Opinion Talk

By MMM

April 18, 2006 07:04 PM | Link to this

Apparently not to the politicians playing to or preying on “their base”.

By Edwards Family

April 18, 2006 07:28 PM | Link to this

Just read the summary about the new law. Item #2 implies that there were no penalites for human trafficking — and there still aren’t any until July 2007? For real?

By John P. Carrigy

April 18, 2006 08:33 PM | Link to this

Congraulations to the Georgia legisalture and the governor for implementing a sensible immigration law for the state of Georgia. Every state should follow their leadership. Remember it is the individual states and cities who have the financial burden to handle the social needs of the illegals in their communities. If the US government won’t assume its reponsbilty than it is up to the states. Jack C.

By TC

April 18, 2006 10:20 PM | Link to this

THANK YOU GOVERNOR PERDUE!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

By rob

April 19, 2006 08:00 AM | Link to this

Outright REFUSAL for the federal government to do thier job and UPHOLD LAWS THEY WERE SWORN IN TO DO, ON THE BOOKS FOR DECADES, WHICH WERE BEING ENFORCED UNTIL THE MID 80’S was what forced state action.

By KB

April 19, 2006 08:40 AM | Link to this

The State of Georgia has the right and the obligation to legislate for its citizens. We are the United States of America, not just plain America. People are largely ignorant of the fact that states have rights, and most people wrongly presume that the federal government should come up with every solution to our problems. The federal government can’t even enforce its own immigration laws, so why should we think they will do ANYTHING to stop this invasion?

If Georgia makes it hard for illegal invaders to work in Georgia and makes it hard for businesses to hire illegals, then the illegals will leave. I think Georgia has taken the lead and other states will follow soon with their own legislation. No jobs for illegals, means no illegals.

By PinestrawGuy

April 19, 2006 09:55 AM | Link to this

State law useless? Don’t be absurd. The Federal government has abdicated it’s responsibility to enforce the law at the behest of Big Business, breaking unions and dropping wages for American workers. I hope every state in the Union enacts similar measures as soon as humanly possible.

It’s a shame the measure won’t be enforced for another 14 months.

By TheTruth

April 19, 2006 09:58 AM | Link to this

It never ceases to amaze me how easily some folks are duped by slick politicians. The anti-immigration crowd is crowing, woofing, and wallowing in unadulterated ecstacy over the signing of a bill that is absolutely worthless. State law never supersedes federal law. States cannot grant enforcement powers that lie exclusively with the federal government either. Furthermore, what local or state agency wants to fill their already overcrowded jails with immigrants who except for their immigration status are otherwise law abiding people? There are already laws on the books for the detainment and deportation of those that commit serious crimes. As for human trafficking, my wife is a program director for an organization that deals with human trafficking and there are already laws carrying stiff penalties for that offense. And think about it folks. What is the biggest reason that the pols set 2007 and 2008 for trigger dates? Because they know that the feds will pass a blanket, nationwide law by then that will apply to every state in this union. And then they can stand in front of you and say well…we tried but the big bad federal government put us down. They got you again folks. It is an election year and to get reelected a few slimy politicians once again needed to get out the vote and pandered to a specifically targeted interest group. Just like Sonny screwed the flaggers during the last election, Rogers and crew screwed the anti-immigrant crowd. So before you make fools of yourself cheering “Chip, Chip, Chip,” think twice. He used you, he screwed you, and he made fools of you. Bottom line folks. Nothing changed.

By Van

April 19, 2006 10:27 AM | Link to this

Folks, I am shocked at how little people really understand about the bill.

It is just requiring that screening be done on federal programs that the programs already require and the state has not been doing.

Federal health care,food stamps, welfare and others are open to legal residents. If the state authorizes a new claim, the feds assume all is good.

By KB

April 19, 2006 10:30 AM | Link to this

Truth, Sorry to burst your bubble, but the States can enact legislation that is more restrictive than federal laws, and often where the question of the consitutionality of a federal law has been taken to the Supreme Court, the Court declines to decide the question and leaves it to the States to enact their own legislation. The Georgia law does not address detainment and deportation, rather it addresses business and employment of illegals. I believe the Georgia legislation will stand up to any legal challenge. Wait and see.

By Cody

April 19, 2006 10:49 AM | Link to this

There are already laws that ban illegal immigration. the problem is that the government is ignoring it. But it is not entirely Bush’s fault but ours as well. We have not stood up and done anything about it. We sit back and wait for the government. But what really makes me mad is our fellow Americans supporting the illegal immigrants. They are not paying taxes and living off of our dime. I agree with allowing illegals to become citizens, but they will do nothing but complain about taxes then. (they were protesting the 5% surcharge on wire transfers out of the country). So I think the Immigrant laws have always been weak because nobody has enforced them. Hopefully now people will take a different outlook and do the right thing for our country. Cody(18)

By TheTruth

April 19, 2006 11:35 AM | Link to this

OK KB…just let us know when anything changes. But don’t expect us to hold our breaths until it does, because it won’t. And whatever bill the congress and senate passes will be the law of the land. This whole issue was a perfectly designed charade cooked up by the pols to get votes. After the elections you’ll be crying the blues and wondering whatever happened to “immigration reform.” Just like the flaggers, you’ve been had.

