11th Circuit upholds most of Georgia’s illegal-immigration law (Updated)
UPDATE at 5:50 p.m.: Regarding the section of the law that makes it illegal to knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants, the court found not only that Georgia’s law infringes on the federal prerogative to make immigration law. The court further ruled that Georgia could not make it illegal to induce an illegal immigrant to enter the state once already present in the U.S. Those provisions remain blocked from taking effect by a court injunction.
To be clear, and to correct my inapt phrasing in the original post, the court did not say the other sections of the law are constitutional. A lower court had enjoined two sections from taking effect while the question of constitutionality is argued. The section of the law dealing with checking detainees’ immigration status is still being challenged, although the Supreme Court’s ruling about a similar law in Arizona suggests that section is likely to remain in place until and unless there are specific challenges to the way it is applied.
ORIGINAL POST:
The 11th Circuit has upheld the controversial section of Georgia’s 2011 illegal-immigration law that allows law enforcement to check the immigration status of people detained for certain crimes. The federal appeals court found 22 of the law’s 23 sections met constitutional muster and kept only one section blocked from taking effect. From the AJC:
[T]he 11th Circuit Court of Appeals also said it recognizes arguments from civil and immigrant rights activists that this statute “invites a host of other problems, namely racial profiling.”
“Reliance on race, color, or national origin that is constitutionally prohibited, however, is expressly forbidden by the Georgia statute,” the court said in its 33-page ruling, released Monday.
“It is inappropriate for us to assume that the state will disregard its own law, and we therefore reject the argument in this respect, keeping in mind that unconstitutional application of the statute could be challenged in later litigation.”
The court also ruled that another part of Georgia’s sweeping illegal immigration law should remain on hold. That provision would punish people who knowingly transport or harbor illegal immigrants while committing another crime.
Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said via press release that it was too early to say whether the state would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to restore that section of the law.
– By Kyle Wingfield
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
122 comments Add your comment
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 21st, 2012
8:57 am
iggy, if you can’t tell a symptom from a cause there are free dictionaries on line.
JamVet
August 21st, 2012
8:58 am
Yep, time for Andy to start rounding up all of the thousands of business owners in Georgia alone who profited handsomely from knowingly using illegal immigrants and send those scofflaws off to the big house.
Then all of the lazy, self-absorbed Republican kids in the suburbs can go and pick onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc all summer long for slave wages.
It will prepare them for what is ahead!
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 21st, 2012
9:00 am
Man I LOVE this Ryan pick for VP!
This is going to put the BS artist on full display to the entire nation. When he loses in November all his laundry will have been aired and his status as boy wonder of the Cons will have been exposed as a con job.
iggy
August 21st, 2012
9:05 am
“Then all of the lazy, self-absorbed Republican kids in the suburbs can go and pick onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc all summer long for slave wages.’
Not my children. I may hire some illegal immigrants children to pick the maters but my children? NO WAY, Buddy!
iggy
August 21st, 2012
9:08 am
Uh oh…
”
Minnesota lawmaker urged to step aside after rest-stop liaison with 17-year-old boy”
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 21st, 2012
9:19 am
E-Verify, stooge.
duh
Rafe Hollister, suffering through Oblamer's ineptocracy
August 21st, 2012
9:46 am
Finn
This fits better
Obama, his status as boy wonder of the Libs will have been exposed as a con job.
Lynnie Gal
August 21st, 2012
10:14 am
TRUTH–wish I could join you in leaving this KKK friendly, white Republican, Voter fraud for brown people/vote suppressing state. But somebody’s gotta stay and try to educate them (i.e. annoy them.) They may never learn anyway, but left to their own devises, many of them will sit in front of their TV’s throwing their own poo at the “liberal” media. Want proof? Listen to those who defend Aiken’s comments–then tell me they’re not throwing their own poo.
md
August 21st, 2012
10:31 am
Poo? I’d say that is taking the comments of an isolated idiot in a State race and trying to spread it around on a national scale……that would be slinging poo………..
Hillbilly D
August 21st, 2012
10:34 am
If you want to stop illegal immigration then go after the businesses that hire them.
That’s the key to it and could’ve been done a long time ago. Both parties are against that, though, because the Democrats see them as future votes and the Republicans see them as cheap labor. So a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge and life goes on, same as it ever was.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 21st, 2012
10:42 am
Democrats see them as future votes
LOL. Hardly. It’s all about jobs. Cut the immigrant pool and wages go up in most industries. But this country can’t function without that vast pool of cheap, effective labor.
Tell Chip and Buffy they will need to wash dishes and cook at my favorite restaurant so it won’t go out of business…….good luck with that.
Thulsa Doom
August 21st, 2012
10:45 am
“TRUTH–wish I could join you in leaving this KKK friendly, white Republican, Voter fraud for brown people/vote suppressing state. But somebody’s gotta stay and try to educate them”
Lynnie Gal,
Sure you can leave if you really want to. If not maybe the gubment can come up with some type of special program to pay for your departure. I would hate for you to have to pay for it all on your own. But if you can then rest assured- Delta is ready when you are.
Thulsa Doom
August 21st, 2012
10:47 am
“But this country can’t function without that vast pool of cheap, effective labor.”
