The Senate from Georgia passed a draft law on Thursday, which would enable employees and officials of the local government in so -called sanctuary cities to make civil law for crimes without constant legal status.
The sponsor of Senate Bill 21Republican Senator Blake Tilley from Vidalia, said.
Several refugee authorities in Georgia have come together to oppose “anxious” laws against Latinos and other immigrants, and argue that laws such as SB 21 continue to encourage the mass deportation policy issued since the Republican President, Donald Trump, in January.
Two Democrats, Senator David Lucas of Macon and Senator Freddie Powell Sims from Dawson, voted for the draft law that 33-18 passed. The measure now moves to the house.
The proposal foregoes the sovereign immunity for local governments that have been illegal in Georgia since 2009 that say goodbye to a sanctuary policy. The sovereign immunity legally protects the governments without being sued.
“Today the Senate took a considerable step into the security of our local communities and all of Georgia,” said governor Burt Jones, governor Burt Jones. “If you illegally enter our country, you violate the law, period. While President Donald Trump is fighting at the national level to secure our borders and keep illegal immigrants away from the street, we will do the same in Georgia.
“As part of our ongoing commitment and our priority to protect our citizens, we face those who try to implement a protective guideline that violates the law and criminal port,” said the Republican of Butt County.
Legislation is a consequence of a law on 2024, in which local governments take the risk of losing state funds if they do not enforce the federal immigration laws. The new law also states that police officers and local officials could be charged with offense if they did not meet.
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This year Trump published a number of immigration orders that increased the border security and the number of raids carried out by the federal immigration authorities. Trump signed immediately The Riley Act sheetNamed after a nursing student killed by a Venezuelan citizen on the University of Georgia campus on the campus of the University of Georgia, which, according to immigration authorities, has illegally entered the country.
“We have seen a politicization of the law, and it has sometimes become popular to take positions to say that this may be the law, but I will not enforce it,” said Tilley. “This has become such a hot button problem that it is about immigration that I think our state has to take a different position.”
Several Democrats of the Senate spoke out against a legislative proposal, which they said about more serious charges could be released from custody.
Since Trump was sworn in on January 20, the raids listed by immigration and customs authorities increase with more than 8,200 arrests between the 22nd and January 31st.
Senator Elena Parent, a Democrat in Atlanta, said that the Trump government's mass deportation policy had already led to over 460 prisoners from custody due to the overcrowding in detention. The released persons must be monitored and participate in court hearings in relation to their immigration status.
Tilley said his draft law should bring in more financial risks for local governments that do not obey immigration laws.
“My claim seems to be that if we have illegal people here in this country, the crimes commit to the crimes when we get them out of our prison system and from our state and from our country, then we have additional space for those we really have to hold, ”said Tilley.
The Democratic Senator of Gwinnett County, Nabilah Islam Parkes, criticized the Republican legislators for supporting the top priority of the Republican governor Brian Kemp by restricting the civil claimant substitute assigned to the plaintiffs and at the same time removing the sovereign proportion of local governments.
Islam Parkes said so -called unauthorized trade reform At the same time, for a “right to lawsuit” like SB 21, which put local officials and educators into the potential crosslides of the complaints.
“Ask a 7-year-old where he was born, children because of his surname or the language he speaks at home, because this is exactly what opens the door,” she said. “It forces the educators to choose between the federal law pursued according to the Federal Law, which protects the right of all students on an apprenticeship, and the risk of an extremist lawsuit against immigrants who prefers to drag a teacher into court than a child successful to see. “
When the Senate voted via SB 21, a large group gathered on Thursday in State Capitol for the annual new American celebration. Spokesman for the event called the legislative template “anti-immigrants”. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
In recent years, Tillery stated that too many cases of ice cream that no people had imprisoned in the local prisons after they had been suspected of not being citizens. He dismissed the arguments that the Georgia teachers will be forced to risk their work on the basis of the Immigration Act.
“We have no third graders who create rapes and murders in our state,” he said. “I think that's a red herring. Remember that you have to do without sovereign immunity. You are responsible for the damage caused because you do not pursue a law. “
Thursday was also the day for the new American celebration in the State Capitol, on which the immigrants and refugees who made Georgia cheered their home. While the senators discussed the law, a large group of lawyers on the stages within the Capitol gathered. Several democratic legislators slipped from the Senate Chamber to speak to the group.
“There are some irony here,” said Senator Jason Esteves, a Democrat in Atlanta who voted against the bill. “Irony is the law on a law on immigrants, and at a time when we should celebrate the services of our refugee and immigrant community in the Senate Chamber, they discuss whether they should take the sovereign immunity away due to immigration laws.
“It is part of the politics that we have seen at the national level who are trying to demonize our immigrant community,” said Esteves.
The deputy editor of Georgia Recorder, Jill Nolin, contributed to this report.
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