Georgia Today: ICE arrests in Georgia; Gov. Kemp wants SNAP restored; Jones headed to Cooperstown?

TRANSCRIPT: 

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, ICE arrests in Georgia haven't been making splashy headlines, but they are happening. Gov. Kemp is asking lawmakers to restore SNAP funds that were cut by the federal government. And former Atlanta Brave Andrew Jones may be elected to baseball's Hall of Fame tonight.

Announcer: Into left field, well-hit. Strawberry back at the wall. Another home run for Andruw Jones!

Peter Biello: Today is Tuesday, Jan. 20. I'm Peter Bello and this is Georgia Today. 

Story 1

Peter Biello: Violent scenes of immigration enforcement in major cities across the U.S. have been topping headlines and filling social media feeds. But while evidence of action like that in Georgia is sparse, immigration arrests here are happening, even more often than the places making headlines every day. GPB's Grant Blankenship explains why. 

Grant Blankenship: It's the Sunday after Renee Good's killing by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and a crowd has gathered in Macon's Tattnall Square Park protesting. 

Protester: Make some noise! 

Grant Blankenship: In Minneapolis, the whistles mean "ICE is here." But in this park, there's no one from ICE to raise this alarm. But that doesn't mean ICE officers aren't arresting people in Georgia. According to ICE data curated by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California-Berkeley, Georgia is just outside the top 10 U.S. states for immigration arrests per capita, at least through last October. Minnesota is No. 36, California 25th. 

Charles Kuck: I'm surprised we're not more, but it doesn't surprise me at all. 

Grant Blankenship: That's Georgia immigration attorney Charles Kuck. Kuck says that's because for Georgia, the recent immigration surge is really a return to form. 

Charles Kuck: And normal operations, normal detentions, occasional larger group pickups in a job site — none of that is unusual gating back to the Clinton administration. 

Grant Blankenship: Neither unusual nor illegal. What's new is Georgia's cooperation with federal immigration officers. Attorney Samantha Hamilton says the engine behind that cooperation has a name. 

Samantha Hamilton: So in 2024, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law called the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act. 

Grant Blankenship: Also known as HB 1105. Under federal law, local cooperation with immigration officers is optional. Under HB 1105, Georgia law enforcement are mandated to cooperate to some extent. About a third of Georgia arrests appear to be from local law enforcement turning people over to ICE. 

Samantha Hamilton: I think it is working as intended. HB 1105 is also maybe the main reason why Georgia has not looked necessarily quite like Minneapolis or Chicago or L.A., where these, like, massive, performative raids are happening. 

Grant Blankenship: Vice President JD Vance has said you're only seeing what he calls chaotic ICE raids where local officials fight federal law enforcement. And Charles Kuck says Georgia is not fighting. 

Charles Kuck: There's no need for ICE to stir up the communities here.

Grant Blankenship: Only about 10% of the immigration arrests in Georgia through October 2025 are listed as so-called custodial arrests, aka ICE in the streets, getting people themselves. The biggest source of ICE success in Georgia are arrests recorded as something called non-detained docket. Samantha Hamilton: 

Samantha Hamilton: They're on the non-detained docket it means that they are in removal proceedings but they're not detained. 

Grant Blankenship: Meaning people who have immigration cases are known to the system, but who are living out here in the world. 

Samantha Hamilton: A lot of people are being detained at their — at their check-ins. 

Grant Blankenship: Or when they go to immigration court. But Samantha Hamilton says that's no less traumatic than being taken in the street. 

Samantha Hamilton: The act of, y'know, someone being snatched from their family, like y'know, disappeared for hours, y'know, not knowing like where they were going to be taken — like, that is also like an act of violence. 

Grant Blankenship: Charles Kuck:

Charles Kuck: The man I talked to yesterday was picked up with his wife who is just becoming a resident — his kids who are citizens, his grandkids are citizens — who has committed no crime other than working. That's life-destroying. That's family-destroying. 

Grant Blankenship: Even, say Kuck and Hamilton, when we can't see it. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blakenship in Macon. 

Peter Biello: GPB's Chase McGee contributed to this story. 

Story 2

Peter Biello: Georgia State University students held a walkout today to protest federal immigration raids across the U.S. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more from the event. 

Amanda Andrews: About 100 students gathered in the cold at Georgia State University Library Plaza for the protest. It comes in response to ICE fatally shooting and killing Minnesota mom Renee Good in her car in Minnesota. Speakers at the protest focused on the importance of unity, education and collective action. Logan Castillo is a freshman at GSU. He says protests bring people out of online bubbles. 

Logan Castillo: Especially with social media nowadays, it feels like no one cares and it feels like extremism is — is simply so rampant and it feels like common sense is just lost. I believe that these showings — that showing and getting together with all these people shows that, y'know, there's still decency. 

Amanda Andrews: Protests also took place at three other universities and two high schools in the Atlanta metro area. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews. 

Story 3

Peter Biello: A Mexican national died earlier this month while in ICE custody at a detention facility in Lovejoy, Ga. Heber Sanchez Dominguez died Jan. 14 at the Robert A. Dayton Detention Facility in Clayton County. The Mexican consulate in Atlanta says officials there have contacted the man's family. ICE says his cause of death is under investigation. The facility is privately owned by Clayton County and operated by the for-profit prison company GeoGroup. This marks the first death in ICE custody in Georgia this year and the fifth nationwide in 2026. 

Story 4

Peter Biello: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is asking state lawmakers to restore anti-hunger funding cut by the federal government. According to The Current, Kemp's budget proposal seeks $46 million to replace lost federal support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which serves more than 1 in 10 Georgians. The cuts stem from legislation signed by President Trump last July that reduced federal support for state SNAP staff from 50% to 25%. The money would help pay the salaries of more than 3,000 caseworkers who administer the program. 

