Gov. Nathan Deal has quietly signed into law a measure that will expand Georgia’s crackdown on illegal immigration as Congress debates overhauling the nation’s immigration system.
Senate Bill 160 is aimed at blocking illegal immigrants from obtaining state driver’s licenses, grants, public housing and retirement benefits. The law, to take effect July 1, will also prevent people from using foreign passports to get public benefits in Georgia, unless those passports include paperwork indicating they are in the country legally.
Deal signed the measure Wednesday without public comment. The legislation expands on House Bill 87, a comprehensive immigration measure he signed into law in 2011.
The Republican governor’s decision to sign the new legislation comes as national GOP leaders are recalibrating their positions on immigration after President Barack Obama’s re-election win last year with about 70 percent of the Hispanic vote.
Congress is now considering a bipartisan bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. The federal Homeland Security Department estimated there were 440,000 immigrants living illegally in Georgia in 2011.
About 1,500 people marched through downtown Atlanta on April 10 in support of Congress overhauling the immigration system. Among other things, the demonstrators called on Deal to veto SB 160.
SB 160 is also intended to clean up several unintended problems created by the state’s 2011 immigration law.
For example, the bill is aimed at preventing massive backlogs for professional license renewals. Those backlogs were created by a provision in the 2011 law that requires applicants to show certain forms of “secure and verifiable” identification every time they renew their licenses.
“This legislation fixes some of the unintended consequences of the 2011 immigration legislation,” said Brian Robinson, a spokesman for the governor. “This will restore efficiency to government services, such as receiving a professional license, while still safeguarding taxpayers against the costs of illegal immigration.”
Secretary of State Brian Kemp, whose office handles professional license applications, praised the legislation.
“SB 160 will help hardworking Georgians get in the workforce faster,” he said in a prepared statement.
The Senate bill will also require all city, county and state government agencies to make their contractors use a free online work-authorization program called E-Verify. Government agencies with fewer than two employees are now exempt from this requirement.
Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, criticized Deal’s decision to sign the measure.
“It is a shame that Governor Deal continues to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment through signing SB160,” Gonzalez said in an email. “The law will make Georgia more hostile toward foreigners and make Georgia less competitive in the global marketplace. When the national GOP is moving toward immigration reform, Gov. Deal takes a huge step backward.”
Republican state Rep. Dustin Hightower of Carrollton, who sponsored similar legislation in the House, offered a different view.
“I think it will go a long way in protecting the citizens of Georgia and the taxpayers of Georgia,” said Hightower, who served on a legislative conference committee that helped craft the final version of SB 160.
Martin Lopez, an immigrant rights activist from Atlanta, was among those who demonstrated outside the state Capitol this month. He said many immigrants have been using their foreign passports as a form of identification because the state’s 2011 law prohibits officials from accepting matricula consular cards, issued by Mexico to its nationals living in other countries, when people apply for public benefits. The matricula consular card is not related to the holder’s immigration status.
“I don’t really know the outcome” of the new law. “It is going to be big,” said Lopez, who was illegally brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a child but has been granted a two-year reprieve from deportation.
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