Legislator: Immigration measure may resurface

The Georgia General Assembly next year could see the return of a sweeping immigration enforcement measure that stalled in the House as the 2018 legislative session came to an end.

House Majority Whip Christian Coomer said Wednesday that it’s possible a new version of Senate Bill 452 will surface in the upcoming session.

SB 452, which had the backing of Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, would have required prosecutors to determine whether people facing sentencing in Georgia’s courts are in the country illegally and to notify federal authorities when they are.

It also would have required defendants to be brought before a judge, even if the court has a “bond schedule” allowing them to be released on their own recognizance as soon as they are brought to a local jail. Atlanta is the only Georgia city following such a system. It was adopted after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news outlets reported that poor people were sitting in jail for weeks or months because they could not afford to post bonds for crimes such as begging for money or urinating in public.

“We ran out of time before we had finished all the bills that were worthwhile,” Coomer, R-Cartersville, said in an email. “Other bills took priority and SB 452 wasn’t called before the clock struck midnight.”

He added that the Legislature could take up issues covered in SB 452 next year.

“It is not uncommon for significant legislation to take multiple legislative sessions to become law,” he said. “If the state’s interest in reasonable law enforcement approaches to criminal aliens and misdemeanor bail issues remains high, then another version of the bill may see movement next year.”

Cagle, a GOP candidate for governor, released a statement this week saying he was disappointed about SB 452’s fate.

“I will not give up on enforcing the law to keep our citizens safe,” he said. “Law enforcement agencies at every level of government should work together to make sure that criminal illegal aliens who commit serious crimes are arrested, convicted, deported, and never allowed back inside our nation’s borders.”

Immigrant rights groups, meanwhile, are celebrating the bill’s failure to advance. They demonstrated outside the statehouse, delivered letters of opposition to Gov. Nathan Deal and House Speaker David Ralston, and sent an open letter to Facebook and Amazon detailing their objections to SB 452. Both companies are considering expanding in Georgia.

“Yesterday was sine die, the last the day of the Georgia legislative session,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta said Friday. “Our team spent hours working to make sure SB 452 did not get called up for a vote before midnight — and we were successful!”