Thread: GA: Illegal Immigration Enforcement Bills Pile Up in Georgia

Illegal Immigration Enforcement Bills Pile Up in Georgia

February 3, 2011
ATLANTA, GA

"The question is a very simple one: do you want immigration reform or do you not want immigration reform?" asked State Senator Jack Murphy.

Sen. Murphy was joined by many other conservative Republican lawmakers as he introduced the second of two Arizona-style immigration laws at the State Capitol on Thursday.

His SB 40 closely mirrors the similar HB 87 already introduced in the State House by Rep. Matt Ramsey.

Both will allow local police to check the citizenship of anyone they arrest for another crime and would impose penalties on employers, both public and private, who don't check their workers' citizenship thorough the federal E-verify program.

With Georgia's illegal immigrant population ranked 7th in the nation, sponsors say it's past time for the state of Georgia to effectively stop illegals from taking jobs and tax benefits from Georgians and American citizens.

Hispanic, Asian and other minority groups are prepared to oppose what they call an attempt at racial profiling.

They also claim the E-verify system has errors and could wrongly target a few who are here legally.

Republican Governor Nathan Deal, who campaigned heavily against illegal immigration, admits the issue is not as simple as it seems.

He says state lawmakers should be considerate not to overstep their bounds.

"I don't want us to do something just for show," the governor said in response to the bills. "I want us to do what we as a state can legitimately do within its jurisdiction to be able to legally address these concerns."

Many worry about how a crackdown on illegal immigrants might affect the state's largest industry, agriculture, which brings in $65 billion a year.

Lawmakers are also considering bills that require an English-only driver's license test and keeping illegal immigrants from collecting any workers compensation benefits.

Rep. Ramsey's HB 87 will face its first hearing before the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee at the State Capitol on Friday morning.

Georgia is one of 18 states now considering immigration laws similar to Arizona's.

http://www.11alive.com/rss/rss_story.as ... yid=176195

Ga. immigration bill requires employer checks

By KATE BRUMBACK
Feb.3,2011

ATLANTA

A Georgia state lawmaker on Thursday filed legislation that targets illegal immigrants in the work force and is drawing criticism from several fronts, including the state's No. 1 industry, agriculture.

Like a bill filed last week in the Georgia House of Representatives, the proposal from state Sen. Jack Murphy and other Republican senators would require all private employers to use a federal database to check that new hires are in the country illegally. But, unlike the House bill, it includes exemptions for employers who use certain work visa programs.

"What we want to do is have the employers ... check on their employees to make sure that they're in this country legally, working legally under the proper visas," Murphy told reporters.

The exemption would include the H2-A visa program, which allows farmers to bring in workers from other countries for seasonal work. The program is very unpopular with the state's farmers, who say it is cumbersome and expensive.

Growers in Georgia employ illegal immigrants and other laborers to plant and harvest labor-intensive crops, particularly fruits and vegetables easily bruised by machines.

Michael Hively, chairman of the Vidalia Onion Business Council of Georgia and CFO of Bland Farms, said using the government's visa program for short-term agriculture workers is expensive. His farm uses that program to get up to 350 workers.

Farmers must provide housing for temporary workers, cover their transportation costs and pay them a better wage than illegal immigrants.

"The smaller growers out there ... do not have the housing and the infrastructure set up to do" it, Hively said. "We need immigration reform, but we need it at the national level."

The Georgia Farm Bureau, a lobbying group, said it was still studying the proposal and could not immediately comment. But the organization voted at its annual convention in December to oppose any state immigration measure that "discriminates against the farm worker" and puts farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

In a statement a week before the release of his bill, Murphy said he wanted to create an exclusion for the agriculture industry, but his bill would also apply to other special visa programs, including the H-1B visa, which allows companies to bring in highly specialized workers, and the H-2B visa, which allows employers to bring in foreign workers for short-term, nonagricultural work.

The bill drew criticism from D.A. King, founder of the Dustin Inman Society, which argues for strong immigration enforcement measures.

