by Ashmin Chowdhury
Though surrounded by controversy, the Georgia Legislature passed House Bill 87, known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011 on April 14. The bill allows for the police to investigate and verify the legal status of arrested suspects. It also creates new guidelines for employers to check the status of current and potential employees.
House Bill 87 allows both local and state police officers to arrest illegal immigrants as well as help get them deported. The bill also places a fine of up to $250,000 or up to 15 years in prison for those caught with false identification.
Businesses are being asked to use the E-Verify program to check legal status of employees. This is to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the workforce and reaping the benefits of the job.
“It’s good that the [state] is trying to crack down on illegal immigration as it is becoming more and more of an issue,” said senior Sharmin Moushumi. “However, I still think they could have been less aggressive with their dealing with it.”
A major concern for those who support the act is the flow of money out of our economy. Since undocumented workers do not pay taxes, their money does not continuously flow through the economic cycle. As a result, money leaks out weakening the strength of America’s economy.
“Illegal immigrants take away jobs from residents of our state and as a student I have to consider the fact that I intend on joining the workforce soon,” said junior Shavonne Garner. “This act can help free up jobs that we can potentially take and if the illegal immigrants really want to stay here, they should get the proper documentation first.”
The Los Angeles Times reported in April that there were roughly 480,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia, which is 20,000 more than in Arizona. Even so, students at Chamblee are not concerned about securing borders, but rather how this act will impact them.
“Of course it’s wrong for them to treat people like objects, undocumented or not, but my issue is that there may be some funding going into this new law,” said junior Ada Odey. “That could be money that could go towards education or even the space program.”
For Keila Pinto the immigration bill is something very important with emotional attachment. Pinto attended the protest in late March at the State Capitol along with thousands of other people. She felt that it was important to show the governor how much Hispanics impacted the community as a whole in Georgia. The protest’s ultimate goal was to try and stop the bill from passing.
“If you go onto streets like Buford Highway, you can see that pretty much everything is run and owned by the Hispanics, for the Hispanic,” said Pinto. “Now imagine all of that being gone. We are a very large group in Georgia after all.”
People against the new act feel that the government should take steps to make it easier for people to become legal residents.
“If we could, we would buy cars and houses. Then there would be higher demand for houses, and dealerships would profit. That would lead to more jobs,” said Pinto. “We already play a big part in the economy, and we can make it even better.”