Story 5

Peter Biello: Georgia will participate in a federal school vouchers tax program. Gov. Kemp made the announcement today. The program gives taxpayers a $1,700 tax credit if they donate to a K-12 scholarship-granting organization. Speaker of the House Jon Burns says he supports the program. 

Jon Burns: This means more resources will flow directly to students who need them the most, creating more opportunities and empowering more families in our state to make the best educational decisions for themselves and their children. 

Peter Biello: The federal program is separate from the Georgia Promise Scholarship, which provides Georgia students in low-performing public schools a $6,500 scholarship to attend private school. 

Story 6

Peter Biello: According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ongoing La Niña system is coming to an end. GPB's Chase McGee has more on what overall weather conditions might look like this year. 

Chase McGee: The U.S. has gone back and forth between La Niña's and neutral conditions for the last few years, bringing warmer and drier than average winters. Pam Knox is the director of the UGA Weather Network. She says we could be moving towards an El Niño for the first time in years. 

Pam Knox: We are likely to see the jet stream come and park over us, which means more rain, more clouds, and cooler temperatures just because we're not getting as much sunshine. 

Chase McGee: Knox says the end of La Niña could bring some relief to Georgia's agriculture industry, since the state has been pretty dry since August of last year. That'll depend on how much rain we get in these neutral conditions before April 1, the start of the growing season. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee. 

Story 7

Peter Biello: A massive weather front could bring freezing rain, snow, and ice to some parts of north and central Georgia this weekend. Gov. Brian Kemp says it is never too early to start preparing for severe weather. 

Governor Brian Kemp: We'll be prepared, treating roads, having teams ready. You know, hopefully we get snow and not ice, but, you know, Director Lamb, the rest of our team is on it. 

Peter Biello: Icy conditions can inhibit travel and cause power outages. Kemp says Georgia Emergency Management is monitoring the situation and will have more details later in the week. 

Story 8

Peter Biello: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will attend U.S. Supreme Court's oral arguments tomorrow in a case involving the attempted firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook, that's according to the Associated Press. It's an unusual show of support by the central bank chair. The high court is considering whether President Donald Trump can fire Cook, who has Georgia ties, in an unprecedented attempt by the White House to remove an official appointed by former President Joe Biden. 

Story 9

Peter Biello: Property tax increases on Georgia homeowners could be limited to the inflation rate under a new bill introduced by state Senate Republicans. The bill would include limits for taxes for education. This, after most school systems decided against capping property tax hikes last year. About 71% of Georgia's 180 school systems voted last year to reject the cap, as allowed by state law. This year's bill would change that law and prevent school systems from opting out of the cap. Republican supporters of the measure say it will provide relief for those experiencing double-digit tax increases, but some opponents argue that education expenses would still rise and school districts have no choice but to rely on property taxes to fund education. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones says the property tax bill is a priority for this year's legislative session. 

Story 10

Peter Biello: A bipartisan group of state lawmakers is working on legislation to protect Georgia's struggling timber industry. The House Majority Leader, Mulberry Republican Chuck Efstration, says the industry could receive a big tax break if the General Assembly passes and voters approve an end to the sales tax on timber. He says that would cost the state government up to $18 million a year. Georgia forestry suffered heavy losses when Hurricane Helene struck in 2024 and three South Georgia paper mills closed in 2025. 

Story 11

Peter Biello: Gov. Brian Kemp will lead a Georgia trade mission to Belgium this week. The governor's office said today that Kemp, Georgia first lady Marty Kemp and officials from the State Department of Economic Development will meet with leaders of Belgian companies with existing or planned operations in Georgia. Those companies include heavy equipment manufacturer JCB, which has a plant in Savannah. The state's total trade with Belgium was nearly $5 billion in 2024. 

Caption

The Lucas Theatre in downtown Savannah

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Story 12

Peter Biello: Savannah's historic Lucas Theatre is closed while the theater deals with an infestation of bats. The Savannah College of Art and Design, which manages the 1921 landmark, said today the bats were discovered in the theater's rafters and have not caused any harm. The college said it's working with a wildlife management company to "humanely remove them in compliance with state and federal wildlife protections." Performances there will be moved until the theater is safe to reopen, which could be as early as next week. Last year, SCAD completed a six-month $4 million renovation of the Lucas , a cultural icon that shut down in 1976, only to be revived in 2000. 

Story 13

Peter Biello: In sports, former Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones appears on track to gain election to the Baseball Hall of Fame tonight. As of Monday night, Jones had been picked on 83% of ballots revealed early on Ryan Thibodaux’s online vote tracker, surpassing the 75% needed for induction. Jones was a five-time All-Star and earned 10 Gold Gloves in 17 seasons with Atlanta and other teams. Jones also holds the World Series home run record for being the youngest player ever hit a home run in the fall classic — and not just once. In Game 1 of the 1996 World Series, at 19 years and 184 days old, he hit two home runs in his first two World Series at-bats. 

Announcer: Into left field. Well-hit. Strawberry back at the wall. Another home run for Andruw Jones! 

Peter Biello: Another outstanding center fielder, Carlos Beltran, is also expected to make it in. The Baseball Writers Association will announce the Hall of Fame inductees tonight at 6 p.m. on the MLB Network. 

And that is a wrap on Georgia Today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Hope you'll come back tomorrow. The best way to remember to do that, of course, is to subscribe to this podcast. So do that now while you're thinking about it, and you won't miss a thing. If you wanna check out updates to these stories or find out what's new, go to gpb.org/news. And if you've got feedback for us or wanna let us know about something happening in your community, send us an email. The address is georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.