Forsyth County students protest ICE outside downtown Cumming courthouse

Roughly 30 Forsyth County high school students protested U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside the Forsyth County Courthouse in downtown Cumming, turning the county seat into a stage for a debate over immigration and student activism.

Forsyth County News said high school students gathered outside the courthouse on Thursday, Jan. 29, and a Facebook post from the outlet put the crowd at about 30 students. The students were rallying against ICE and citing concerns for immigrants, placing a national issue squarely in front of the courthouse where county business and public life meet.

The location mattered. Downtown Cumming is one of the county’s most visible civic spaces, and the courthouse sits at the center of a downtown area that residents, business owners, and county officials pass through every day. The same area has been used before for public demonstrations: nearly 1,000 people lined the streets in front of the courthouse during a peaceful June 6, 2020 protest, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographed Kai Loving, then 16, speaking near an IHOP on Market Place Blvd during a unity and equality protest in Cumming. Forsyth County News has also covered a President’s Day protest in Cumming Square.

For Forsyth County schools, the protest also underscored how quickly students can bring outside political fights into a local setting that includes parents, teachers, administrators, and courthouse staff. The demonstration showed that some county teens are willing to use public space in downtown Cumming to speak out on immigration enforcement and the impact they say it has on immigrant families.

The rally also fits a broader wave of student-led protests against ICE in Georgia and beyond, with young people increasingly using walkouts and courthouse demonstrations to make immigration policy visible in their own communities. In Forsyth County, that argument was not made in Atlanta or Washington. It unfolded in front of the courthouse in downtown Cumming, where the county’s leaders and residents had to confront it directly.