Georgia’s NOT “Like Nazi Germany!”
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, April 20, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
They were discussing S.B. 452 when the Republican vice-chairman of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee said, “This isn’t Nazi Germany – we are not asking people to carry their papers around on them at all times.”
He’s right, this is not Nazi Germany, but he was wrong to change the word “shall” in S.B. 452 to “may,” because shall is a requirement; may is permissive, and requires nothing. After gutting shall from the bill, the vice-chairman explained it this way, “In section one we did change a ‘shall’ back to a ‘may.’ There were some concerns within the business community with international companies. A CEO or somebody might be here with a foreign driver’s license and if they were pulled over for some reason and if they didn’t have their visa on them … we want to allow for the police officer to maintain some discretion there.”
S.B. 452 is the Ensuring Necessary Deportations Act that would have allowed peace officers to investigate and learn the immigration status of criminal suspects. It, also, required sentencing courts to determine the defendant’s legal status and send the result to the Department of Homeland Security. It would have required local law enforcement to comply with federal law and cooperate with ICE by detaining, arresting and transporting the criminal.The result of killing S.B. 452 means local business groups and ethnic lobbies can continue pressuring police chiefs to minimize the reporting and deportation of illegal alien workers in Georgia.
Georgia ranks seven in the top ten states with the most illegal aliens. In 2016, Georgia’s 393,000 illegal aliens outnumbered Arizona’s 264,000 illegals by 129,000. Some crossed the border illegally, others over-stayed visas, but all are subject to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act that requires every alien, age 18 and older, to carry and have in personal possession an alien registration certificate or registration card issued according to law. Noncompliance is a misdemeanor that could result in 30 days in jail and a $100 fine.
The vice-chairman, also, removed language requiring courts to tell federal officials when an illegal alien is convicted of any crime in Georgia. Because of the House change, if S.B. 452 had passed, only felony convictions would have been reported; but lesser crimes would not. S.B. 452 passed the Senate intact, but died when the House amended it to death. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.