UVALDA, Ga. – In this town of 600 deep in southern Georgia, where onions and farming are a way of life, change does not come easy.

Just ask Paul Bridges.

He’s the Republican mayor of Uvalda. Yet he’s become one of this country’s most unlikely immigration activists.

“I never thought that I would have any affiliation with the (American Civil Liberties Union),” Bridges said.

Almost two years ago – standing with the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center – he sued the state of Georgia over a controversial bill called HB 87.

At the time, it was one of the toughest immigration in the U.S., similar to Arizona’s.

“It had on the town and the community a devastating effect when it first became law,” Bridges said.

He said migrant workers left the area in droves, almost crippling the town’s economic engine – agriculture — until the courts blocked a part of HB 87 that would have made it a crime to “knowingly harbor or transport” undocumented immigrants.

The bill’s supporters argued it was about deterring law-breakers. Their issue, they said, was not with immigrants – but instead with people who came to the U.S. illegally.

Another one of the bill’s controversial portions, the so-called “show-me-your-papers” provision, was put on hold but recently took effect. It allows police officers to demand documents from people they suspect of being here illegally.

“It was completely based on fear,” Bridges said, adding that he and his supporters took a lot of heat back then for opposing the bill.

But two years later, he says he’s noticed something.

“I think the tide has turned not only here but throughout the nation,” he says.

This year, following the 2012 election, there does seem to be new immigration rhetoric in Washington. In a late January news conference, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said, “the Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens.”

“The public attitude has changed in four years,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Four years ago, they said, ‘fix the border.’ Now they much prefer a comprehensive solution.”

The change in tone is echoing through Uvalda – and other small towns that depend on immigrant labor and consider themselves microcosms of the U.S. economy.

“We need to have comprehensive immigration reform,” said Andrea Hinojosa, co-founder and executive director of the Southeast Georgia Communities Project, a non-profit serving migrant workers and low-income families. “A reform that is going to allow a path to citizenship.”

Nancy Lugo has been waiting for that path. She’s lived and worked in the area for 16 years – and is undocumented.

She said she was frustrated with being hated by a society she contributed to by working hard and paying taxes.

Why did she come here?

“For a better future for my daughter,” she said. “Not for me. For my daughter.”

Still, many other workers are not here illegally. Local farmers say they struggle to hire them through a guest worker program covered in red tape.

“Our number one chore is to find labor that we can depend on,” said R.T. Stanley, a fourth-generation onion grower in nearby Vidalia.

Also a conservative, he thinks immigration reform is long overdue.

“Anybody that thinks that we don’t try to get Americans to do this job, they are wrong,” Stanley said. “We try so hard and we just can’t get them to do this kind of work.”

Paul Bridges hopes the tide continues to turn.

As he drives around the small town, he points out where the Hispanic community has settled. He’s made friends with many of them – and even learned Spanish himself.

Not everyone in this small town may agree with him yet. But the way this mayor sees it, being pro-immigrant is pro-business – and it doesn’t get much more conservative than that.

“My message (to lawmakers in Washington) would be ‘pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill,’” he said. “Now.”

Video by Leo Juarez , Doug Stoddart,  John Hyjek, NBC News Atlanta

The report also found that in more than two out of three (77.4 percent) detainers issued, the individual identified had no criminal record. Of the remaining 22.6 percent who had a criminal record, only 8.6 percent were classified as a Level 1 offense, though some records show some of those Level 1 offenders had committed traffic violations or illegal entry and not serious crimes.

Responding to the report’s release, Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), stated, “The Obama Administration’s policy of using police as immigration ‘force multipliers’ through programs like Secure Communities has violated civil rights, imperiled public safety, and compounded injustice.”

But ICE deputy press secretary Gillian Christensen stated: “As the TRAC report itself notes, its conclusions are based on data that dates back four years, prior to many of ICE’s enforcement reforms including the new detainer guidance issued by the agency on Dec. 21.” The new guidelines, Christensen added, restrict ICE detentions for minor traffic violations or misdemeanors, and attempt to focus on more serious crimes.Immigration authorities can issue detainers if they suspect someone may be in the country illegally, and there are guidelines on how long a person can be held and under what circumstances.

