Georgia Legislators Aim to 'Crack Down' On Illegal Immigration This Year

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http://www.11alive.com/news/regional/story.aspx?storyid=175020&catid=165

ATLANTA, Ga. -- State legislators in both the House and Senate are gearing up to try to crack down on illegal immigration in Georgia. This year.

Rep. Matt Ramsey, ® Peachtree City, introduced his bill on Wednesday. Sen. Jack Murphy, ® Cumming, will introduce a similar bill as soon as Thursday.

They were co-chairs of a special House-Senate Study Committee on Immigration, and worked for the past several months on the legislation.

"We can never forget that the rule of law is the rule of law," said Rep. Ramsey at the State Capitol Wednesday afternoon. "Either we're serious about enforcing all of the laws as a state, or not."

Ramsey speaks of his bill being a comprehensive one that aims to attack the "serious social and economic consequences of rampant illegal aliens, the rampant presence of 450,000 illegal aliens in our state. It's the result of 30 years of the federal government's failure to secure our borders."

Ramsey's bill would, for example, crack down on most employers -- it would force all those with five or more employees to check the citizenship of the employees using the federal government's free "E-Verify" system.

It would enlist local police to check the citizenship of certain people they stop, "if they have reasonable suspicion to believe they're an illegal alien, in the course of that criminal investigation." The bill would provide incentives to local law enforcement agencies to partner with the federal government, to assist in identifying and arresting undocumented residents and visitors suspected of being from other countries.

It would aim to put out of business those who recruit non-U.S. citizens to enter the U.S. and Georgia illegally in order to sell their labor.

County jails would be required to check the citizenship not only of inmates who are felony suspects, but also misdemeanor suspects.

"We're in extraordinary budget times," Ramsey said. "I think we would be absolutely derogating our responsibilities as policy makers and as fiduciaries of the taxpayers to not make sure every public dollar that is being spent in this state is being spent on those that are intended to receive it, and that's the citizens of the State of Georgia and the citizens of the United States."

His motivation, he said, is "simply to, in as comprehensive a way as possible, address all of the issues that are posed by illegal immigration, by absolutely unsecured borders in the State of Georgia."

It's the wrong approach, said Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

"This will kill jobs in Georgia" by chasing away, he said Wednesday in Atlanta, tens of thousands of undocumented workers who are crucial to Georgia's economy and workforce, especially in agriculture -- workers who are benefiting the state, he said, far more than they are costing the state.

"These non-Georgia citizens are providing a great service to our agricultural industry. It's the Number One industry for the state. Senator Saxby Chambliss [Republican from Georgia] has said 50 to 70 percent of the agricultural workforce is undocumented. So we know where they are. Does Representative Ramsey want to shut down our poultry processing? Do we want to stop production of our Vidalia onions and picking of our Vidalia onions? Certainly we don't want to do that. So Representative Ramsey is going on a fool's errand, to shoot Georgia's own foot in this effort. It's a fool's errand. We need to be focusing on economic development. But this will kill jobs for Georgia."

Gonzalez and Ramsey do agree that it's a national problem that requires a national solution, and Congress should act so the state's don't have to.

"But Georgia's Republican Congressional delegation is the one that's sticking their heads in the sand and not doing anything about it," Gonzalez said. "So he [Ramsey] needs to talk with his own buddies in his own party to make sure that we can work on a solution at the federal level."

The legislation is weeks away from a vote at the State Capitol.

[Pooky 3,825]

"So he [Ramsey] needs to talk with his own buddies in his own party to make sure that we can work on a solution at the federal level."

The only way that is going to happen is by the number of States passing similar legislation being great enough to force Washington's hand.

And Jerry Gonzalez needs to quit trying to make this a partisan issue, because it's bipartisan complicity in Washington that's allowing the status quo to continue unchecked. Until one or both parties realise that the American people are tired of their games with illegal immigrants, the States are the place this problem will be tackled.

[Darnell 8,478]

"This will kill jobs in Georgia" by chasing away, he said Wednesday in Atlanta, tens of thousands of undocumented workers who are crucial to Georgia's economy and workforce, especially in agriculture -- workers who are benefiting the state, he said, far more than they are costing the state.

Bullsh|t - instead - this will shift the 'demographic of hirable workers'

BACK

to teenagers

who will then get off their @ss's , put down the gameboy and cell phones.

Manual Labour is character building, whilst a teen ager. There's several generations now that weren't exposed to it, as the 'hiring entities' preferred illegal aliens over teenagers.

F&cktards.

Yay Georgia !!

(I am a bit confused, though, if this is really the state legislature, vs federal congressional folksen)