ATLANTA — At the State Capitol, some Republican lawmakers said they want to toughen immigration laws – even though immigration is largely a federal issue.
State Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens), who has introduced a bill designed to create financial penalties for communities – he says Athens is one of them – that don’t sufficiently enforce immigration laws.
But his immigration bill is among the few pending in the Georgia legislature. State Sen. Jason Estevez (D-Atlanta) said the issue is mostly out of the state’s jurisdiction.
"There has been a standstill in Washington, and no appetite to actually solve that crisis," Estevez said.
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Democrats point out that a bipartisan immigration bill was negotiated at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, but then never came to a vote under the weight of election year politics.
"The former president’s decision (Donald Trump) to deliberately tank the bipartisan border security legislation that was proceeding through the Senate was so destructive in my view to our national security," U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said.
Gov. Brian Kemp more pointedly blames Democratic president Joe Biden. He was among the Republicans who said better enforcement of existing laws could have kept Laken Riley’s alleged killer away from the victim. The young nursing student, enrolled at Augusta University, was found dead on the University of Georgia's campus last week.
The suspect, Jose Ibarra, is facing malice murder and other charges. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Sunday he was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in September 2022 after unlawfully crossing into the United States near El Paso, Texas. He was released for further processing, officials said.
"Laken’s death is a direct result from failed policies on the federal level," Kemp told an audience in Athens Monday. "That is a failure of our system on multiple levels and at multiple times and has resulted in a young woman’s death. That is inexcusable."
"This was a recipe for disaster and it’s awful what happened," Gaines said.
Gaines’ bill was due for a hearing Monday afternoon.