New Georgia immigration law to trigger exodus of illegal immigrants


As the year 2006 slowly moves towards oblivion, there are increasing signs that thousands of illegal immigrants residing in Georgia will have to relocate from the state to avoid encountering what most described as the toughest immigration law due to go into effect in June of 2007.

For the past two months, this website has been conducting its own independent survey to determine the reaction of illegal immigrants to sweeping new immigration laws signed by the governor of Georgia, Sunny Perdue. It turns out that 3 out of every 5 illegal immigrants have expressed outraged over the new law called the Security and Immigration Compliance Act. Most of them told our pollster of their plans to leave the state for a much easier life in states where the immigration law is more flexible.

The new law, passed a few months ago by the Georgia state legislature, will make it harder for illegal immigrants to get access to social services and will punish companies that hire undocumented workers. It requires anyone applying for state aid to first be verified that they are in the state legally and employers with state contracts are being held accountable as well. Those who do not verify immigration status before hiring anyone will be sanctioned, according to the new law. Police are also required to check the immigration status of anyone arrested in Georgia. In the past, they were not required to verify that a detained individual was in the state of Georgia legally.

Thousands of illegal immigrants including Liberians are likely to relocate to avoid the wrath of Georgia's new immigration law. A huge number of them will be forced to relocate along with their legal permanent resident and American families such as children. Many people who live in illegal status, have children who are citizens of the United States and natives of Georgia. Others intend to leave their legal permanent resident relatives, as such relatives who may be brothers, sisters or cousins may not have the legal rights to file immigration petitions in their behalf. The situation will even get much worse for Liberians by next October as thousands of them may fall in illegal status after the termination of TPS - Temporary Protected Status. Most Liberians we talked to indicated to this website that when the new Georgia law takes effect next June, they will play a wait-and-see attitude before making the ultimate decision to relocate. Illegal immigrants from other countries revealed their outright plans to relocate. They have cited their fears of encountering police in Georgia.

But the state's new immigration law will not affect emergency medical care and educational benefits for those in kindergarten through 12th grade, which federal courts have said must be provided regardless of immigration status. The Georgia lawmakers also added exemptions for parental care and communicable diseases.

A Liberian educator living in the state of Georgia, Philip Manor described the bill as "cruel and dirty," while Sara Gonzalez, president of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce called it "a punitive bill."

Meanwhile, in some parts of Georgia, local officials have already begun turning illegal immigrants to the immigration authorities. The police of Roswell said he informed the immigration of more than a hundred illegal immigrants in the town but agents have only picked up three individuals.

Most opponents of the new law say it may not work because the immigration bureau and other state agencies have far more pressing issues than just the case of an individual being in the state illegally. Others believe the police will get exhausted and frustrated after continuously seeing illegal immigrants being released by immigration authorities. But there are already signs that agencies like the Department of Public Safety or Driver Licenses and the Social Security Administration will religiously enforce the new law. Several companies may also find it extremely difficult to recruit new employees.

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