When was hb 87 passed in georgia

Atlanta CNN -- The Georgia House on Thursday passed a tough immigration law that would require employers to verify the legal status of workers they hire. House Bill 87, which has been likened to the Arizona immigration law, was passed and goes to the state Senate. Under the measure, Georgia companies would be required to use E-Verify, a federal database, to check the documentation of current and prospective employees.

That database had been created by Congress as a voluntary, discretionary resource. The bill criminalizes the transportation of illegal immigrants and allows law enforcement officials to check the legal status of people in custody in certain situations. Lamar Smith Texas , and Sen. Chuck Grassley Iowa —are pushing a mandatory federal E-Verify bill.

They have even taken offense at the notion that hard-working American citizens would not want these jobs. In addition to tearing communities and families apart and jeopardizing all of our civil rights, enforcement-only policies put our economy in grave danger.

Daniel Altschuler has written extensively on Central American politics and U. He is a contributing blogger to AQ Online and holds a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. To read more of his writing, visit danielaltschuler. As they have throughout the debate, leaders in the local Latino community railed against the measure.

Among them were several dozen people who demonstrated Friday outside the governor's office at the state Capitol, chanting, "Shame on you. The legislation drew threats of lawsuits targeting the bill, as well as boycotts aimed at forcing the government's hand. The group Southerners on New Ground is calling for a national boycott of conventions and vacation travel to Georgia, while a blog entry on the website of the group Somos Georgia warned, "Veto HB 87 or Boycott!

It's your choice, Governor Deal!! Similar efforts have been pursued -- with some success -- targeting other states that have passed legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. Nonetheless, anti-illegal immigrant bills can still be found from coast to coast. The National Conference of State Legislatures found that, in alone, more than 1, bills were introduced aiming to give individual states more of a role in immigration enforcement.

First, Georgia is already beginning to see a severe labor shortage from workers avoiding the state due to its immigration law. Farm gate value is only a metric of the amount of money at the time of sale from the farm itself, not the ultimate price that consumers might pay. So these figures are conservative at best in terms of total economic loss to the state.

Second, the effects of a lack of migrant labor will be felt most acutely by small farmers, who are already at a comparative disadvantage with larger growers. Losses in the agricultural sector have a multiplier effect that resounds throughout the economy. Similarly, many small communities in Georgia rely on the money and consumption power of migrant workers to stay afloat, and they are in danger of seeing signicant losses to their already strapped economies.

Losing hand- picked crops in Georgia such as berries, peaches, and onions would force us to import these crops from other countries. This change leaves our food security, health, and safety standards in the hands of others. Similarly, food prices will increase with longer travel times. Evans must wait until the seven-day-a-week, hour shifts begin before he can determine how much his business, which runs on all-Hispanic crews, will be affected by the labor shortages.