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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Immigration statute headed south?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lorraine Green says she won’t back down on an ordinance barring illegal immigrants from working on county projects.
But Green and her commission colleagues might not have a choice.
At a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said the ordinance attempts to regulate immigration, something only the federal government can do, by punishing county contractors who hire illegal immigrants.
Cooper wasn’t issuing a final ruling on the matter, but his comments suggested the ordinance could be in trouble.
Green, who crafted the proposal, thinks the judge’s concerns could be satisfied “with just a few tweaks.”
But if that means removing the sanctions against contractors who hire illegal immigrants, that seems more like a chomp than a tweak.
The statute currently allows the county to terminate a contract with any company that uses illegal immigrants to perform a county service.
The contractor also can be forced to reimburse the county for the cost of starting the project over with a new company.
Without such sanctions, what’s left is basically an ordinance that requires contractors to sign an affidavit stating they don’t have undocumented workers on their payrolls.
And there don’t seem to be consequences if they do.
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