Pending Anti-immigrant Bills in Georgia Legislation

Posted by Harsharn Makkar

Georgia legislators are considering several bills that are anti-immigrant, which severely impact illegal immigrants.  These bills are designed either to limit their movement on our roads or limit their ability to function here.  Consider the following bills, which are designed to limit immigrants’ movement here.  One of those bills is House Bill (HB) 978, which allows the police to seize cars driven by illegal immigrants who violate traffic laws when involved in an accident regardless of who owns the vehicle.  Another House Bill 971 makes it a misdemeanor for an illegal immigrant to drive in Georgia with an out-of-state license and a Senate Bill (SB) 25 makes it a felony if an applicant or his/her agent was to lie about the applicant’s citizenship to renew a driver’s license or tag.  Lastly, Senate Bill (SB) 350 makes it a felony to drive without a Georgia license on the fourth conviction within 5 years.

Similarly, there are several other bills pending that limit illegal immigrant’s ability to function here by doing away with birthright citizenship or promoting English-only policies.  For example, House Bill (HB) 127 urges Congress to deny automatic citizenship to children born to illegal immigrant mothers.  Another example is Senate Bill (SB) 335, which prohibits state agencies from requiring or giving preferences to those applicants with other language skills for a particular position.  Lastly, House Bill (HB) 1028 allows a 2% fee on wire transfers, and allows the transfer company to keep up to 20% of that fee to cover collection and record-keeping costs.

Some of these bills have passed the Senate.  Others are still pending.  Many are working to stop this anti-immigrant pieces of legislation from moving forward since it not only impacts illegal immigrants but it also affects legal immigrants as well as potential immigrants.