DALTON -- Protesters gathered Saturday along Thornton Avenue to raise awareness about family separations, mass detentions and what they see as the Trump administration's assault on health care, food assistance, and working families.
"This isn't just about politics or even just about Latinos" said Armida Vicente, who organized the protest. "They're coming after low-income families. They're cutting Medicaid that children need. This is today's America. We don't care who you voted for. If you love America, then you should care about what America is supposed to stand for."
Despite the heat under the midday sun, about two dozen people gathered carrying signs that said "immigrants aren't criminals, the president is" and "obey the courts," among others. Organizers chose the location for its proximity to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's field office. Greene, R-Rome, represents Dalton and is a close ally of President Donald Trump. Some cars honked their horns in support as they drove past the group.
"If we don't stand up for immigrants, it's gonna go down the line," said Denise Parrent, a health care worker who said she didn't get politically active until this year. "Next it will be women, Black Americans, anything that isn't white supremacy."
Heather Cooley, a bystander who said she's a Republican and supports Trump, said she was confused by the protest.
"If you don't like Trump, go somewhere else," she said, adding that she feels like unauthorized immigrants in Dalton get more benefits than she does.
Dalton is a carpet manufacturing hub and has drawn large numbers of Latino immigrants in recent decades to the industry's many labor-intensive jobs.
Dalton's population is 53.3% Hispanic, according to U.S. census data.
Organizers said the protest was also an opportunity to spotlight and raise funds for Tammy Salaices, whose husband was deported after a traffic stop in February. She described her ordeal on a social media page seeking financial support to help her family reunite in Mexico.
"I am a mother that has been raising three babies by myself since my husband was taken," Salaices wrote in the fundraiser description."I have sold my car, my furniture,moved out of the house I built with my husband,and still,the debt we have and [the] bills I still need to pay have been overwhelming."
She said her husband, Manuel Salaices, was arrested by law enforcement Feb. 21 after a traffic stop.
Manuel Salaices came to the United States with his parents when he was 2 years old and has spent nearly all of his life in Whitfield County, his wife said. He was awaiting renewal of his expired Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status and has a pending citizenship application, she said. His driver's license was expired at the time of the arrest, according to his wife.
Two days after the traffic stop, Tammy Salaices says her husband was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and was held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
"We hired an attorney and tried everything we could, spending our savings trying to get him out," Salaices wrote.
On June 16, Manuel Salaices' request for release so he could voluntarily leave the country was denied. He was deported to Mexico on June 26.
"He knows nothing about Mexico and will be dropped off more than eight hours away from his grandmother's house," Tammy Salaices wrote in her plea to supporters for financial assistance.
Salaices and her three children plan to use the money they raise to relocate to Mexico.
"We just want our family to be together," she said.
As of Saturday, the social media page had raised over $4,000 of its $5,000 goal from more than 100 donors.
"I do hope that the United States does let us back in, and I hope that the United States gets their dream in order so we can have an American dream like it used to be," Salaices said.
Contact Report for America corps member Jules Feeney at jfeeney@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Protesters wave signs July 12, 2025, along South Thornton Avenue in Dalton.