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Posted October 26, 2006
New Georgia immigration law to trigger exodus of
illegal immigrants
As the year 2006 slowly
moves towards oblivion, there are increasing signs that thousands of illegal
immigrants residing in Georgia will have to relocate from the state to avoid
encountering what most described as the toughest immigration law due to go
into effect in June of 2007.
For the past two months,
this website has been conducting its own independent survey to determine the
reaction of illegal immigrants to sweeping new immigration laws signed by
the governor of Georgia, Sunny Perdue. It turns out that 3 out of every 5
illegal immigrants have expressed outraged over the new law called the
Security and Immigration Compliance Act. Most of them told our pollster of
their plans to leave the state for a much easier life in states where the
immigration law is more flexible.
The new law, passed a few
months ago by the Georgia state legislature, will make it harder for illegal
immigrants to get access to social services and will punish companies that
hire undocumented workers. It requires anyone applying for state aid to
first be verified that they are in the state legally and employers with
state contracts are being held accountable as well. Those who do not verify
immigration status before hiring anyone will be sanctioned, according to the
new law. Police are also required to check the immigration status of anyone
arrested in Georgia. In the past, they were not required to verify that a
detained individual was in the state of Georgia legally.
Thousands of illegal
immigrants including Liberians are likely to relocate to avoid the wrath of
Georgia's new immigration law. A huge number of them will be forced to
relocate along with their legal permanent resident and American families
such as children. Many people who live in illegal status, have children who
are citizens of the United States and natives of Georgia. Others intend to
leave their legal permanent resident relatives, as such relatives who may be
brothers, sisters or cousins may not have the legal rights to file
immigration petitions in their behalf. The situation will even get much
worse for Liberians by next October as thousands of them may fall in illegal
status after the termination of TPS - Temporary Protected Status. Most
Liberians we talked to indicated to this website that when the new Georgia
law takes effect next June, they will play a wait-and-see attitude before
making the ultimate decision to relocate. Illegal immigrants from other
countries revealed their outright plans to relocate. They have cited their
fears of encountering police in Georgia.
But the state's new
immigration law will not affect emergency medical care and educational
benefits for those in kindergarten through 12th grade, which federal courts
have said must be provided regardless of immigration status. The Georgia
lawmakers also added exemptions for parental care and communicable diseases.
A Liberian educator living
in the state of Georgia, Philip Manor described the bill as "cruel and
dirty," while Sara Gonzalez, president of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce called it "a punitive bill."
Meanwhile, in some parts of
Georgia, local officials have already begun turning illegal immigrants to
the immigration authorities. The police of Roswell said he informed the
immigration of more than a hundred illegal immigrants in the town but agents
have only picked up three individuals.
Most opponents of the new
law say it may not work because the immigration bureau and other state
agencies have far more pressing issues than just the case of an individual
being in the state illegally. Others believe the police will get exhausted
and frustrated after continuously seeing illegal immigrants being
released by immigration authorities. But there are already signs that
agencies like the Department of Public Safety or Driver Licenses and the
Social Security Administration will religiously enforce the new law. Several
companies may also find it extremely difficult to recruit new employees.
By Our Staff Writer
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