ATLANTA — The targeted ICE operations across Georgia over the weekend are being greeted with praise and concern among the state’s lawmakers.
Some Democrats whose districts have large immigrant populations say they oppose how and where those operations were carried out.
Meanwhile, Republicans applauded the operations.
Channel 2 Action News obtained door cam video of federal agents arresting an immigrant accused of being in the country illegally at his Lilburn home Sunday.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot that he supports the arrests and the legislation passed last year to encourage law enforcement to work with ICE.
“This is a mandate that President Trump received from the American people,” Burns said. “President Trump is doing what he was elected to do, and that’s a crackdown on criminal illegal aliens.”
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Vidalia State Sen. Blake Tillery just introduced a bill that would allow people to sue sheriffs or jailers if they fail to tell federal agents about undocumented immigrants in their jails.
“The citizens of our state are demanding that if you’re going to commit a crime while you’re here, we need you to go home. We don’t need anybody else committing crimes against our citizens who are here illegally,” Tillery said.
But Democrats pushed back, including Smyrna lawmaker Gabriel Sanchez who accused the feds of trying to scare all immigrants.
“It’s fear, and that’s what they want. They want to instill fear in both undocumented, legal, it doesn’t matter, immigrant communities in general because that’s their goal,” Sanchez told Elliot.
Lawrenceville Democrat Sam Park said they support ICE going after violent, dangerous criminals but feel these targeted operations only frighten even legal immigrant communities.
“I support removing violent individuals but at the same time, we have to recognize that the vast majority of immigrants are not committing crimes,” Park said.
Burns told Elliot that he doesn’t think these crackdowns will affect Georgia’s agriculture industry, which does bring in migrant workers primarily from Mexico.
He insists the farmers and growers who are doing that are doing it legally.
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