By RealityBites

April 19, 2006 11:51 AM | Link to this

Sorry KB. Truth is right. You took the bait hook line and sinker. Everyday when you go about your business take a look around. There will be just as many or more hard working immigrants for you to see as before. Those of you who just don’t want to see Mexicans are in for a big disappointment. Maybe you and D.A. King should start a support group to whine about how the pols have tricked you again. And while you’re at it, invite Tom Metzger and Daniel Carver too.

By RWH

April 19, 2006 12:48 PM | Link to this

You can take this answer either way. Let us not converse about failure on either state or federal level. Who move to do something about it; and what is the higher-up doing about it? Useless is not the term; try failure over the years knowing this problem was not going away. Consumed about the issues that has taken America into a whole new spend. Asked the federal level their opinion according to the Laws and does it show any interest. Most state have had enough and they move quickly to try and do what is moral taking the immigration issues seriously enough to try and even the field inwhich those who are disobeying the laws are or will be held accountable. How do you solve a growing problem and how do you act on it. The Federal Level have those answers and the state can cut its border off with no question asked! Complaints, yes, but if the problem was not there; there would be no complaints. The state lead the way in trying to make sense of a problem that is really not theirs. However, because the states are well-affected, they put us a preventive measure. Nothing wrong with that; but, someone will find a way to call doing what is right, wrong!

By Syed

April 19, 2006 12:53 PM | Link to this

I agree with Truth, State law can never replace federal law. And immigrations/illegals these are federal issues not state. I am not supporting illegal immigrations or ilegal border crossing, but, by passing this bill, the politicians are just trying to get the NASCAR vote intoi their bag and other politicians, condemning it is trying to get the Hispanic vote in their bag. They have one thing common, they don’t care about you or me. To have a strong border , we have to find a human solution to these 11 mil illegals.

By beejay

April 19, 2006 01:12 PM | Link to this

As long as there is no federal law to supersede state law, the state law stands. And the pussyfooting federal “leaders” don’t appear to be doing anything. Besides, there are already laws in place to deal with illegal aliens; we just “forgot” to enforce them. Advocates for the trespassers have a lot of nerve claiming “unconstitutional” when the illegals are the ones who are unconstitional.

By Dan

April 19, 2006 01:41 PM | Link to this

It is very humorous that people think Big Business hires these workers. It is the small mom and pop biz that hires them because they have much less rigorous rules around reporting and documenting all aspects of their business. But I digress, despite the toothlessnes of a state law, you have to think it is going in the right direction when ole Vincente “send your dollars back here” Fox disagrees with it

By ACC12 Booster

April 19, 2006 01:53 PM | Link to this

KB: It’s not that the Feds can’t enforce their own immigration laws it’s that they WON’T enforce their own immigration laws. Congress acted as if they wanted to start enforcing the federal laws until they saw the millions of hispanics out in the street, at which time they acted shocked that there were that many “undocumented” hispanics in the country and immediately started to pander to them as they saw not people illegally here, but millions of future voters and an endless supply of cheap, docile, unionless labor. The politicians also reinforced their pandering to their big-business cronies by promising to give citizenship to the illegals already here so that they more bring in more endless cheap labor in the form of friends, relatives and extended families.

The Feds could easily put up a border fence or even a wall and amount paid to build that wall would be a savings compared to the amount that it now costs to provide public services to illegals (i.e. schools, healthcare and for the non-citizen crooks, the cost of jail and detention). For those who say that the illegals who live here are pretty much law-abiding “undocumented” residents, they pretty much are, but there may be one big developing example that may contradict that argument: MS-13, the gang from Central America (which, by the way, was first formed in Los Angeles in 1984, but most of its members are born outside the U.S. at present) which is putting an entirely new twist on organized violent crime by taking violence to a whole new gruesome level. That’s really saying something, considering the exceptionally violent history of crime, organized and unorganized in America.

If the government keeps encouraging these people to flood across the border, a permanent underclass of people separated and isolated from the rest of society by mainly a language barrier could develop and feed violent organizations like MS-13 with the thousands of young, angry and frustrated gang members that they would need to thrive in the criminal underworld of North America. How long do you think that this group of people is just gonna be content with working as rich peoples’ nannies, gardeners and underpaid slave labor? How long do you think it will be before they get discontent and disilluisioned with being confined to minimum-wage menial jobs and want to cause trouble and use developing “organizations” like MS-13 as a vehicle to non-constructively express that discontentment and disillusionment?

