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Illegal immigrant Enrollment Bill Dropped in Georgia Senate
Leaves decision up to University Board of Regents to make

by Rhonda Barnett
January 17, 2006

Several legislators introduced measures to isolate the U.S. immigrant population including a reduction in social services and the most noteworthy, not allowing them into higher education facilities.

"From time to time, there's a temptation for the Legislature to inject themselves into the university system, " said Sen. Sam Zamarripa. "Sometimes it's to punish people or to restrict; rarely is it to make it broader. This would have set an unfortunate precedent if Senate Bill 171 made it to the floor."

Senator Chip Rogers filed several restrictive measures during the 2005 Legislative session that concentrated on cracking down on illegal immigrants in Georgia.

The educational issue is not whether or not Georgia can actually bar children of immigrants from the public school system, but who should pay for these services. The local taxpayers pick up most of the tab and most of illegal immigrants also do not participate in the tax base.

“The cost of not educating these people … will cost us much more in the long term," said Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Rogers withdrew the bill, saying that it was not a priority of the GOP and the decision was unanimous.

"We're glad that Sen. Rogers has taken denying access to higher education off the table," said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. "I think it is important, as Gov. Perdue is focusing this session on promoting education, that we take the education of all Georgian's seriously."

The idea is that immigrants come to this country to take advantage of the resources that the government offers and by eliminating this assistance will discourage immigrants from illegally crossing the border.

One very important factor that is ignored in this discussion is the exploitation of illegal immigrants in areas such as construction and agriculture. Several large companies have come under fire for employing illegal immigrants. Local jurisdictions have enacted codes and legislation that discourages the use of illegal immigrant employees.

Other proposed bills address this issue, such as SB 169 that states that state contracts only go to employers who hire legal labor. This bill will halt many corporations from exploiting the cheap labor and insure that companies employ legal workers.

SB 170 states that applicants for non-federally mandated services must prove legal residence. Services such as Peachcare, HOPE scholarship and Georgia pre-k will be unavailable for immigrants.

SB 336 requires an employer who wants to deduct the wages of his employees from his state income tax to verify their Social Security numbers when they are hired. This will eliminate the use of fake social security numbers and cards and serve as another gatekeeper in the employment structure.

The Georgia Fair Employment Act is yet another piece of legislation related to illegal immigrants. This Act would prevent private employers from using the wages that they pay illegal immigrants as a tax-deductible expense.

To combat these issues, the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce creates a legislative agenda each session. A major goal is to make higher education accessible by allowing undocumented students to be charged in state tuition.