Thread: Georgia: Illegals bill needs no added softening

http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2006/ ... 213194.txt

Friday, March 17, 2006

Illegals bill needs no added softening

The Georgia Senate last week approved and sent to the House a bill aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants in this state.

The proposed Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, Senate Bill 529, was expected to gain swift approval in the House - given that 80 percent of Georgia citizens want action to curb the flood of illegals now estimated at up to 800,000.

But SB 529 had not been reported out of the House Judiciary Committee Non-Civil as of yesterday, and according to one of its most vocal citizen supporters, D. A. King, "Nothing is a sure thing in the House."

That's one reason King has scheduled a noon Saturday rally at the Capitol in his capacity as president of the Dustin Inman Society, an organization named after a 16-year-old Woodstock boy killed six years ago when his family's car was rear-ended by an illegal immigrant in Ellijay.

The boy's father, Billy Inman, will join King in speaking at tomorrow's rally.

King, who writes a column for the MDJ, wants to strengthen SB 529. That can happen, he said, "if we apply enough pressure."

The bill was written by Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), who was motivated by the tragedy of the Inman family, friends of Rogers. In the crash, not only was young Dustin killed, but his parents were seriously injured and his mother remains in a wheelchair today.

The main goal of the Saturday rally, King said, is to show support for national legislation, in particular House Resolution 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, which is resting in the bosom of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Incidentally, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) reported Thursday that Senate Budget Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) pledged to "take a hard look" at the unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance program that Isakson wants to beef up substantially to tighten our sieve-like border with Mexico.

Isakson, a leader in the effort to control immigration, introduced a bill last week to add 1,500 customs and border patrol agents annually through 2011 plus $1 billion for more equipment and $450 million for a minimum 25 unmanned high-tech aerial vehicles versus only one now operating.

Back to the Georgia measure, SB 529 would bar adult illegal immigrants from receiving state health services, prohibit employers from claiming state tax deductions for wages of undocumented workers and require law enforcement officers to report any felony arrest of illegal immigrants to federal authorities.

On the issue of health services, however, children of illegal immigrants would not be excluded regardless of legal status. Nor would emergency care and treatment for communicable diseases be restricted for anyone.

Tougher provisions were removed from the bill before it got to the Senate floor. They included a prohibition on children of illegal immigrants entering state colleges and universities.

So the bill, as passed by the Senate, is hardly draconian and needs no weakening if it is to survive with any teeth at all.

dmckee9613@aol.com

W, are we going to be doing another Georgia Phone-in to support D.A.King?