One Man Left on Hunger Strike Protesting New Immigration Law

Salvador Zamora is the only man left on a hunger strike started on July 1, the first day a new immigration reform law went into effect. Gov. Nathan Deal signed House Bill 87, also known as the, on May 13.

Zamora, a Mexican immigrant, moved to the United States in 1979 and became a citizen in 2010. He is currently living in the top level of an old house on Mableton Parkway in Mableton.

He said he would not stop fasting until he and his supporters have a meeting with Deal.

“I know a lot of people in our organizations have tried this meeting and they haven’t succeeded. So I think that should be a good step if he agrees to meet with us. Let him know what the effects of H.B. 87 have been on the economy of the state," Zamora said.

He is working with Cobb Immigrant Alliance and the Georgia Latino Association for Human Rights to draft a letter, which will be delivered to Deal, of conditions to be met before Zamora ends his fast.

“I stopped doing everything else and concentrate on this,” Zamora said, adding that supporters have helped provide any necessities for him and other strikers.

Martin Altamirano, the 45-year-old Honduran native who’s been in the U.S. since 1994, was also staying in the home and participating in the hunger strike.

“We are looking to get this message to the authorities and to the average people, you know? Sometimes it’s very curious when people ask us why we’re doing this and they get very surprised. It should be not too much surprise to see somebody exposing their health or exposing their bodies to help others because that’s what normally the religions teaches that we have to love our brothers,” Altamirano told South Cobb Patch on the 12th day of their hunger strike.

Rev. Jeff Jones, a Cobb Universalist pastor, joined the hunger strike from July 15 to July 22. Jones said in a release that he supports the men's hunger strike and “reform instead of the current enforcement-only, harsh approach endorsed by Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, and other incarceration-minded states.”

However, Altamirano ended his fast on July 12, the same day Zamora became sick. Zamora saw a doctor who prescribed him antibiotics, which he had to take with yogurt for five days.

However, since then, Zamora said he has not had any food and drinks juice and water only.

Zamora stated in a release:

"With no alternative but to sacrifice my body, I fast believing that undocumented people are a SOCIAL issue not a fear filled political agenda.

I fast in grief for my Hispanic friends and other neighbors who are afraid to shop, to work, to be seen on the streets. 

I fast to raise awareness about undocumented mothers and fathers fleeing in fear from homes where their American children played, were nurtured and grew.

I fast to demonstrate all people deserve dignity.

I fast to call attention to and halt what appears to be a swaggering glee among some local police, sheriff departments, legislators and others when raids, round-ups and road blocks net men, women and children who only want to live a simple, safe life. 

I fast to challenge the enforcement only mentality of law enforcement, as well as the Georgia legislators and Governor Deal; all seem to support the mega-Corrections Corporation of America and its profitable legalized human trafficking/deportation business.

I fast because HB 87 is demeaning, not something to be proud of. It degrades you and me."

In a Marietta Daily Journal article about the hunger strike, Cobb resident D.A. King, who helped with House Bill 87 and who blogs for the Marietta paper said,

“Back here on planet Earth, while holding my sides from laughter, all of this is making it very difficult to eat my chili dog. As I suspect many others are, I have to ask if Zamora is really a non-eating, Kamikaze, anti-enforcement activist, or maybe has more in common with Pinocchio and is under the spell of the great thinkers in local theatre, Rich Pellegrino. I wish them all happy landings, but urge more fact-checking on their script. Not many are fooled about this character’s latest meal but most of us look forward with a yawn to see what’s next from Pellegrino and both of his followers. Can we assume this is at least an admission that angrily marching in the streets is not going to stop enforcement of American immigration laws?”