Georgia Senate committee narrowly passes immigration measure

A Georgia Senate committee on Thursday narrowly approved a controversial immigration measure.

House Bill 1105, if passed by the State Senate and signed into law, would require Georgia law enforcement agencies to comply with so-called ICE detainers – requests from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold suspected undocumented migrants for up to 48 hours. That’s something that some agencies, including the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office, don’t do.

At a hearing of the Senate Public Safety Committee on Thursday, Laura Rivera, a staff attorney at Just Futures Law, the bill raises constitutional questions.

"This mandate to jail every person with an ICE detainer exposes localities to lawsuits for money damages for violations of the federal 4th Amendment," Rivera told senators. "That requires a warrant supported by probable cause, a touchstone of the 4th amendment, as my colleague said. That requires a finding by a neutral magistrate that the facts establish probable cause. Detainers don't guarantee probable cause because no neutral magistrate reviews them."

Not so, said State Representative Jesse Petrea, a Savannah Republican, and the bill’s sponsor.

"If you will look at recent decisions in Florida and Texas, you will see that provisions like this have been upheld," he said.

Also testifying against the bill was Mark Perkins, a City Councilman from Clarkston. He said that the bill would add more work to already-stretched local police agencies.

"Really it comes down to the, you know, the additional administrative burden on our departments," Perkins said. "We have unfilled positions as it is, even though our our department, our chief is working incredibly hard to fill those positions. And so I encourage you to reject this bill in its current form."

State Representative Houston Gaines, a Republican from Athens, testified in favor of the measure.

"We know the southern border's a disaster. I mean, what our federal government is doing hasn't worked," Gaines said. "But we also have local governments that have failed us and we have issues that we have to address and certainly I think House Bill 1105 is a really important step forward."

Gaines said that the bill was about enforcing the laws already on the books in Georgia.

"What 1105 does is what's already the law, making sure it - making dang sure it actually happens," Gaines said.

Senator John Albers, a Republican from Roswell and Chair of the Public Safety Committee said the bill was a good compromise measure.

"That word compromise is not a dirty word. It's a good word, and we should do it more often in order to get consensus. I think this is a very well balanced bill," Albers told his colleagues.

HB 1150 passed the Public Safety Committee on a party line vote, 5-3. It moves now to the Senate Rules Committee and likely from there to the full Senate for a vote.