Think about that before you say that these people are mainly “harmless” laborers who only want menial jobs that no one else, black or white, will do. This group of people isn’t going to want to do these jobs forever, you know. Soon, maybe next generation, they’re gonna come after your job and your spot as the upper or upper- middle dog.

By Syed

April 19, 2006 02:04 PM | Link to this

Dan— you are right. Many politicians, and people like Lou Dobbs intentionaly misguide the american about this. Big corporations don’t hire illegals. Mom N Pop business and middle and lower middle class people hire illegals. You will never see Microsoft, GMC, Ford, Dell hiring illegals. Because most, if not all, the illegals are hard working day labors, not technically skilled. By passing this law, state is going after the small fish who don’t contribute to their campaign fund anyway. You will never see the politician passing a law to keep the health insurance down because they ‘contribute’ a lot. As a legal alien here, I am pro guest worker, but I seriously condemn Mexican president for encouraging illegal border crossing. We should treat people humanly, but at the same time, we need a solid, strong border.

By TheTruth

April 19, 2006 02:50 PM | Link to this

ACC12 Booster. Legal immigrants are already taking middle and upper middle jobs. It’s called the H1B Visa and the primary holders are from India. Yet I hear no one screaming about that. These H1Bs are intended for no other purpose than to lower the wage scale of educated and skilled workers. The uneducated immigrants that you all love to bash will never threaten those jobs.

And now the busses that were used to take immigrants to the rallies are being burned. Where have we seen that scenario before. It seems that the true colors and the true agenda of a segment of the anti-immigrant crowd is rearing it’s ugly head. Why is it that issues that involve people of different colors, cultures, and ethnicities seem to fire up the lowest common denominator among us?

By JJ

April 19, 2006 02:58 PM | Link to this

Chip Rogers is a race baiting political whore pandering for votes.

By RealityBites

April 19, 2006 03:16 PM | Link to this

There is one VERY good reason that the Federal Government does and should control immigration. Left to their own devices there are states that would return us to the Jim Crow era at warp speed given the opportunity.

By Dan

April 19, 2006 03:26 PM | Link to this

syed we agree most people have no clue but it isn’t just because of the differences of skilled unskilled (quite frankly in crafts such as carpentery, masonary and plumbing the imigrants are probably more skilled than our unions) large companies have far more requirements placed on them by the gov to ensure payroll taxes are collected sales tax is reported etc. When is the last time someone here voluntarily paid sales tax on something they purchased online? Corps can’t get away with that. The only way is if a corp hired a small contractor to do some work, even then the corp is required to report to the IRS and payments made to small corps over $500 so if a small company was using illegals to genrate any substantial amount of rev from large corps it would soon catch up with them

By ACC12 Booster

April 19, 2006 03:34 PM | Link to this

TheTruth: and the ones from India who don’t want to come here legally on a visa can always opt to pay someone to smuggle them across the border “illegally”. Hispanics aren’t the only ones coming across the border “illegally”, Middle Eastern men and Asians also are being smuggled across the southern border “illegally”. It’s just that Hispanics, especially Mexicans, make up the vast majority of those who come here illegally.

Approximately one out of every six people born in Mexico lives in the U.S. and if it is left up to the status quo, that number could be closer to one in four, or even one in three, if the Bush-Kennedy-McCain bunch gets their way in giving amnesty to those “undocumenteds” who are already here. Why even bother to call them illegal because nobody’s even made half of an attempt to enforce these so-called “immigration laws” in about eight years.

As for the buses being burned, the story in the paper said that the buses had been burned before, so that can pretty much probably be attributed an independent nut or group of independent nuts. The issue of illegal immigration isn’t so much of an issue of people of a different culture, race or color as much as it is our government encouraging mass immigration of a group of people across an open, virtually non-existant joke-of-a-border so that they can make their rich campaign contributors even richer at the expense of hardworking Americans who are already here.

The introduction of 12-20 million poor immigrants, almost overnight, has put pressure on many people and places that weren’t doing that well to begin with. “Undocumented” immigration has put even more stress on an already overburdened and stressed out health-care system. The already underperforming public schools in many cities are now bursting at the seams with tens-of-thousands of students who don’t speak English (see Gwinnett County). The introduction of tens of millions of low-paid, low-skilled laborers has put tight constraints on the national job market at a time when energy prices, college tuition and prices for vital consumer goods and services is going through the roof despite the overall numbers of relatively low national unemployment and controlled inflation.

