Musings on Immigration

The Georgia State Legislature passed SB 160 this last session.  SB 160 manipulates the way HB 87 is implemented, will bring great hardship to many businesses that contract with those who contract with the state, increases the scope of influence of the Immigration Enforcement Review Board (IERB), and likely violates federal law.   Simply put, SB 160 is Bad for Georgia Business, Bad for Georgia's Economy, Bad for all Immigrants in Georgia, and bad for Georgia's national image. It is important to understand why SB 160 is bad in so many ways. Section 1  expands HB 87 (Georgia’s Anti-Immigration law) by modifying its “Definition” of “contractor” to which entities HB 87 applies, and more importantly modifies the requirement in HB87 that the E-Verify requirements for state contractors for building projects to now include all sub and sub-sub contractors of such contractors in EVERY state contract for construction, products or services, with the excep...

This afternoon the Georgia Senate caved into the blitz put on by Senator Chip Rogers to craft a "compromise" anti-immigration bill in the Georgia Legislature with Rep. Matt Ramsey, passing HB 87 compromise language by a slim 3 votes in a lengthy process on the legislature's final day in session this spring. The HB 87 compromise language will be quickly agreed to by the House (where key leaders had already been consulted on the compromise language). HB 87 now goes to Governor Deal for signature. Should Governor Deal sign HB 87, it will be the worst piece of immigration legislation in the United States, in some respects worse than Arizona's SB 1070. The good news is that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently found four key provisions of SB 1070 unconstitutional, and those provisions have corresponding sections in HB 87. HB 87 also has several other provisions which themselves separately violate the Constitution, and which will be struck down by the federal courts...