Georgia lawmakers pass illegal immigration crackdown

[The Northerner]

Complaining the federal government has failed to secure the nation’s borders, Georgia’s Legislature followed Arizona’s lead on Thursday and approved an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration.

The nation is watching Georgia, which is making the leap into a legal thicket Arizona jumped into last year.

Like Arizona’s laws -- which are fighting for survival in federal court -- House Bill 87 creates new requirements for many Georgia businesses to ensure new hires are eligible to work in the United States and empowers police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects.

Some business owners worry the crackdown will harm the state’s agricultural, landscaping and restaurant industries, which partly depend on migrant labor. But proponents of tougher immigration laws have long complained illegal immigrants are burdening the state’s public schools, jails and hospitals.

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-lawmakers-pass-illegal-909988.html

[kiva]

1. In 2007 a crackdown in Georgia provided some help

for the state's workers, even if it wasn't perfect.

An immigration raid aids blacks for a time

After a wave of raids by federal immigration agents on Labor Day weekend, a local chicken-processing company called Crider Inc. lost 75 percent of its mostly Hispanic 900-member work force. The crackdown threatened to cripple the economic anchor of this fading rural town.

But for local African-Americans, the dramatic appearance of federal agents presented an unexpected opportunity. Crider suddenly raised pay at the plant. An advertisement in the weekly Forest-Blade newspaper blared "Increased Wages" at Crider, starting at $7 to $9 an hour -- more than a dollar above what the company had paid many immigrant workers. The company began offering free transportation from nearby towns and free rooms in a company-owned dormitory near to the plant. For the first time in years, local officials say, Crider aggressively sought workers from the area's state-funded employment office -- a key avenue for low-skilled workers to find jobs. Of 400 candidates sent to Crider -- most of them black -- the plant hired about 200.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07017/754517-28.stm#ixzz1JZRXlXaU

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07017/754517-28.stm#ixzz1JZRPq4nS

Notice that it's still the business owners, not workers, who worry that the crackdown will harm the state's economy.

[pampango]

2. "...we got pretty much what we wanted." - Bill Hudson, board member of the Georgia Tea Party.

"These people are illegal and the state can't afford it any more. Now that you have this, it's not business as usual anymore ... From everything I've heard, we got pretty much what we wanted."

-- Bill Hudson, board member of the Georgia Tea Party and a retired dentist from Marietta.

“It’s a great day for Georgia,” said Rep. Matt Ramsey, the Peachtree City Republican who authored the bill. “We think we have done our job that our constituents asked us to do to address the costs and the social consequences that have been visited upon our state by the federal government’s failure to secure our nation’s borders.”

By a 37 to 19 vote, Georgia's Senate amended and then adopted the bill. The House gave final approval to the legislation less than two hours before the session expired on a 112 to 59 vote. Now the bill goes to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature. The Republican governor campaigned last year on bringing an Arizona-style law to Georgia, but he has yet to take a position on HB 87.

Other opponents of the legislation, who worry it opens the door for racial profiling by law enforcement, have threatened to help organize economic boycotts targeting Georgia, if Deal signs the bill. Arizona has lost dozens of conventions since it mounted a similar crackdown last year.


Ouafae Azhari (foreground) shouts out as other demonstrators protest Georgia House Bill 87
outside the Capitol on the final day of the 2011 legislative session.