Ga. Legislature Passes New ‘Sanctuary Cities’
Bill, by Elly Yu, 3/21/16
The Georgia
General Assembly has sent a bill to Gov. Nathan Deal that requires local
governments to certify they’re cooperating with federal immigration officials
in order to get state funding.
Georgia already
has a law banning local governments from “sanctuary policies” for immigrants
living in the country without legal status. State Sen. Jesse Stone, R-
Waynesboro,
who’s sponsoring the bill, SB 269, said on the Senate floor this new
measure would tighten that law by adding a reporting requirement.
“All this does
is require a certification annually that there is no sanctuary city policy in
effect at the local level,” Stone said.
“Sanctuary
cities” sparked debate last year after reports that an immigrant without legal
status shot and killed a woman in San Francisco after being released from local
law enforcement, despite requests from federal immigration officials to hold
him and be notified ahead of time of his release.
Rusi Patel,
associate general counsel with the Georgia Municipal Association, said the new
law in Georgia would add a requirement to a compliance report local governments
already file.
“As far we
know, there are no sanctuary cities in the state,” Patel said. “So really the
big change here isn’t that big of a change. It just adds another question to
that report so the state can actually keep track of whether or not there are
sanctuary cities.”
Some Georgia
Republican lawmakers have criticized some metro Atlanta counties – Fulton,
DeKalb and Clayton -- that don’t hold inmates beyond their release without a
warrant, despite requests from federal immigration authorities.
DeKalb County,
for instance, stopped honoring hold requests starting in 2014, but does notify
of pending releases, according to a spokesperson for the county Sheriff's
office. Spokespersons for the DeKalb and Fulton Sheriffs' offices said
they don’t consider themselves as “sanctuaries.”
Opponents of
the measure say the “sanctuary policy” law on the books is overly broad, and
could restrict local law enforcement agencies from enacting policies to address
police-immigrant relations.
“There’s a lot
of things that local police departments have to do in terms of community
outreach to reassure immigrant communities that if they report crimes, that the
person reporting the crime is not necessarily going to get in trouble with immigration
authorities,” said David Schaefer, director of policy and advocacy at the Latin
American Association.
The bill passed
the state Senate 49-2 and the state House 118-52.
Comments
Like lots
of Georgia laws, there is one on the books, but some cities and counties don’t
comply. Going after illegal criminals should not be a problem, but we will know
more after ICE checks us out.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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