The TRAC report does not have information on how many detainers were lifted or how many people were eventually deported.  It is illegal for authorities to detain U.S. citizens. The report found almost 3,500 facilities received one or more ICE detainers.

The NDLON says it is calling on the Senate to hold hearings on the use of detainers.

“Today our family loses a treasure: a son, brother, uncle and exceptional human being. Due to the indiscriminate use of arms paired with the irrationality of fear, we lost our beloved Rodrigo Díaz,” said older brother David Esteban Díaz during a Spanish-language funeral mass celebrated Thursday at Our Lady of the Americas Catholic Church in Lilburn, Georgia.

The family of Rodrigo Díaz pleaded to President Barack Obama and authorities to take action against violence. (Photo by Edgar Zúñiga)

“We join thousands of families [victims of gun violence]. Today was our Rodrigo’s turn, a happy and peaceful kid, who had to pay with his life the mistake of going to the wrong address instead of receiving simple guidance… we beg our president and other competent authorities to initiate urgent and efficient action so no more innocents die at the hands of people who use guns indiscriminately,” said Díaz during the mass reading a statement on behalf of his entire family.

Scores of friends hugged and comforted Díaz’s family as they shed tears before and after the funeral mass, which was filled with prayer, song, and a euology by Díaz’s girlfriend, Angie Rebolledo, fighting back tears.

Díaz told NBC Latino he’s “disappointed [Sailors] is out on bond because you can’t just shoot and ask questions later. Call police. They say he had no record. My brother didn’t either.”

Family and friends are planning a peaceful protest when Sailors appears in court.  A date is not currently set.

Díaz’s father, also named Rodrigo Díaz, told NBC Latino in Spanish that they fled the violence that plagued their native Colombia years ago adding he never thought a son of his would die at the hands of a gun in this country. Díaz Sr. said that despite this “I profoundly thank this country for opening its door to us and my son’s death does not change my respect for it.” Díaz Sr. said his son was a “wonderful person, full of life, intelligent, with many dreams and projects. He lived a happy life.”

“Mr. Sailors is not a flight risk,” Puglise says. “A 70-year-old man is not a flight risk. He has lived at the same property for 33 years. He has medical issues and rest assured Mr. Sailors is going to continue to cooperate with the district attorney’s investigation.”

Puglise previously told NBC Latino that his client believes his home was about to be burglarized when he shot Diaz.

The victim’s brother, David E. Diaz-Valencia, 23, said, “The guy came outside and my brother’s girlfriend said he was screaming, ‘Get off my property!’ and he shot into the air,”  Diaz-Valencia said. “My brother was backing out fast because he was scared and he rolled down the window to say he was sorry and he was not doing anything wrong. Then the guy shot him in his head.”

The bond decision was signed off on by Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, who defended the bond and said he did not put any consideration into whether Sailors’ release could inflame tensions after Diaz’s death.

“The purpose of a bond is to prevent a defendant from committing another offense or to prevent him from fleeing,” he says. “This is a 69-year-old man with no prior criminal record and I don’t think he’s a flight risk. We confiscated his firearms, he’s supposed to turn in any firearms, and I don’t think there’s a likelihood that he’s going to commit another crime so I don’t want to commit jail space housing him.”

Diaz-Valencia says the funeral mass will be at 8 p.m on Thursday.

“We appreciate all of the support,” he said, adding that he and his family were on their way to pick up his brother’s ashes.

Diaz’s family thanked the public for its support on the website for their company J & D Cargo Express, where it posted the funeral memorial prayer card for Thursday’s mass.

The prayer card for the funeral mass for Rodrigo Diaz on Thursday, January 31.

“We give thanks to God for every single day, minute and second that we spent together,” the prayer card reads in part. “Today we give him to God with the profound hope of being reunited one day in a better world, free of pain.”

“This has been so hard on the community,” brother Diaz-Valencia says. “But we appreciate all of the support. I know everyone is talking about gun control — I’m not against guns — but people have to know how to use them.”

The family takes some comfort in the fact that while Diaz is gone, he may still save the life of others.

All of his organs were donated before he was cremated.

RELATED: Georgia man shoots and kills young Latino who accidentally pulled into his driveway, police say

“Basically, what happened is they were looking for one of my brother’s girlfriend’s friends,” says his brother David E. Diaz-Valencia, 23. “The guy came outside and my brother’s girlfriend said he was screaming, ‘Get off my property!’ and he shot into the air. My brother was backing out fast because he was scared and he rolled down the window to say he was sorry and he was not doing anything wrong. Then the guy shot him in his head.”

