GEORGIA IMMIGRATION REVIEW BOARD DISMISSES VIDALIA COMPLAINT

The Georgia Immigration Review Board (created by HB87) - that oversees enforcement of Georgia's immigration laws has dismissed a complaint filed earlier this year by a Michael Dale Smith that the city of Vidalia is harboring illegal workers.
The complaint basically accused the city of giving undocumented immigrants safe harbor by allowing them to work and live in the city limits. City officials denied his allegations.
The Board of course did not have any evidence and subsequently did not find anything actionable. What a whopping waste of time and taxpayers' money.

GEORGIA WANTS THE ALIEN SMUGGLING PROVISIONS BACK IN FORCE

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens has filed a motion with the 11th Circuit federal appeals court in Atlanta hoping to convince the court to approve the alien smuggling provision in HB87, a provision that the court specifically threw out (or issued a permanent injunction against) because it is unconstitutional.
The state wants to make it illegal for anyone to transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime. This is ridiculous - the state wants to jail anyone who happens to help somebody who is undocumented, like driving someone to the supermarket while speeding.
The states simply don't have jurisdiction to legislate an area of immigration law when the federal government has already entered that area, such as this case, which is exactly what the court decided.
The court very rarely agrees to rehear a case that was already decided before a three-judge panel. We hope the 11th Circuit denies the state's request for rehearing.

25 GEORGIA ORGANIZATION WRITE TO END 287(G) AGREEMENTS

25 Georgia organizations and civic groups sent a Letter to DHS secretary Napolitano urging her to put an end to 287(g) agreements ICE has with local police departments in some Georgia counties.

The letter says that 287(g) agreements have led to racial profiling and due process violations, eroded trust between police and the community, and undermined public safety. 287(g) agreements are most prevalent in communities with fast-growing Latino populations, not high crime rates.  The program then becomes an excuse for racial profiling and a hindrance to public safety. 

A report by the University of North Carolina found that 87 percent of people booked through the 287(g) program were merely charged with misdemeanors, not felonies.  Agencies have even arrested crime victims.

You can read the full letter at:

http://www.acluga.org/files/1213/4763/7948/287g_letter_Georgia_final.pdf

BIGOT FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST 1214 GEORGIA AGENCIES

D.A. King, an anti-immigrant bigot, filed a complaint in July with the Georgia Immigration Enforcement Review Board that accused 1,214 government agencies in the state of failing to provide information to the state Department of Audits and Accounts to allow it to determine whether they’re subject to HB87. Another pathetic outcome of HB87 that wastes our taxpayer's money and limited public resources.
Among the local and county agencies that King cited are in violation (according to him and no one else), which is unsupported by any evidence, are: Cobb Solid Waste Management Authority, Housing Authority of Cobb, Housing Authority of Acworth, and other agencies. The list is long.
The overall list does contains a number of cities in Georgia and many agencies, which in some counties, like  Cobb, are simply boards whose members are volunteers charged with providing recommendations and typically do not staff employees (and thus exempt from the E-verify requirement).
How the useless Immigration Enforcement Review Board will act upon this complaint remains to be seen.