back, we use that money and go to war with it. It’s free money.

“If you deport these people, you need to pull the Statue of Liberty out of the water. This country was built on immigrants. It just makes my blood boil.”

We don’t need to contribute to the incarceration machine by building a private prison in Lowndes County. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

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