Tough illegal immigration law ignored
Legislature provided no funds for enforcement; municipalities fail to register for program

By CAMERON McWHIRTER, MARY LOU PICKEL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, January 25, 2009

A key goal of Georgia’s 2006 law cracking down on illegal immigration was simple and controversial: stop undocumented immigrants from earning wages paid by taxpayers.

Supporters heralded the provision as one of the nation’s toughest because it orders local governments, their contractors and subcontractors to confirm the legal status of new hires.
REGISTRATION GAPS
A review of the Homeland Security database shows that 21 county governments out of 159 have not registered with E-Verify. None of these counties were in metro Atlanta or other urban areas of the state. In nine of the counties that did not register, the school systems did sign up for E-Verify. And 234 chartered cities and towns out of 536, most of them small, rural communities, have yet to sign up.

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But the provision has amounted to less than proponents hoped and critics feared. No one in state government is enforcing the law. No one at the state level has checked to see whether governments and businesses are complying. And nothing happens to them if they don’t.

A year and a half after the law required every government in Georgia to sign up with the federal Homeland Security Department to verify the legal status of new hires, the Georgia Department of Labor has no idea what agencies or governments are complying. The department is tasked with setting guidelines for implementing the 2006 Immigration Security and Compliance Act.

Supporters of the law say if this basic task isn’t done, they can’t have confidence that the rest of the law is being taken seriously. Other provisions call for illegal immigrants arrested for a felony or DUI to be reported to immigration authorities, and for governments to make sure they don’t give welfare to illegal immigrants.

The reason for the lack of accountability: The Legislature never provided money to monitor the law.

“As far as any enforcement responsibilities under the law, we don’t have any,â€