State Representative Matt Ramsey of Peachtree City says law enforcement officers already have the power to check the immigration status of any person booked into jail on a felony charge.
Under his proposed immigration bill, that power would extend to persons booked on misdemeanors and other criminal suspects including those investigated on a traffic stop, Ramsey said this week.
The new bill does not require law enforcement agencies to deport any undocumented “illegal” persons, but increasing that net will give officials the opportunity to at least report the illegal residents to federal immigration authorities, Ramsey added.
“We can’t mandate that the verification check happen, it has to be the officer’s discretion,” Ramsey said.
The bill would allow the officer to detain the person if they are determined to be an illegal immigrant, with the potential for transporting them to federal immigration officials if space is available to house them, Ramsey said.
Currently, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is only housing and deporting illegal immigrants who are charged with felonies, he said.
Critics of the bill allege that it would encourage racial profiling by law enforcement officers. Ramsey says the bill “expressly prohibits the use of racial profiling for the purposes of enforcing the provisions of the bill.”
The real issue is whether the federal government will meet its immigration enforcement obligations, Ramsey added.
“This is an effort to do every single thing we as state policy makers can do to remove every possible incentive there is for illegal aliens to come to our state,” Ramsey said.
While some critics have complained that the immigration checks will impede law enforcement officers from doing their jobs, Ramsey countered that they already must identify suspects in all criminal investigations anyway.
The bill also addresses public benefits that are provided to illegal immigrants by state and local governments. One of the biggest reasons the legislature is focusing on illegal immigrants is the money spent by the state, Ramsey said.
“There’s a lot of data out there. One of the highest figures I’ve seen is potentially a $2.4 billion a year impact on state and local governments in the taxpayer-funded subsidy of 425,000 illegal aliens,” Ramsey said, explaining the population estimate came from new data released last week. “That’s real money that my constituents and every other representative’s constituents are footing the bill for.”
In comparison, the General Assembly is looking at a need for $1.3 billion in cuts needed to balance the state budget this year.
The increase in illegal immigrants has also overburdened the school system and the state’s healthcare system, Ramsey added.
