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Woodstock community leader urges board to address local impacts of ICE enforcement
Summary
A community organizer told commissioners that increased ICE arrests have local consequences — reducing 911 reporting, lowering school enrollment and disrupting businesses — and asked the board to open a public conversation and consider local responses.
Martha Jane Schindler, founder of Woodstock Community Action Network, told the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 17 that local immigration enforcement is producing measurable harms she said warrant county attention.
Schindler cited demographic figures for Cherokee County and said a spike in ICE arrests statewide is reverberating locally: “Cherokee County has a population approaching 300,000 people. 12.1% of us are Hispanic, and 7.4% of residents, roughly 27,000 people, are non‑citizens,” she said. She said enforcement has led some neighbors to stop calling 911 and that a December enforcement action removed 27 people from a single trailer park, with resulting impacts on families, employers and school enrollment.
Schindler asked the board to begin a public, honest conversation about local consequences and to consider actions the county can take to protect public‑safety reporting, children’s school stability and the local workforce. Commissioners did not adopt a policy at the meeting and did not announce follow‑up steps on the record.
