Some immigrants held a boycott Friday by calling in sick to their jobs. Their work stoppage is part of a Day Without Immigrants protest against the state’s new immigration law.

Miguel Garcia is a Mexican immigrant who can work here legally. But he didn’t go to work Friday at the Clorox detergent plant in Forest Park.

His mother and sister in Athens also skipped work. Garcia, originally from Mexico, says he’s worried he may jeopardize his job.

But he wants to stand up for other immigrants who come here for work.

“It is a real risk," he said. "Losing your job is not something you want these days. But it’s more about the people that can’t speak, that can’t come forward and say, ‘I’m being looked at, I’m being targeted, and I’m scared.’ ”

The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights organized the boycott. It asked immigrants to skip work and avoid purchasing anything. It said about 125 immigrant-owned businesses closed in metro Atlanta in protest.

The group is also planning a march in Atlanta on Saturday that’s expected to draw thousands of people. Jasmine and Erica Garza of Moultrie are among those who plan to attend. The sisters are hiring four buses to bring immigrant rights’ supporters to the march.

“People may not notice it but Latinos work really hard in the fields and elsewhere, doing jobs that citizens and others don’t want to do here,” Jasmine said.

The Georgia Latino Alliance is expecting at least 10,000 people at the march.

On Monday, a federal judge blocked two parts of the immigration law. Other provisions, however, are now in effect. One of them makes it a crime to use a fake ID to obtain a job.

The law's supporters say the federal government has failed to enforce immigration laws, and they have been forced to act because of that. But opponents of the law range from immigrants to farmers in South Georgia who have blamed the new immigration law for a severe labor shortage during the spring fruit and vegetable harvest.