5/1 – CBSAtlanta (Video) – Protesters Urge Gov. Deal To Veto Immigration Bill – Atlanta News Story – WGCL Atlanta

Protesters Urge Gov. Deal To Veto Immigration Bill – Atlanta News Story – WGCL Atlanta.

Hundreds Of Protestors Demonstrate At Capitol

By Michelle Marsh, CBS Atlanta Reporter

POSTED: 6:53 pm EDT May 1, 2011

UPDATED: 7:28 am EDT May 2, 2011

ATLANTA — Hundreds of protesters who are against House Bill 87 demonstrated outside of the Capitol building.”I think it’s against human rights. This bill shouldn’t be passed, it’s not right,” protester Evelene Cortez said.Protesters are urging Gov. Nathan Deal to veto the bill.HB 87 will allow law enforcement to question the immigration status of some suspects, and require most business owners to use E-Verify to confirm their workers status.Rep. Matt Ramsey, the bill’s sponsor said, it’s designed to stop illegals from coming to Georgia for work.Friday members of Atlanta’s business community told CBS Atlanta they oppose the bill because they’re afraid it could lead to canceled conventions and big business losses.”Most of us support the economy. We’re here, we are honest workers, we don’t do anything wrong,” protester Jose Hernandez said.

4/30 – Legislators review Assembly session – Franklin County Citizen

http://www.franklincountycitizen.com/articles/2011/04/29/news/news02.txt
By Shane Scoggins

This year’s Georgia General Assembly session accomplished many things but had to deal with some tough issues, Franklin County’s three state representatives said Thursday in Royston.
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Harden said the legislature passed fewer bills this year but he considers that a good thing.

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Illegal immigration. Harden said that state’s new illegal immigration law “makes the Arizona look mild.” Georgia has a huge immigration problem, he said, that affects everything from law enforcement to health care. It also affects the state budget. “When you’re talking about illegal immigration, you can sew up a budget shortfall,” he said. The state needs to find illegal immigrants, get them on a state roll “and quite franly, get them out of here,” Harden said. Powellsaid that illegal immigration should be handled by the federal government. The new Georgia law is a good step forward, Powell said, but still has problems. Powell said he wonders what law enforcement agencies will do with illegal immigrants once they pick them up and that he has issues with requirements that inconvenience business owners. Butterworth said that the law was needed because the U.S. “must preserve what we have.” People fought and died for our right to live freely, he said. “We do not have the right to give that away. “The day after we pass the law, if CNN is criticizing it, maybe we’ve done a good thing,” he said.