State Rep. Matt Ramsey will play a pivotal role in shaping Georgia’s take on immigration reform. Ramsey, who lives in Peachtree City, has been appointed to co-chair a joint House/Senate panel that will be looking at solutions to immigration issues to “pick up where Washington D.C. has let us down,” according to House Speaker David Ralston.
“The creation of this joint committee was inspired by the federal government’s continued failure to deal with the problem of illegal immigration and its drain on taxpayer resources in Georgia,” Ralston said.
Joining Ramsey as co-chair will be Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming. The committee consists of 14 members, half coming from each side of the legislature.
Ralston appointed the House members of the panel, while the Senate members were appointed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
“If the federal government continues to neglect its responsibility to enforce the law, we’re going to use every option at our disposal to lessen its impact in Georgia,” Cagle said. “The members of this committee will take a broad, in-depth look at ways to confront this problem and offer concrete solutions to improve the regulations we have on the books already.”
The Georgia Board of Regents this month will be considering a policy that would allow the state to deny admission to any illegal immigrant. According to news accounts, only 501 students are recorded as undocumented among a total of about 310,000 enrolled students in Georgia’s public colleges and universities.
In addition to setting the scene for the 2011 legislative session, the committee work may very well frame into a significant issue in the race for governor between former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, and his opponent former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal.
