More than 50 Hispanic immigrants gather to leave state

June 27, 2011
Tracy Coley Ingram and Frank Sayles Jr. CNHI

— Georgia’s pending law on illegal immigration is apparently forcing some Hispanic immigrants to flee the state.

Early Monday, more than 50 Hispanic men, women and children, including babies, were gathered outside a Mexican grocery on 12th Street waiting for a bus to take them back to Mexico before the law takes effect, some of them said.

Scores of suitcases, backpacks, boxes and coolers were stacked up outside Torres Mexican Grocery at 314 W. 12th St.

One of the men waiting, who declined to give his name, said most of the Hispanics gathered outside the store did not have proper residency documentation and so were going to Mexico. When interviewed shortly after 8:30 a.m. Monday, he claimed the group had been awaiting the bus since before 11 p.m. the night before.

As Gazette Publisher Frank Sayles Jr. was taking photographs of the scene in the parking lot, a man who claimed to be the store’s owner approached and shoved Sayles, demanding he leave. Roberto Torres is listed as the store’s owner.

When the owner was asked about the bus and what was going on in front of his store, he replied, “I don’t know; I don’t know.â€