Candidate for governor make life tougher for illegal's

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By Walter C. Jones

ATLANTA - One day after the University System of Georgia's Board of Regents voted to end favors for illegal immigrants, Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Johnson held a Capitol news conference Thursday where he vowed to shoo out illegals by making life tougher for them.

 

One way is to give local law enforcement a financial incentive for arresting illegal immigrants. Legislation attempting that failed to pass this year in the General Assembly, but Johnson, the former Senate president pro tempore, said he could push it through.

 

"In addition to enforcing current law, we can deter illegal immigrants from residing in Georgia by cutting off the two reasons they come here: jobs and taxpayer-funded services," he said.

 

Johnson would have every hospital and school submit a report to the state on the cost of providing federally required treatment or education to undocumented patients and students. He's trying to overcome a problem Texas had when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that state's requirement that illegal aliens pay tuition. The court said Texas didn't quantify the actual costs.

 

"When the state is furloughing teachers and increasing class sizes, it has come to a point when we have to say 'enough is enough,'" Johnson said. "It is time to build a case that the federal government must secure the border."

 

School systems already require student birth certificates and a picture ID of a parent even though they are required to accept undocumented students. Some school systems, like the Coweta County Schools, also require proof of residency to catch students trying to sneak from one of the county's districts into another.

 

The paperwork is time-consuming for administrators and a nuisance for parents, said Coweta spokesman Dean Jackson.

 

"It's required significant time each year to provide all of the documentation," he said.

 

The program Johnson outlined would also strip employers of their locally issued business license if they're caught a second time failing to check workers' citizenship through the federal e-verify database.

 

Johnson isn't the only candidate in the GOP primary talking about immigration. Karen Handel, John Oxendine and Nathan Deal have said they favor copying an Arizona law that empowers police to arrest people who can't prove their citizenship.

 

Asked about the regents' decision to stop granting in-state tuition and scholarships to illegal aliens, Johnson said it was a good first step. He would also deny them admission since classroom seats are limited, meaning they are taking a slot that could be going to a U.S. citizen