Immigration bill a work in progress

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

With just six days left in the 2011 Georgia General Assembly session, a House committee took Senate Bill 40, considered the weaker of two illegal immigration bills, and added wording to make it identical to House Bill 87, a more extensive illegal immigration crackdown.

On Monday, the House Judiciary Non-Civil committee rapidly made the changes to SB 40, and voted to send it on to the House Rules Committee for consideration.

That's exactly what State Rep. Billy Horne, R-Sharpsburg, expected to happen.

"I wouldn't be surprised if SB 40 ends up looking a lot like HB 87," Horne said on March 17.

HB 87 requires Georgia businesses that have over five employees to use the federal E-Verify system, to ensure that all new hires are legally able to work in the United States.

It was sponsored by Republican Rep. Matt Ramsey of Peachtree City.

"We know beyond a shadow of a doubt what the root cause of illegal immigration is, and that's illegal employment," Ramsey told The Associated Press after HB 87 passed the House. "If we do an immigration reform bill and we don't get at private employment, it's like trying to cure cancer with an aspirin."

HB 87 passed the House by a vote of 113 to 56 on March 3. It was then referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it has remained -- with no signs of ever making it out of committee or to the Senate Rules Committee, let alone making it to the Senate floor for a vote.

SB 40 passed the Senate on March 14 by a vote of 34 to 21. March 16 was "crossover day," the 30th legislative day of the 40 day session. Traditionally, for a bill to have a chance of becoming law, it must pass either the House or Senate by crossover day.

Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, said at the time that, while he preferred HB 87, "the vote I had was on SB 40, which does strengthen Georgia law in many areas." Seabaugh said after crossover day that he "firmly believes we're going to end up with a final product that will be stronger than SB 40."

If SB 40 passes the House, in its current form, it will then go to the Senate. The Senate can either agree to the changes, or disagree. If the Senate votes to agree, the bill goes to the governor. If the Senate disagrees, it goes back to the House. If the House insists on the changes, a conference committee will be appointed. A conference committee is made up of members from both the House and Senate, and works to come up with a compromise that both chambers can agree on. The House and Senate would then vote on the "conference committee report."

Seabaugh said after crossover day that he expected a conference committee would come up with a "final product that will be somewhere between 40 and 87."

In addition to the E-Verify requirement, HB 87 --and now SB 40 -- also create the offense of "aggravated identify fraud," which is using false information or false documents to gain employment, and creates the offenses of transporting an illegal alien and harboring an illegal alien.

And, it would authorize law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of a criminal suspect if that suspect cannot provide suitable identification.

Even if the bill is passed, the E-Verify requirements would not go into effect until July 1, 2012 for employers with 100 or more employees, and Dec. 31, 2012, for companies with five or more employees.

Ramsey said that the timeline was the result of an amendment to the bill, which was "aimed at lining up the E-Verify requirement in this legislation, from a phase-in standpoint, with past major legislation providing for comprehensive new requirements on public entities."

"It is important we have time to educate the public on these new requirements so we don't have any entity unwittingly fail to comply with the provisions of the law," Ramsey said.

Though the requirements will take a while to go into effect, "we know based on the experience of other states that have implemented expanded use of E-Verify, the passage of the bill and the fear of detection by illegal workers will immediately provide a deterrent benefit that will lead to more jobs being protected for legal U.S. workers," Ramsey said.

All the other provisions of the bill would go into effect July 1 of this year.

On Tuesday, president of the Arizona State Senate, Sen. Russell Pearce, endorsed HB 87. Pearce was an author of Arizona's infamous Senate Bill 1070.

"I have read the very comprehensive bill from Georgia and commend Georgia Rep. Matt Ramsey for one of the most well-written, well thought-out pieces of badly needed state enforcement legislation in the nation," Pearce said in a press release.

Pearce said that he can see the "positive effects of enforcement here in Arizona" and that "I can assure all concerned that HB 87 will serve to greatly reduce the illegal population in Georgia, save budget dollars and protect jobs for American workers."

Gov. Nathan Deal supported the passage of "Arizona-style" legislation during his campaign, but has since backed off from that stance, saying he doesn't want to do anything that would put an "undue burden" on Georgia companies.

Before it was changed in the House, SB 40 would have strengthened the current laws against "public employers," -- that is, government agencies -- hiring contractors, subcontractors or sub-subcontractors that don't use E-Verify.

It also, for the first time, provided punishment for local governments that do not follow the existing rules on only hiring companies that participate in E-Verify. A government found to be in violation would lose "qualified local government" status. The bill also calls for at least 100 random audits of public employers and contractors, if funding for the audits is appropriated.

SB 40 also included the E-Verify requirement, with a somewhat quicker timeline. The E-Verify requirement would go into effect July 1, 2011, for companies with 500 or more employees, Jan. 1, 2012 for companies with 100 or more employees, and July 1, 2012 for companies with five or more employees.

It also requires "aliens" to carry with them, at all times, their certificate of alien registration. And, SB 40, like HB 87, authorizes law enforcement officers to verify the immigration status of criminal suspects when they cannot produce acceptable identification. This includes someone suspected of a traffic offense.

If someone does hire an immigrant not allowed to work in the state, SB 40 would limit the employer to deducting no more than $600 per year on income taxes as a business expense. Those rules would only take effect after Jan. 1, 2012.

The General Assembly meets today for the 36th legislative day. Action on SB 40 is not on the House Rules Calendar for today.
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