When officers arrived, Angie Rebolledo, Diaz’s girlfriend, had blood on her jeans, both arms and both hands as she was attempting to get a response from him and screamed frantically that her boyfriend had been shot, according to police.

Police arrested Sailors, of Lilburn, Georgia, who was booked into the Gwinnett County jail Sunday afternoon and charged with murder, according to the police report.

“At this point we have established probable cause to charge Mr. Sailors and when the investigation is complete, we will turn over the case file to the Gwinnett County District Attorneys Officer for processing,” Lilburn police Chief Bruce Hedley told NBC Latino. “To preserve the integrity of the case, I will not be releasing further information concerning this incident.”

Sailors’ lawyer says his client is a Vietnam veteran with no prior criminal history and thought he and his wife were about to be victims of a home invasion. “You have to understand this is a 69-year-old man who is a military veteran who has been honorably discharged,” Michael Puglise says. “He dedicated his life to community service, specifically the Christian Lay Ministry in Latin America.”

RELATED: Shooting at Lone Star College leaves 3 injured; Latino students describe chaos

Puglise adds that Sailors’ small, quiet, quaint town is now plagued with gang activity and the home next door was vandalized weeks before. He fired a warning shot and then when the car was accelerated to go in reverse he perceived it differently.

“He’s an elderly man, he perceived the car going towards his house, towards him.”

Asked about the contention that the victim rolled the window down and said sorry and he wasn’t doing anything wrong, Puglise said he wasn’t aware of the statement.
“Each person in the situation perceived things differently,” he says. “He most certainly did not hear anything.”

The victim’s brother, Diaz-Valencia, says Diaz was going to school to be an auto mechanic.

“He was a really happy person, he was a really good brother and he never had problems with anybody,” he says.

Diaz-Valencia says their father has been in the United States for more than 10 years and he and his brothers had been in the U.S. since 2006, coming from Medellín, Colombia. “My dad got us our papers and green card,” he says. “He had been here and he wanted to give us a better life.”

Diaz-Valencia, who goes to the Aviation Institute of Maintenance and is set to graduate in 9 weeks, says no one thinks his brother was gunned down because he was Hispanic.

“Nobody has said that,” he says. “We don’t think it’s about racism. Maybe the guy was angry, trying to protect his own property, but that’s why we have police.”

The funeral will most likely be on Thursday, Diaz-Valencia says.

He adds that he has no ill will towards the suspect, Sailors.

“I don’t want anything bad for him, just for him to be put in jail, he needs to pay for what he did,” he says.

“It’s not shooting first and asking second.”

NBC News producer Edgar Zuniga contributed to this story.

UPDATE: Georgia man who killed young man who pulled into wrong driveway, released on bond

Isabelle Gonzalez – who was nominated to audition for the season 12 of the show by her aunt – was personally invited to perform for the judge’s panel when Randy Jackson surprised her with a visit to her school.

Singing a soulful rendition of “Nothing Will Ever Change This Love,” 16-year-old Gonzalez wowed the celebrity judges, who showered the Alpharetta, Georgia resident with praise.

“I love you,” said Nicki Minaj, who made quite the fashion statement in a cotton candy pink wig.

Country crooner and judge Keith Urban chimed in with his own praise, saying “You’re a natural. You had the confidence to perform in front of us, that’s what it takes …you have to be born to do it.”

“You are so adorable,” said Mariah Carey. “People are going to fall in love with you because you are a star.”

With prompting from Randy Jackson, the four judges sent the ecstatic teen straight to Hollywood.

“I was on top of the world, I was overjoyed,” said Gonzalez of the moment she received the highly coveted golden ticket. “It’s something I’ve wanted ever since I started with music.”

Crediting her songwriter uncle and music teacher with her musical training, Gonzalez said she hopes to stand out from the competition with her unique style.

“My style is bluesy, jazzy and soul,” said the brunette teen, who said in a post-show interview that she’s inspired by Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson. “But I like pop and I add that twist to it.”

And it seems like Gonzalez intends to create some stiff competition for fellow “American Idol” Latino contestants Tenna Torres and Lazaro Arbos.

