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Rise in deportations leaves local Latinos worried, suspicious
Federal officials ramp up enforcement as border crossings increase
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Santes Velasquez: "The Hispanic community is embarrassed." - photo by Erin O. Smith
A spike in families and children arriving at the U.S. southern border from Central America has prompted fears of another crisis like the one that dominated national news during the summer of 2014. And a recent surge of deportations in Georgia, ostensibly to counter the influx of these undocumented immigrants, has raised suspicions among Latino immigrants in Gainesville and Hall County about the prospect of immigration raids on their homes. “It’s real and it’s firsthand,” Lemuel Betancourt, a local businessman who ran unsuccessfully for the Ward 3 Gainesville City Council seat last year, said of the concern trickling through local immigrant neighborhoods.