Rodney Taylor was just two years old when he arrived in the US from Liberia on a medical visa. By the age of 10, both his legs had been amputated. Georgia became his home, where he raised a family and worked as a barber. But his immigration status remained unresolved.
In early 2025, Rodney was arrested by officers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The arrest was based on a burglary conviction from his youth. The state of Georgia had already pardoned him for that offence in 2010.
Rodney spent 15 months behind bars at the Stewart Detention Center in southern Georgia. Today, he's back with his family. But he faces deportation. And his future in the country he has called home for almost his entire life hangs in the balance.
Meanwhile, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north, the Trump administration was planning a massive new ICE detention center to hold up to 10,000 people. But in Social Circle, a small town in the heart of Trump country, the plans sparked an unexpected backlash. A progressive activist and a Trump supporter found themselves on the same side of a political battle, united by one goal: to stop the detention center from being built.