Smiling impishly, she told “Idol” producers how she intends to win.

“I’m the next American Idol because I want this!”

Living Walls, a non-profit founded by Peruvian Monica Campana, aims to bring dialogue through street art to neighborhoods in their home city of Atlanta, Georgia. However, during the long weekend of Miami Art Basel, Living Walls makes the drive south to Miami to participate in the street art fair, Fountain.

Fountain Art Fair runs through this Sunday, December 9th. For hours and ticket prices, visit http://www.fountainartfair.com/. For more information about Living Walls, visit http://livingwallsconference.com/.

Using calculations based on turnout figures for the past two presidential elections, researchers at the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis concluded that overall turnout this year by young people of color ages 18-29 could fall by somewhere between 538,000 to 696,000 in states with photo ID laws.

“Our estimates are conservative. We are looking at demobilization from 9 to 25 percent,” said Cathy Cohen, a University of Chicago expert on young and minority voters, who worked on the study with Jon Rogowski of Washington University. “If young people really have valid IDs at a rate of only 25 or even 50 percent, the number of young people of color disenfranchised will be even greater than what we estimate.”

The study says that 17 states have either put a strict photo ID requirement in place, request photo ID but have provisional alternatives in place for those without it, or have passed a photo ID law that has yet to take effect. Those states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.

RELATED: Latino Democrats: We need the youth vote

The study cites three House races among the several it says that could be affected by the “disproportionate demobilization” of young minorities: Georgia’s 12th District, Pennsylvania’s 6th District and Tennessee’s 9th District. The Senate race in Wisconsin also could feel the impact of fewer young minorities voting, the study says.

An analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school found that 11 percent of Americans lack a government-issued photo ID such as a passport, driver’s license, state ID card or military ID. Nine percent of whites don’t have such ID, compared with 25 percent of blacks and 16 percent of Hispanics, the Brennan study said.

“This is not about having ID. This is about having a specific type of ID. You can’t show up with your Sam’s Club card and vote,” said National Urban League President Marc Morial. With just two months left before the election, the civil rights group is trying a variety of methods, from phone banks to social media to knocking on doors, in hopes of reaching young voters most affected by voting law changes.

Young minority voters, Cohen and Rogowski said, tend to be poorer and more transient, which means they are less likely to have a current address on their driver’s licenses or other ID. Their licenses may be suspended or revoked due to unpaid fines, or they may not have access to the documents they need in order to get valid identification. Even if young voters are able to pull the necessary documentation together, the extra steps they must take to get an acceptable ID might prove discouraging, Cohen said.

RELATED: Opinion: On politicians being tone deaf and the wrong message youthful voters

“They have to find the appropriate office, bring the needed paperwork and pay the required fee, all to get an ID many don’t know they need,” she said. “It turns out that significant numbers of young people don’t even know about these new photo ID requirements.”

The analysis by Cohen and Rogowski was released this week by the Chicago-based Black Youth Project, a nonpartisan effort launched in 2004 to examine the political participation of African-Americans aged 15 to 25. It estimated that new photo requirements potentially could turn away:

—170,000 to 475,000 young black voters.

—68,000 to 250,000 young Hispanic voters.

—13,000 to 46,000 young Asian-American voters.

—1,700 to 6,400 young Native American voters.

—700 to 2,700 young Pacific Islander voters.

Those numbers amount to a potential erosion of the gains in young minority voter participation over the two previous presidential election cycles, the analysis said.

In 2004, turnout for minority voters ages 18-24 was 44 percent for blacks, 20.4 percent for Hispanics, and 23.4 percent for Asian-Americans. In 2008, 52.3 percent of young blacks, 27.4 percent of young Latinos and 27.8 percent of young Asian-Americans turned out to vote.

Young blacks and Hispanics would be hard hit by the identification requirement, said Judith Browne-Dianis, director of The Advancement Project, which has filed legal challenges to various state voter ID laws. And since a disproportionate number of those potential voters are women, “that means at the end, young women may be the hardest hit,” she said.

“People showed up in ’08 in record numbers,” Browne-Dianis said. “They can do it again, they’re just going to have to jump a hurdle. But it’s worth it.”

