Thread: Ga. lawmaker to file tough immigration law

Ga. lawmaker to file tough immigration law

WCRBTV
Associated Press
January 26, 2011
ATLANTA, GA

A state lawmaker plans to file a bill cracking down on illegal immigration in Georgia that mirrors some provisions in a controversial law that took effect in Arizona last year.

Rep. Matt Ramsey, a Peachtree City Republican, says he plans to file the bill today.

It will require law enforcement officers to determine the immigration status of a suspect if an officer "develops reasonable suspicion" that the person is an illegal immigrant.

It will also impose penalties on people who encourage illegal immigrants to come to Georgia or who transport or hide them once they're in the state.

The law will also provide incentives for law enforcement agencies that partner with the federal government on immigration enforcement and will require private employers to verify immigration status of new hires.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13911863

Georgia Legislators Aim to 'Crack Down' On Illegal Immigration This Year

Posted By - Jon Shirek

Last Updated On: 1/27/2011 12:20:01 AM


ATLANTA, Ga. -- State legislators in both the House and Senate are gearing up to try to crack down on illegal immigration in Georgia. This year.

Rep. Matt Ramsey, (R) Peachtree City, introduced his bill on Wednesday. Sen. Jack Murphy, (R) Cumming, will introduce a similar bill as soon as Thursday.

They were co-chairs of a special House-Senate Study Committee on Immigration, and worked for the past several months on the legislation.

"We can never forget that the rule of law is the rule of law," said Rep. Ramsey at the State Capitol Wednesday afternoon. "Either we're serious about enforcing all of the laws as a state, or not."

Ramsey speaks of his bill being a comprehensive one that aims to attack the "serious social and economic consequences of rampant illegal aliens, the rampant presence of 450,000 illegal aliens in our state. It's the result of 30 years of the federal government's failure to secure our borders."

Ramsey's bill would, for example, crack down on most employers -- it would force all those with five or more employees to check the citizenship of the employees using the federal government's free "E-Verify" system.

It would enlist local police to check the citizenship of certain people they stop, "if they have reasonable suspicion to believe they're an illegal alien, in the course of that criminal investigation." The bill would provide incentives to local law enforcement agencies to partner with the federal government, to assist in identifying and arresting undocumented residents and visitors suspected of being from other countries.

It would aim to put out of business those who recruit non-U.S. citizens to enter the U.S. and Georgia illegally in order to sell their labor.

County jails would be required to check the citizenship not only of inmates who are felony suspects, but also misdemeanor suspects.

"We're in extraordinary budget times," Ramsey said. "I think we would be absolutely derogating our responsibilities as policy makers and as fiduciaries of the taxpayers to not make sure every public dollar that is being spent in this state is being spent on those that are intended to receive it, and that's the citizens of the State of Georgia and the citizens of the United States."

His motivation, he said, is "simply to, in as comprehensive a way as possible, address all of the issues that are posed by illegal immigration, by absolutely unsecured borders in the State of Georgia."

It's the wrong approach, said Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

"This will kill jobs in Georgia" by chasing away, he said Wednesday in Atlanta, tens of thousands of undocumented workers who are crucial to Georgia's economy and workforce, especially in agriculture -- workers who are benefiting the state, he said, far more than they are costing the state.

"These non-Georgia citizens are providing a great service to our agricultural industry. It's the Number One industry for the state. Senator Saxby Chambliss [Republican from Georgia] has said 50 to 70 percent of the agricultural workforce in undocumented. So we know where they are. Does Representative Ramsey want to shut down our poultry processing? Do we want to stop production of our Vidalia onions and picking of our Vidalia onions? Certainly we don't want to do that. So Representative Ramsey is going on a fool's errand, to shoot Georgia's own foot in this effort. It's a fool's errand. We need to be focusing on economic development. But this will kill jobs for Georgia."

Gonzalez and Ramsey do agree that it's a national problem that requires a national solution, and Congress should act so the state's don't have to.

"But Georgia's Republican Congressional delegation is the one that's sticking their heads in the sand and not doing anything about it," Gonzalez said. "So he [Ramsey] needs to talk with his own buddies in his own party to make sure that we can work on a solution at the federal level."

The legislation is weeks away from a vote at the State Capitol.

www.11alive.com

PRESS RELEASE:
http://www.house-press.com/?p=1835&utm_ ... um=twitter

Rep. Ramsey to Introduce “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011â€

TEXT OF HOUSE BILL 59
http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2011_12/ ... t/hb59.htm

Follow the Progress of GEORGIA Legislation here:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-225880.html

So many "hispanic" legislators seem to keep popping out of the woodwork to speak on how we can't keep our economies going w/o all these "undocumented workers". Should charge each one of them with a racial hate crime and lock them up as apparently "undocumented workers" a.k.a. illegal aliens are a specific race just because the majority is latino.

Its already at the point we see in many other articles we are looking down on hispanics as trash because of the illegal law breaking community. One would think they would want to fix their reputation with non latino Americans as normal people rather law breakers.