Gustavo Valdes
CNN
4/15/2011
Gov. Nathan Deal of Georgia plans to sign into law what may be one of the nation’s toughest anti-illegal immigration measures, his spokesman, Brian Robinson, said Friday.
Unmoved by threats of boycotts and lawsuits, the Republican-dominated Georgia Legislature passed the tough law Thursday night, during the final hours of this year’s legislative session. Robinson did not say when the governor would sign the measure.
“The bill reflects well the priorities and principles on which the governor campaigned … last year,” he said. “We believe that it reinforces the law in Georgia.”
Among other things, the bill allows law enforcement officers to ask about immigration status when questioning suspects in certain criminal investigations. It punishes people who transport illegal immigrants during the commission of a crime and imposes hefty prison sentences on those who use fake documents to get jobs.
After the vote, the bill’s author, Republican state Rep. Matt Ramsey, declared, “We have done the job that we were sent to do.”
Ramsey said the bill addresses issues forced on the states because of the federal government’s decades-long failure to secure the nation’s borders.
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