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GOP wants end of aid to illegals
> Bill would cut off most state services

> By JIM GALLOWAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
> Published on: 09/14/05
Senate Republicans on Tuesday announced that they intend to make illegal immigration a top priority of the election-year legislative session that begins in January, lining up behind a proposal to prevent undocumented workers from receiving taxpayer-funded services in Georgia.

The bill would put the Department of Motor Vehicles in charge of verifying that recipients of state benefits, from Medicaid checks to professional licenses to unemployment benefits, are legal residents of Georgia and the United States.

"There are 350,000 illegal aliens in the state of Georgia," said state Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), speaking at a Capitol news conference with Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock). "Every dollar we spend on services for [them] is a dollar that's not able to go to a Georgian or some of our neediest citizens or even people like the evacuees who are here legally and need our help."

The measure, Senate Bill 170, was introduced by Rogers during last winter's session of the Legislature but was not acted on.

The bill may be more a statement of intent than a change of policy. Johnson and Rogers said SB 170 would bar undocumented workers from state poverty programs such as Medicaid; PeachCare, a health care program for children; and food stamps. But Ari Young, a spokesman for the state Department of Human Resources, said legal residency is already a prerequisite for assistance under those programs. And the state Labor Department already sends the names of those who seek unemployment checks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ascertain their citizenship, said Bobby Thomas, assistant commissioner.

Rogers said that some state agencies now waive their own standards for eligibility. He said the strength of the bill is in the DMV's ability to establish what constitutes proper identification.

Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said the bill stands in contrast to the welcome that those who fled Hurricane Katrina have received from Georgia.

"What it does seem like to me is political grandstanding," Gonzalez said. "It just doesn't make sense."

Rogers and Johnson said that parks, interstate rest stops, libraries and similar facilities would remain open to illegal immigrants.

The measure's largest impact could be on the state university system. Illegal immigrants would be barred from enrolling in the state's 34 public universities and colleges.

Currently, those institutions ask potential students whether they are Georgia residents â€â€