(NewsInsights.org) – Republican lawmakers in Georgia claimed a recent murder inspired them to write and pass legislation regarding immigrants. House Bill 1105 would require jailers within the state to report the immigration status of foreign-born detainees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Failure to do so could lead to misdemeanor charges and the loss of state funding to jails and departments that refuse to comply.
The bill’s sponsor, state Representative Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah), pointed to the murder case of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, who attended the Athens campus of Augusta University. On Thursday, February 22, her roommate reported her missing when she failed to return from a morning run through a densely wooded area. Authorities discovered her body the same day.
They arrested a Venezuelan national, Jose Ibarra, 26, who allegedly entered the country illegally, on assault and murder charges in connection with the student’s death. Prosecutors allege that Ibarra beat Riley to death. Petrea made his accusation more pointed, saying that Ibarra claimed he came to the US for asylum. Yet, “He was here for assault,” Petrea said, according to Fox News.
Petrea believes jailers at every level, from sheriffs to the Department of Corrections, have become lax about reporting non-citizens to ICE and claimed the legislation would penalize them for any future failures. Yet sheriffs have denied disregarding the current laws requiring them to check with ICE.
State Representative Houston Gaines (R-Athens) told reporters that “Fixing policy in the face of unspeakable tragedy” wasn’t “politics.” Instead, he called it a preventative action to correct a systemic problem. Petrea insisted that failures to cooperate with federal immigration authorities had served to endanger the public and trivialize the nation’s immigration laws.
State House Democrats lobbied against the legislation, saying it capitalized on fear-mongering and profiling. They said sponsors didn’t base their claims regarding immigrant crime on actual statistics, which the Liberals claimed showed that migrants are less likely to commit crimes.
Still, the bill passed the House on a 97-74 vote on Thursday, February 29. The bill has moved to the state Senate for debate before coming to a vote.
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