Georgia House Passes Bill Allowing Police to Arrest Suspected Illegal Aliens

The Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill that requires police and sheriff’s departments to help identify illegal aliens, arrest them, and detain them for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

The vote for House Bill 1105 was 97-74. This vote came as police charged Jose Ibarra, an illegal alien from Venezuela, for the assault and murder of Laken Riley. Ibarra illegally entered the United States in 2022. Laken was a nursing student at Augusta University’s Athens campus who began her college career at the University of Georgia. She was murdered while jogging on a popular trail on UGA’s campus last week.

The bill moves to the Georgia Senate for debate.

The bill sets new requirements for jail officials to check with ICE to determine if people who don’t appear to be American citizens are known to be in the United States illegally. This will enforce an existing state law that requires sheriffs to check with ICE for anyone who does not appear to be an American citizen. 

“Fixing policy in the face of unspeakable tragedy is not politics,” said Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican. “It’s doing the right thing to ensure something like this never occurs again.”

Sheriffs deny that they are not following current laws and checking with ICE. This bill makes sheriffs who do not check immigration status guilty of a misdemeanor. It also denies state funding to jails and sheriffs that do not cooperate.

Responding to criticism that this is about politics, one Republican lawmaker said it is not about politics but about doing the right thing.

“Fixing policy in the face of unspeakable tragedy is not politics,” said Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican. “It’s doing the right thing to ensure something like this never occurs again.”

This sounds as though there was a lack of consistency by local law enforcement when it came to checking legal status when someone was taken into custody. Georgia is not a sanctuary state. Some cities, though, like Athens, have been acting as sanctuary cities. 

This bill sounds a lot like a bill in Texas that is currently being legally challenged by the Biden administration. The Texas law goes further, though, as it allows judges to remove illegal aliens from Texas. A federal judge ruled last week that Texas Senate Bill 4 violates the Constitution and prior Supreme Court rulings that put the federal government in charge of immigration laws. Senate Bill 4 was scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday. Texas is appealing the judge’s ruling. Governor Abbott is trying to do what President Biden will not do – secure the Texas border with Mexico.

Georgia Democrats do not support the bill. They claim the bill will cause long detentions and separate parents from their U.S.-born children. They say it produces distrust of police in immigrant communities. 

“We want justice for what happened to Laken Riley. We don’t want violent people who are here legally or not legally to be on the streets,” said Rep. Esther Panitch, a Sandy Springs Democrat. “But this bill won’t do it. This bill won’t close our borders. It will not make us safer, and it will not make women safer.”

The bill would increase efforts for public safety. It would take those arrested and found to be illegally in the country off the streets. And it gives local law enforcement a mandate to enforce state law. 

Georgia Latino lawmakers are at odds with each other. Democrat Rep. Pedro Marin, the longest-serving Latino member of the House, said this is fearmongering of foreigners. But a Latino Republican, Rep. Rey Martinez, said that Republicans are only targeting criminals. “We’re not after the immigrants. We’re not. We’re not after them,” Martinez said. “What we are after is these folks who commit crime. That’s what we’re after.”

The Biden administration has not made a program that requires law enforcement to help ICE in cities and counties a priority. The agreement, known as a 287(g) agreement, lets local law enforcement enforce immigration law. Currently, only six of 159 Georgia counties have 287(g) agreements with ICE. One country, an Athens suburb, serves warrants for immigration violations and deportation orders. State agencies cooperate with ICE. But, three Georgia counties dropped jail-based cooperation with ICE, including two big suburban Atlanta counties. 

This is Biden’s America. State and local agencies are forced to act when Biden refuses to do so. Open borders and failure to enforce immigration laws is a public safety issue. Illegal aliens chose to enter the country by ignoring U.S. law. Biden’s border crisis allows them to stay. Every state is a border state now and laws should reflect that.