Other findings in the Cohen and Rogowski study include:

—Changes in Florida’s voting laws could leave more than 100,000 young minority voters unable to vote — far more than the 537-vote margin of victory for George W. Bush in the contested 2000 presidential election.

—If Pennsylvania’s photo ID law is upheld by the state Supreme Court, 37,000 to 44,000 young voters of color may stay home, or be unable to vote.

—In Georgia, photo ID requirements could prevent a “significant number” of the 275,000 black and Latino residents of the redrawn 12th Congressional District from voting.

Regardless of the Supreme Court’s verdict, the simple fact remains state passed immigration laws are expensive, un-enforceable and not a long term solution to the systematic problems facing our immigration system.

Expensive: At the first ever Southeast Summit on Immigration a coalition of Southern CEOs, farmers and law enforcement officials concluded that state passed immigration laws reap a devastating economic toll on local economies. Just ask Arizona. According to several studies SB 1070 has devastated the state’s economy. The statistics don’t lie: Arizona’s economy lost $141 million, including $45 million in hotel and lodging cancellations and $96 million in lost commercial revenue. Alfonso Serrano over at Time notes that the drop in tourism also resulted in an estimated 2,761 jobs lost, resulting in $253 million lost in economic output.  Serrano goes on to point out that while SB1070 was never actually enacted if it were fully implemented, the law would eliminate an estimated 580,000 jobs for immigrant and native-born Arizonians, shrinking the state’s economy by $48.8 billion.

That’s just Arizona, looking at Alabama’s worst in the country immigration law there is even more economic destruction. could result in a $10.8 billion loss for the state’s GDP, mostly due to reduced demand for goods and services provided by Alabama businesses.  Professor Samuel Addy, of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama estimates that the state could face the loss of “40,000 to 80,000 undocumented immigrants would result in 70,000 to 140,000 lost jobs in Alabama, which amount to $1.2 to $5.8 billion in lost earnings. An additional $57 to $264 million would be lost in state income and sales tax collections.

Unenforceable: Local law enforcement officials have overwhelmingly come out against these types of law as they put undue stress on enforcement personnel and the communities they are sworn to protect.  Roberto Villaseñor, the chief of police in Tucson, worries that immigrants will not report crimes or turn in criminals out of fear, justified or not, they will end up deported.  Chief Villaseñor went on to say that SB1070, will instill “a level of mistrust” particularly in immigrant communities and break down years of efforts to combat the perception that the police collaborate with immigration agents.

Law enforcement officers also say these laws actually make their areas less safe. If a local police officer is acting as a Border Patrol agent he has less time to do his everyday duties. In a state like Alabama which is already facing budget shortfalls, where will state and local governments find the funds to pay for trainings, let alone any lawsuits that may occur from accidentally arresting those in the country legally? This has already happened twice in Alabama, one a Mercedes Benz executive, merely a week later a Honda one.

Not a long term solution: Here is perhaps the most important reason why these laws are not a long term solution; most states will not pass them.  Going back to Serrano’s analysis over at Time, five states Utah, Indiana, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama have passed immigration bills into law, however over two dozen states rejected similar  measures. Put another way 36 of 51 states have attempted to pass anti-immigration laws similar to Arizona SB1070. Only around16% have actually passed. This suggests even if the Supreme Court sets a precedent by finding these laws constitutional, it is highly unlikely that anything close to a majority of the states would pass their own immigration laws. Under this scenario removing immigrants currently in this country without documentation would be all but impossible. If you are someone who believes that we must remove all immigrants who are in the country without documentation, state passed immigration laws do not accomplish this goal.

A patchwork of state-passed immigration laws will not remove immigrants from the country. The evidence suggests they merely cause them to move from one state to another. If states were given constitutional authority to pass their own immigration laws, our country would be more or less in the same predicament we are currently in. There would still be a large population of undocumented immigrants in this country with no way to legally contribute to our country.

Bottom line, for those who support these state passed laws, you have been misled. These laws do not fix our immigration system. They are misguided, they make an already bad situation worse. As much as this pains some people to hear, the real solution is a federal overhaul of our system. The day that happens all of our states will have to do something about those currently living in their communities. At that point we truly will be acting as the United States of America, not a nation divided by untruths.

Kristian Ramos is the Policy Director of the 21st Century Border Initiative at NDN and The New Policy Institute.