By Remmie

April 19, 2006 05:10 PM | Link to this

Hats off to Governor Purdue and the State of Georgia for passing and signing SB529. It’s too bad that the State will still be burdened with educating the thousands of children of illegals which will continue to cause overcrowding of schools at increasing costs to taxpayers. At least it’s a start. Georgia is enforcing immigration laws that the US government refuses to do at a realistic level and in support of the outcries of the majority of American citizens. Hopefully SB 529 will mean that the needs of citizens and LEGAL immigrants to Georgia will be first priority.

By The reality

April 19, 2006 05:35 PM | Link to this

1994, NAFTA is signed and US maintains its wealth and influence over latin america. The free trade agreement hardly provides free trade at all. Part of free trade is workers being able to cross borders and find jobs in the suppposedly free trade economy. Now that immigrants have finally figured out that they can find a decent living on the other side of the border, we are complaining because they cause a little bump in the road. Wake up people, you got it so much better than any Mexican ever did living in Mexico. If you want someone to subsidize all the Mexicans moving here, ask the people getting rich off of NAFTA and free trade (a.k.a. the rich CEO’s to whom you keep giving tax cuts). It seems to me that everyone wants to blame the pawn in this game.

By Remmie

April 19, 2006 05:37 PM | Link to this

To ACC 12 BOOSTER: To add to your comments regarding politicians pandering for votes: what makes us think that illegals are not voting, when a utility bill is about all that is required to obtain a Voter’s Registration Card? Aside from that there is the fast growing problem of phony documents used by illegals.

By PinestrawGuy

April 19, 2006 05:51 PM | Link to this

TheTruth,

You said, “Legal immigrants are already taking middle and upper middle jobs. It’s called the H1B Visa and the primary holders are from India. Yet I hear no one screaming about that. These H1Bs are intended for no other purpose than to lower the wage scale of educated and skilled workers.”

You would hear plenty of people screaming about that if you were around American IT workers who are forced to train their own replacements. Additionally, many of these ‘visa’ holders never bother to go home either, becoming ILLEGAL.

As for ‘Big Business’ not being guilty, have you paid any attention to what’s happening to Mohawk Carpets in Dalton? They’re facing a Federal lawsuit under RICO for their ILLEGAL hiring practices. You can expect more of these lawsuits as American former employees of Tyson Foods, ConAgra, Smithfield, etc. learn that they too, can have their day in court. We need to punish these un-American corporations that exploit illegal aliens to increase their bottom line at the expense of legal citizens and taxpayers.

By DiverDan

April 19, 2006 07:20 PM | Link to this

I hope all you beer guzzling, rebel flag wavin xenophobes will all join D.A. King, Chip Rogers, and the rest of the Klan in holding your breath waiting for all the immigrants to leave the state of Georgia. Maybe the result will be will be a positive shift in the population and demographics of this state and a definate personnel upgrade as well.

By KB

April 19, 2006 07:21 PM | Link to this

RealityBites, The federal government has laws they will not enforce, therefore it is the duty of the state governments to do what they can to minimize the impact/damage/stress to their economies and social services caused by the influx of the invaders.

I applaud Georgia in its efforts to require documentation before social services are rendered and to clamp down on businesses who employ illegals. There is no way any Jim Crow type laws could be enacted that could survive court challenge. Get over it!

God Bless (each and every) of the United States of America. States Rights arise!

By Twinkie

April 22, 2006 08:45 PM | Link to this

I will marching May 1st, into American owned stores to do my shopping. When I’m not shopping, I will be e-mailing again, my congressmen, my senators, the news papers and the White house, to ask them once again: “Why, if our border patrol will not allow diseased fruit and vegetables into this country, they incinerate it at the border, Why, would they allow 12 million people who have not been checked for disease or criminal background to come into the US. Why, would they allow these same people to tell our government to change our laws to suit them instead of the American people. Why would they allow these same people to be involved in crimes in our country and then run back to their respective countries to avoid prosecution? Why, would they take tax money that we have paid in for years and use it for medical treatment and education for people who are breaking the law everyday in this country. What will they say to those people who filled all the paperwork and paid all the fees, and those who are still in the process of doing so? will they tell them they were foolish, that they should have come here illegally so they could demand better treatment. What happened to the pride in being American? Did it end up in a dumpster somewhere? Those who did it legally, should they be proud when 12 million get to stay without doing anything but marching and waving their flags? I already know the answer to these questions but I will continue to ask them anyway. Our government is corrupt at all levels. They don’t work for the American people, they work for the lobbyist, the industries and the large campaign contributors. They tell us businesses need illegal aliens to fill the jobs. Businesses want cheap labor so they can show a bigger profit. If they want them so bad, they should have to pay and help file all the paperwork to help them become legal. The American people aren’t asking much. We just want our laws, that were put in place for the safety of our country, enforced

By Cletus Snow

April 25, 2006 02:18 PM | Link to this

Enforce the law,Protect the borders. It can’t get much simpler the that