Fearful she will be deported and separated from her two young sons, Vilma Baltazar steeled her family for a long journey from her small apartment in Chamblee back to her native country, Guatemala. The single mother is one of many illegal immigrants in metro Atlanta who say they are fleeing Georgia before the state’s tough new immigration enforcement law takes effect on July 1.Signed into law last month, House Bill 87 authorizes police to investigate the immigration status of suspects under certain conditions and arrest illegal immigrants and take them to jail. It also punishes people who knowingly harbor or transport illegal immigrants while committing another crime or use fake identification to get a job in Georgia.
Supporters of the law say the exodus of illegal immigrants shows it is working, though they said the tough economy could also be a factor. The state needed to pass the law, they said, because the federal government has failed to secure the nation’s borders, allowing illegal immigrants to stream into Georgia.
A recent estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center puts the number of illegal immigrants in Georgia at 425,000, the seventh-highest among the states.
“Businesses and individuals — including migrant workers — have absolutely nothing to fear if they are in compliance with the law,” said Republican Rep. Rich Golick of Smyrna, who co-sponsored HB 87 and is one of its chief supporters.
At the same time, the pain some metro Atlanta businesses and churches are experiencing because of HB 87 now was expected, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that advocates for tighter immigration controls.
“There will always be short-term pain when you rip the Band-Aid off,” he said. “There is no way to avoid that. If you have allowed the immigration law to go unenforced, when you finally get around to enforcing the law, there will be some short-term pain for people.”
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