Colquitt County’s Latino community is gearing up to make its presence known by, well, disappearing, at least as much as possible for the largest minority group.

On Friday, the day a strict new immigration law takes effect, many will stay home from work and refrain from shopping to help make others aware of the impact of their contributions in the county.

The response to the law, which also will take place in other counties around the state, is being organized here by Latino Unidos en Moultrie. The group, which includes adults as well as at least one high school student, also is organizing buses to take Hispanics to a mass rally Saturday at the state Capitol.

“The only thing as Hispanics we have is the power to buy, the power to purchase, and the power of work as well,” said Erika Garza, one of about 14 members of the Latino Unidos. “I think Saturday is a chance when people say enough. I think on Saturday you’re going to see a large presence of people.”

There are 217 seats on three buses making the trip from Moultrie, with other communities in the area also organizing to take people to the rally. More are expected to take their own vehicles to Atlanta.

Garza estimated that more than 1,000 people have returned to Mexico, some leaving children who were born here.

“Families are being torn apart,” she said. “I don’t think people recognize the severity of the issue. Those illegal immigrants have families. They are all people like everybody else with families and lives.”

Some long-term immigrant residents are pulling up stakes — selling their land and returning to Mexico out of fear, said Joleen Johnson, another member of the committee. Others are making arrangements for guardianship of their American-born children and getting their passports in case they are sent to Mexico.

“If a family has five children under 13 and the parents are sent back to Mexico, what’s going to happen to their (U.S. citizen) children?” said committee member Elena Bautista. “They don’t know anything about Mexico. They’re scared that any day their parents are going to be deported. There has to be some kind of humane way to handle this.”

All three women are American citizens, but as those who were among the first Latino children to move to Colquitt County they said they are concerned about everyone in that community.

“I’m going to be targeted because of the color of my skin,” Bautista said. “It’s really a racist law and we need to do what we can to change it.”

With many farmers on board with the Friday boycott, Garza said that many people have been encouraged to participate in the boycott and attend the rally.

Colquitt County vegetable grower Kenny Bennett, who sponsored one of the buses making the trip on Saturday, said that Hispanics have a large base of support among farmers for the boycott even though it will cost them money from the loss of labor that day.

“We’re backing it 100 percent,” he said. “I wish they’d do it national. The average person does not realize how important the Hispanics are. Everything they eat all over this country is put up by them. The general public doesn’t know how important they are.”

Without migrant labor, Bennett said that American fruit and vegetable production would shift to countries south of the U.S. border and prices would jump significantly. Those countries also allow the use of pesticides banned here.

This spring Bennett left 100 acres of cucumbers and half his squash crop to rot for lack of another 100 laborers. Each acre meant the loss of about 400 boxes of vegetables. The help he could get was put to work in other crops that were bringing a better price.

“Americans are not going to do these jobs,” he said. “We’re not going to take 100-degree temperatures in the middle of the day. I’ve got nothing against the probationers, but they’re not going to be able to do this.”

A solution needs to be found that will allow laborers to come when they are needed to work and then return home, something that Bennett said will be agreeable to the laborers. Sending those who have roots here would be a cruel blow.

“They pay taxes,” he said. “They pay Social Security, they pay income taxes. When they pay Social Security they don’t get that back, we use that money and go to war with it. It’s free money.

“If you deport these people, you need to pull the Statue of Liberty out of the water. This country was built on immigrants. It just makes my blood boil.”