The Georgia House of Representatives on March 23 approved a bill (123-51) aimed at curbing taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants and regulating the employers that hire them.
Topics: illegal immigration, immigrants, Georgia, State Laws, bills, legislation, Victory, DA King, Dustin Inman Society
Atlanta Business Chronicle
3/24/2006
Ryan MahoneyStaff Writer
Senate Bill 529, authored by state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), passed the House by a vote of 123-51 after less than two hours of discussion as leaders in the immigrant community called for a boycott and work stoppage on Friday in protest.
State Rep. John Lunsford (R-McDonough), who carried SB 529 in the House, described the bill as an urgently needed fix to a long-standing problem, while state Rep. Tom Bordeaux (D-Savannah) implied its passage would usher in a new wave of segregation.
State Rep. Alan Powell of Hartwell, one of several Democrats who voted for SB 529, called it a measure that did not go far enough but "might actually encourage some of those Congressmen to stop playing games [with U.S. borders] and to start enforcing the law."
"What part of 'illegal' does our Congress not understand?" he asked.
The House voted down an amendment by state Reps. Jay Shaw (D-Lakeland) and Pedro Marin (D-Duluth) that would have put off the bill's effective date, including giving employers until as late as 2011 to comply with provisions requiring them to verify the legal status of their workers.
Legislators had already stretched the compliance deadline to July 1, 2009 from July 1, 2006.
With four days remaining in the 2006 legislative session, SB 529 will return to the Senate, which can agree to the changes or hash them out with the House in a conference committee.
One possible bone of contention could be a provision that would charge illegals a 5 percent fee for wire transfers to other countries. The language was inserted at the last minute by the House committee that debated the bill.