Defenders of Our Freedoms Defend Georgia Town!

In a previous story, we showed you the tragic cost of illegal immigration: not knowing who is living in the trailer next door in your small town in Georgia. Now the residents of another small Georgian town know exactly what happens when illegal immigrant raids are successfully completed. The residents now have their streets, businesses and trailers back. God Bless America! Last month, the federal government reported that Georgia had the fastest-growing illegal immigrant population in the country. The number more than doubled from an estimated 220,000 in 2000 to 470,000 last year. This year, state lawmakers passed some of the nation's toughest measures targeting illegal immigrants, and Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue last week vowed a statewide crackdown on document fraud. Other than the Crider plant, there isn't much in Stillmore. Four small stores, a coin laundry and a Baptist church share downtown with City Hall, the fire department and a post office. "We're poor but proud," Mayor Marilyn Slater said, as if that is the town motto. The 2000 Census put Stillmore's population at 730, but Slater said uncounted immigrants probably made it more than 1,000. Not anymore, with so many homes abandoned and the streets practically empty. "This reminds me of what I read about Nazi Germany, the Gestapo coming in and yanking people up," Slater said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi would not discuss details of the raids. "We can't lose sight of the fact that these people were here illegally," Raimondi said.