Thread: Georgia Immigration Law Could Have Dire Consequences For Sta

Georgia Immigration Law Could Have Dire Consequences For State's Economy: Study



A Georgia law that penalizes anyone harboring undocumented immigrants and allows police to check the immigration status of anyone they believe to be in the country illegally could cost the state $800 million in lost farm value, a report finds.

The law, known as H.B. 87 and passed in April, is pushing illegal immigrants to seek work in other states instead of coming to Georgia, where the agricultural industry relies on migrant workers to harvest their crops, a report from the Center for American Progress finds. Early state reports estimate the losses for the 2011 growing season due to the law to be between $300 and $1 billion.

The report estimates that if Georgia farms were forced to install mechanized labor to replace that migrant labor scared away by the law, it would cost the average small farm $1.2 million per year -- a sum that could put most farms out of business -- or $800 million total.

But the losses wouldn’t be limited to the state’s agricultural sector. The Center for American Progress estimates that every agricultural job in Georgia supports three other jobs. In addition, by leaving peach, berry, onion and other crops unharvested, the U.S. would be forced to import more of those products.

The Georgie Agricultural Commissioner, Gary Black, testified in front of Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, about the Georgia law on Tuesday, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Black advocated that the federal government adopt a guest worker program to address Georgia’s labor shortage.

"E-Verify is a real problem without fixing a guest worker program," The Journal-Constitution reported Black said.

The new Georgia law expands the requirement for employers to use the E-verify system, a federal database that tracks residents’ immigration statuses, according to the Center for American Progress.

Augmented use of E-verify has had economic consequences for other states. In Arizona, business owners are often forced to devote resources to use the system to check employees’ immigration status instead of focusing on production, according to Alex Nowrasteh, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

An Alabama judge’s ruling earlier this week that put in place what supporters are touting as “the strongest immigration law in the countryâ€

$800 million dollars, well that's funny illegals cost the state of Georgia $3 billion dollars a year, Sorry Backstabbers you need to come with something stronger then that!

This map of cost to each state for illegals is from 05 so the actual numbers could be way short!
http://twg2a.files.wordpress.com/2010/1 ... ystate.jpg

P.S.
Farmer John there are plenty of lazy jobless whiners on wallstreet out of work see if they'll "Help your ass out!"

"$800 million dollars, well that's funny illegals cost the state of Georgia $3 billion dollars a year, Sorry Backstabbers you need to come with something stronger then that!"


Good catch. The other thing that is happening in GA is the farmers are blaming any decrease in farm productivity on the law (HB 87), while neglecting to mention weather problems.

I am tired of Georgia (and American), citizens paying the health and school expenses so the farmers can make more money.

Gov. Deal is working on sending minimum security prisoners to work the fields. Meantime, per expert immigration activist , D A King, the H2A program provides enough workers for Georgia. The farmers seem to prefer illegal helpers.

Farmers want illegals for work because they can pay them cheap wages and work them 7 days a week 12 hours a day and they dont complain being treated like slave labor.Prisnors will want to work to get outside and be productive pluss earn alittle money for their canteen fund.But farmers know they cant control and treat them as they do illegals.