With two immigration reform bills possibly up for a vote next week in Georgia's Legislature, critics of the bills warn that an unintended consequence will be decreased investment into the state from around the country and the world.

House Bill 87, which attempts to crack down on illegal immigration by mandating that businesses verify their employees' legal status, passed the House of Representatives in early March. Later in the month, a similar piece of immigration reform, Senate Bill 40, was adopted in the Senate.



While it is unclear if the bills will reach the opposite chambers for a vote, lawmakers could make a decision about the legislation before April 14, the last day of the 40-day session.



“If Atlanta and Georgia are looking to attract international business – and we certainly have done a good job of that – you want to make sure that the message is that we welcome that investment and we welcome that employment," said John Krueger, senior vice president of public policy at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.


HB 87 would require all private companies with more than five employees to use a federal E-Verify system to ensure the legality of all new hires and creates the offense of “aggravated identity theft” for the use of false information.
It also authorizes law enforcement officers to check the legal status of suspected criminals if they are unable to provide identification and makes harboring an illegal immigrant an offense.
With these types of controversial provisions, Jerry Gonzalez, the executive director of Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said businesses and conventions could boycott Georgia, as they did in Arizona.


After Arizona's legislature passed Senate Bill 1070, which makes it a misdemeanor crime for an illegal immigrant to be caught without proper documentation, the state experienced boycotts from a number of organizations and cancellations on political- and business-related conventions.


According to data from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the tourism industry employs 234,100 people in Georgia and is the second largest sector in the state.
With Georgia's large tourism sector, this type of boycott would have a much greater economic impact on Georgia than Arizona, said Mr. Gonzalez.


Full article: http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/24699