The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act sounds like serious business, and the debate that led to its passage in 2006 was heated and emotional.

Since the law went into effect July 1 of this year, the practical impact of the law, also widely known as Senate Bill 529, has been to prompt the human resources departments in some larger Georgia companies to modernize the way they track the citizenship of new hires.

Beginning in July, Georgia companies that have more than 500 employees and that want contracts with a public agencies were required to enter every new employee's identification information into a federal work-authorization program database — a step that was voluntary before the bill was passed.

But immigration lawyers and other experts say that, despite the rhetoric that preceded the law's passage, not much has changed for employers or workers.

"Senate Bill 529 increased the penalties for fraud and hiring foreign nationals, but it's really a paper tiger," said Sanford Posner, an immigration attorney with the Atlanta firm Ellarbee, Thompson, Sapp & Wilson. "It doesn't appropriate any money for enforcement. It's really a warning shot."

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said he frequently gets media requests to accompany his enforcement agents on workplace raids. But his department doesn't conduct raids. He confirms that the General Assembly didn't appropriate money to enforce the limited provisions in the immigration act.

"On these provisions, we have not heard a tremendous amount of concern, either positive or negative," Thurmond said.

During the debate over the immigration legislation, Thurmond proposed a plan requiring employers to verify the eligible status of existing employees, which presumably would have had a much greater impact on employers and workers. But that provision wasn't included in the bill that was signed into law.

It could be that, when the law covers more businesses in coming years, the fallout will increase. In July 2008 public businesses with more than 100 employees will be required to verify new hires and in July 2009 all public businesses will be included.

Symbolic gesture?

But for now, the law is more of a symbolic pulling of Georgia's welcome mat.

"It says, essentially, if you're in the United States illegally, please don't think you can do well in our state," Posner said.

Elise Shore, Atlanta regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said her organization has set up a task force to monitor the impact of Senate Bill 529. Her offices have received a few calls from people concerned about compliance, she said.

But, Shore added, even the symbolic nature of the law is bothersome, as are the county and city ordinances perceived to have the most consequences for illegal immigrants.

"We think, generally, those kinds of regulations for federal immigration matters are not constitutional," she said.

Shore said courts are overturning local ordinances aimed at illegal immigrants, similar to the ones some metro Atlanta governments are starting to implement.

In Cobb County, a recent ordinance limits the number of people who can live in a house. Although the ordinance also applies to residents here legally, it was prompted by a concern about large numbers of immigrants living in single homes.

"If it is in conflict with federal law, we call it pre-emption," Shore said.

Hon-Vinh Duong, an immigration attorney with the Atlanta firm Troutman Sanders, said he has heard organizations are considering a legal challenge to Senate Bill 529 on the grounds that federal law pre-empts its provisions.

"You could argue that it's pre-emptive," Duong said. "But it's a hard challenge."

Duong reviewed the impact of the new law for several of his clients — including construction companies — and he said they have had little trouble complying with it.

"The companies said initially it was kind of a pain, but once we got it up and running it makes human resources' job easier and the company's job easier," he said.

Duong points out that just because an employer is participating in the federal verification program, it is not protected from getting a workplace visit from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. But, he said, participation does provide evidence that the employer made a good-faith effort to comply with the law.

Labor issues

Thurmond said that much of the debate over what to do about the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States fails to recognize that many of them are here simply to work and aren't interested in becoming citizens. Foreign nationals can achieve that status through H-1B visas, but those are typically reserved for educated people with high-level job skills.

"If you want to build a work force to compete in the future, you will need more than native-born Americans," Thurmond said. "It's an economic issue. Beyond politics and moral issues, it's a serious economic issue."

Thurmond said that if he could create an ideal immigration policy, it would boil down to some form of this four-point agenda:

• The country has to secure its borders.

• Immigrants who come here to work should be documented with visas or given some other status.

• Immigrant workers who want to pursue citizenship should be given some means to do that.

• American citizens who are displaced by immigrant workers should be given some education and training.

"The demand is there for additional workers," Thurmond said. "Unless things change, America will be facing a severe labor shortage by 2050."