Illegal immigration measure passed in Georgia, to be signed into law

Illegal immigration measure passed in Georgia

A bill to curb illegal immigration was passed by lawmakers of the U.S. state of Georgia yesterday even if similar legislation by Arizona was stymied by a federal court. The Georgia measure is expected to be signed into law later by Governor Nathan Deal.

The legislation against illegal immigration allows Georgia police officers to conduct a check on the immigration status of people under suspicion of crime. Authorities are also given the power to arrest illegal immigrants.

Georgia-based businesses employing at least 10 workers will also need to access a federal database to verify if applicants have proper work authorization or are undocumented workers staying illegally.

"We don't mind taking care of people, let's just take care of our own people," Republican Senator Renee Unterman said yesterday. "I don't want to take care of Mexico's people that are here illegally."

A similar law earlier passed in Arizona was blocked by a federal court whose decision was later upheld on April 11 by the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The hurdles being encountered by that law has prompted other states to halt their own bills to stop illegal immigration.

Business owners in Georgia expressed concern that employers may face lawsuits if they break one of the new rules under the new illegal immigration law as they use the federal E-Verify program for proper work authorization by workers.

Democratic Senator Nan Orrock said yesterday that the new measure to fight illegal immigration in Georgia will result in "the flames of hate to be fanned" as well as racial profiling.

Posted by Sophia Andrews on Friday April 15 2011, 11:09 PM EDT. Ref: Bloomberg. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0