Georgia legislature get tough with immigration

In today's Chattanooga Times- Free Press, Perla Trevizo writes the following immigration story.

DALTON, Ga.—Of all the states that have talked about passing an Arizona-style immigration law, Georgia stands out as one that may actually go through with it.

Georgia’s HB 87 was described as “one of the broadest and most far-reaching of any of the immigration measures being considered in the state legislatures this spring” by ImmigrationWorks USA, a national federation of state-based pro-immigration business coalitions.

HB 87 provides penalties for employers and agencies that don’t comply with immigration law and makes it a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison to use fake identification to get a job.

It passed the Republican-controlled House on March 3, mostly on party lines. A similar bill, SB 40, made it out of the Republican-controlled Senate Monday.

State and local organizations are closely following more than a half-dozen bills each in the Tennessee and Georgia legislatures.

Reactions vary

America Gruner, founder of the Dalton, Ga.-based Coalition of Latino Leaders, said the group is disappointed that lawmakers are more concerned with persecuting immigrants than dealing with real problems in the state.

“Besides the potential lawsuits and economic cost of those initiatives, we care also about the unnecessary human cost of separating families, of going back to the segregation era and inequality,” she said.

Walker County Tea Party Coordinator Dean Kelley said he fully supports the Georgia legislation.