"On illegal employment, the bill's author has excluded so many industries from the badly needed required statewide use of the no-cost federal E-Verify system so as to make it a parody of an employment enforcement bill," King said in a statement.

Like the House bill introduced last week, Murphy's legislation would require law enforcement officers, during any stop of a criminal suspect, to verify the immigration status of the suspect if they believe the person is in the country illegally. If the person is determined to be here illegally, the bill would allow officers to arrest them and take them to a federal detention facility.

Civil liberties groups have said such measures are unconstitutional, and a federal judge blocked similar provisions in a law enacted in Arizona last year after the federal government filed a lawsuit. An appeal of that decision is pending.

Murphy's legislation also says certain non-citizens can be punished by a fine of $100 and/or 30 days in jail if they fail to carry proof of their immigration status.

Public employers are already required to use E-Verify to check the immigration status of new hires, but Murphy's bill would implement stricter penalties for those who fail to comply, including fines of $5,000 to $10,000, prison time and removal from office.

The legislation would provide for a standardized affidavit for government contractors to prove they're using the federal verification system. Punishment for contractors and subcontractors who falsify affidavits would include a fine of $1,000 for each day they act in violation and would bar them from bidding on public contracts for a year.

"Our system in Georgia is for our citizens and legal residents of our state," Murphy said, explaining why he believes tougher immigration legislation is necessary.

He said he didn't know how much implementation of his bill, particularly new enforcement measures, would cost. But he argued that illegal immigrants are a drain on the state's taxpayer-funded resources.

Murphy told reporters he is confident that his law would stand up to any challenge brought against it.

Atlanta immigration lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Charles Kuck doesn't believe that's true.

In an analysis of the bill, he says it "has so many inconsistencies, incongruities, and flat out confusing sections that if by some miracle it is passed, it would never see the daylight of its effective date."

Associated Press writer Ray Henry contributed to this report.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financia ... 5H1GO0.htm

Good! Keep stacking them up. Some are bound to stick!

Extra Credit: Visa program could curb illegal immigration

By D.A. King - Athens Banner-Herald

Published Thursday, February 03, 2011

There is currently much consternation and hand-wringing over the fact that the Georgia legislature may actually move to protect jobs by clamping down on illegal hiring with the no-cost federal E-Verify system. But a key component of the story is not widely known.
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The current argument from those opposed to enforcement is that Georgia would somehow lose its agriculture industry if we comply with the federal law making employment of illegal aliens, well, you know - illegal.

While the media have faithfully reported on the agriculture angle, the existence of the legal alternative to continuing to hire black-market farm laborers who have escaped capture at our borders has so far eluded mention.

It is something called the H2A agricultural worker visa.

This agricultural program establishes lawful means for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring an unlimited number of temporary foreign workers into the United States.

But the grateful, legal, temporary workers looking for a better life must be treated with dignity and respect. Employers must provide free housing that meets lawful safety and health standards and provide workers' compensation insurance at no cost to the worker.

The wage for H2A workers must be the same as that for U.S. workers. The rate must also be at least as high as the applicable prevailing wage rate.

The employer must provide either three meals a day to each worker or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities for workers to prepare their own meals. If meals are provided, then the employer may charge each worker a certain amount per day for the three meals.

These requirements obviously make hiring the more "flexible" and desperate illegal labor considerably more profitable. And there is little fear of federal punishment.

An H2A visa is usually issued for a period of one year, and can be extended twice, for a maximum of three years. Then the temporary workers must return to their home country - making them poor prospects for creating a resentful "oppressed" and "victimized" political constituency willing to march in American streets demanding legalization.

The concept that illegal workers are integral in, or necessary for, Georgia's largest industry is complete, um, fertilizer.

Readers may want to pass the H2A facts on to their state lawmakers and remind them that illegal immigration is a direct result of illegal employment, and that with E-Verify - and courageous vigilance - we have the tools to stop illegal hiring.

• D.A. King is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration and president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which advocates for enforcement of immigration and employment laws. He has been an authorized E-Verify user since 2005. A version of this commentary was previously posted on the subscription website insideradvantagegeorgia.com.

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