Small town in Georgia is on front line of immigrant labor battle

“A few blocks down the main road from this small downtown in the north Georgia hills, the Matul family from Guatemala has opened a grocery selling fresh exotic fruits, canned juice from Mexico and international telephone calling cards.

Owner Brenda Matul, 29, counts on the influx of Hispanic immigrants to the community to seal the success of her 5-month-old Tienda la Guadalupana ”” and her life’s journey from Central America to become a naturalized U.S. citizen with U.S.-born, bilingual children.

“One day we can grow more if immigrants keep coming to us for imports,” Matul said about her clientele. “But now they’re worried and afraid, afraid of going back, of poverty.”"

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