EFE
Georgia prisons will now be required to review inmates' immigration status and apply to help enforce federal immigration law, according to a new bill that gained momentum after police charged a Venezuelan man with killing a woman. nursing student on the University of Georgia campus.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law Wednesday at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. Most provisions will take effect immediately.
The Republican governor passed a separate law that requires bail for 30 other crimes and prevents individuals and charitable bail funds from bailing out more than three people a year unless they qualify to become a bail bond company. This law will come into force on July 1.
Kemp said Wednesday that the immigration bill, called HB 1105, “became one of our top priorities after the senseless death of Laken Riley at the hands of someone who was in this country illegally and who had already been arrested after to cross the border.”
Jose Ibarra was arrested on charges of murder and assault in the death of 22-year-old Laken Riley. Immigration authorities said Ibarra, 26, entered the United States without authorization in 2022. It is not known if he had requested asylum. Riley's murder sparked a political firestorm as conservatives used the case to blame President Joe Biden for immigration failures.
“If a person enters our country illegally and proceeds to commit other crimes in our communities, we will not allow his crimes to go unpunished,” Kemp said.
Opponents warn that the law would turn local police into immigration police, making migrants less willing to report crimes and work with authorities. Opponents also point to studies showing that migrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.
The law sets out specific requirements for how jail officials must communicate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to determine whether inmates are known to be in the country illegally. Previously, Georgia law only encouraged officials to do so, but under the new law, it will be a crime to “deliberately and intentionally” fail to check immigration status. The law would also deny state funding to local governments that do not cooperate.
