Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin (photo courtesy CCA)
The protest weekend gets under way with a smaller event in Lumpkin on Friday. Protesters there are calling for the closing of the Stewart Detention Center, where more than 17-hundred alleged illegal immigrants are being held.
Azadeh Shahshahani with the Georgia ACLU says some of the 20-thousand people who are in Columbus to protest a Fort Benning institute for Latin American soldiers on Saturday will travel to Lumpkin on Friday.
“We’re hoping that you know many of the people who actually come down here to protest the School of the Americas will also be able to join us for this vigil.”
The Group School of the Americas Watch protests at Fort Benning every fall. The gathering commemorates the murder of Salvadoran priests 21 years ago by soldiers who had once trained at the school.
