GOP GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES TALK TOUGH ON IMMIGRATION

Georgia's republican candidates for governor are hitting the immigration issue left and right. Well, mostly to the right that is. At debates and forums, on their websites and in TV ads, the four top contenders in the GOP primary say they would support a tough immigration law like the one that recently passed in Arizona. All of them are also calling on state college administrators to make sure no illegal immigrants attend state schools.
Nathan Deal would put into law legislation similar to what passed in Arizona.
Karen Handel thinks we should check the legal status of students, and that those who are not here legally should be removed from school and should be sent back to their country of origin -- by whom she is not stating but maybe she is suggesting that the public universities now enforce our immigration laws?
Former state Sen. Eric Johnson earlier this month unveiled a proposal that would require elementary and secondary schools to collect citizenship data on enrolling students and also would require public hospitals to find out which patients are in the country legally. Apart from being unconstitutional, does he expect those people collecting the data to be able to understand the various legal statuses?
At least about this recent proposal Deal has said teachers and hospitals shouldn't be dragged into enforcement of immigration laws.
John Oxendine has said he will work with the state's next attorney general to sue the federal government to recoup prison and other costs incurred by the state for the detention of any illegal immigrant. His reasoning for that is that states wouldn't have to bear those costs if the federal government had effectively done its job of keeping illegal immigrants out. Such a measure is doomed to fail and will just cost us taxpayers more money.
All these candidates agree that Georgia needs to do more if the federal government does not enforce immigration laws. The justice department just sued Arizona over the implementation of the law, and we'll have to see how that goes.
What a sad state of affairs for Georgia and Georgians...