HB 87 Analysis – The Emperor has No Clothes; Increased Taxes, Unfunded Mandates and Economy Destroying Litigation

A detailed review of HB 87, the purported ” Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” reveals that this bill does not reform illegal immigration nor does it enforce laws related to illegal immigration. What it does do is increase taxes on every citizen of Georgia by increasing government regulation, creates unfunded mandates for every county, city, town, and village in Georgia, and creates new private rights of action against every Georgia policy that will absolutely result in hundreds of lawsuits that will drain taxpayer coffers and result in little, if any real change on illegal immigration.
The Faulty Premise of HB 87
Without belaboring the point, this type of legislation is popular because it gives the perception that the state is doing something, which the federal government is purportedly not doing—enforcing federal laws on illegal immigration. The problem with this notion is two-fold. First, the federal government is doing more than it has EVER done in enforcing the laws on undocumented immigration. The Obama Administration is spending literally billions of taxpayer dollars building fences, hiring border patrol agents, detaining undocumented immigrants and actually deported 400,000 people last year—a record. Second, HB 87 DOES NOT creates any greater degree of enforcement than already exists under current state and federal law. By September 30, 2010, everyone arrested today in Georgia will be run through the Secure Communities program, and if they are unlawfully present in the United States they will be held for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to pick up within 48 hours. Without discussing the deleterious results of this program (DWH—Driving While Hispanic), it has resulted in a record number of cases filling our Immigration Court dockets.
So, if this bill does NOT reform immigration, does NOT effectively increase enforcement, and does NOT make Georgia safer, what does ...