Makes you wonder how the country functioned the first 200 very successful years of its existence to become the world’s greatest economic power without that vast pool of cheap, effective labor that Finn speaks of.
md
August 21st, 2012
10:56 am
“Cut the immigrant pool and wages go up in most industries. But this country can’t function without that vast pool of cheap, effective labor.”
In the real world…….the US labor rate is xxx times that of many other countries around the globe, so there will be many industries in the new global economy in which we just can not be competitive in relation to price…..that’s just fact.
Aint that a sham
August 21st, 2012
11:04 am
Thulsa
How about real wages?
Aint that a sham
August 21st, 2012
11:05 am
Thulsa
You are aware that GDP can go up, which would indicate an increase in per capita, but in reality not an increase in wages for the average person, right?
David R. Boag, DDS
August 21st, 2012
11:47 am
@Skip 8:45
One thing about blogging: no non-verbal communication to help. Thats’s what smileys are for. I don’t know you yet, so how is one supposed to know?
Kent Clark
August 21st, 2012
2:55 pm
ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
Michael H. Smith
August 21st, 2012
4:25 pm
Hilarious how the issue of law becomes less than a mere footnote whenever illegal immigration is brought to the public fore in discussions.
Then again, when we have a President who took an oath to UPHOLD ALL THE LAWS only to declare he would NOT ENFORCE CERTAIN LAWS that he doesn’t like and cannot change, what else can anyone expect other than a pathetic ethnocentric sideshow for the law hating socialist liberals bigots to focus in on as the main topic.
It will be a hard task to restore a Republican form of government from out of this Socialist Democracy that has been forced on us by those who operated outside of the confines of the Constitution to rob us of our founder’s Republic, Kyle.
Skip
August 21st, 2012
4:27 pm
Dr. Dave, if you’re still around, I see your point.
TruthBe
August 21st, 2012
9:57 pm
Finn McCool (The System isn’t Broken; It’s Fixed)
August 21st, 2012
9:00 am
Man I LOVE this Ryan pick for VP!
Yeah Finn McFool, Like Obama’s Gay Lifestyles. How about Obama’s cheating on Michelle for years having affairs with other married and single Gay Men. For example: Just to name some of his gay Lovers. Larry Sinclair, Donald Young, Reggie Love, Arther Davis, Bill Frist, Deval Patrick, and Rahm Emanuel. How about his “Life Time Membership in the Chicago Gay Men’s Bathhouse called Mans Country. How about his illegal drug use? (Cocaine, Pot, pills) Not to mention his corrupt illegal “Pay to Play” political schemes. How about the billions of dollars his administration has given away to America’s enemies the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbullah, and the PLO.
This is going to put the BS artist on full display to the entire nation. When Obama loses in November all his dirty laundry will have been aired and his status as boy wonder of the Democrats (aka:Communist) will have been exposed as a con job fake president. Oh! by the way did you know that Obama is our first Black President as well as our first COMMUNIST President.
Dave Francis
August 21st, 2012
10:32 pm
Illegal immigration is without exception a major issue during the presidential election. Of whether it’s the incessant harassment by Eric Holder in the Justice Department pressing the U.S. courts to inhibit local police from questioning people about their immigration status, after some traffic law broken? Or another stain on the Obama administration; trying to gain the upper hand politically, by obstructing states from implementing picture voter ID laws to eradicate voter fraud? The public need to make the biggest decision for the future of this nation? The wrong direction of negative Socialism, that is a far cry from the edicts of the U.S. Constitution; such as an ever propagation of government interference in our daily lives, saturating free business enterprise that built this country or a ever enveloping dark shadow of government entitlement programs. Shamefully, I must say that either the Democrats or Republicans are going to be the savior of all Americas ills, as either party owes favors to commercial entities, unions or the affluent. Until this country elections are not beholden to k street lobbyists and other entities, but only by public financing, nothing will change?
Washington is full of corruption and rotted to the core, except for a few idealistic politicians that have very little chance of turning the tables on the majority influence. November will be a paramount turning point in our nation’s history. We can follow either party’s agenda or alter our future, by voting into the Senate and House of Representatives TEA PARTY opponents. Under another four years of President Obama millions of illegal aliens already settled here will gain amnesty, while under MITT ROMNEY this may not happen. However, to stop bleeding billions of more dollars in adverse policies, the absorbed TEA PARTY leaders will have the voting influence in Congress to halt any new mass amnesties, no path to citizenship.
In fact the Republicans backed strongly by TEA PARTY members assimilated into the GOP, will insist on passing the “LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT” bring to an abrupt end to businesses hiring illegal workers over citizens and green card holders. After passage the punishment will be harsh upon the culprit-fines, asset loss and even prison. Equal or even more so, is to stop the pregnant women who assume by entering America, that the gullible U.S. taxpayer will pay their hospital fees, education for their children and other programs unavailable to legal residents. Sitting in inaction is the BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL that needs to be frantically pass as passage will only no longer permit children to acquire citizenship, without one parent already a U.S. citizenship or attained citizenship through military service. As a political ploy in gaining extra votes, Obama mob have rescinded any need of citizenship to collect food stamps.
Then we have the disgusting consternation of the Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) voting down a bill of halting $5. Billion dollars being fraudulently appropriated from taxpayers, by the continuation of child tax reimbursement. Our hard earned money going through incompetence of the IRS and repeating this same situation for years as even going to fictitious children in other countries. Everything this government is applying is for political recognition in November; to accumulate more votes from legal and illegal registrations. This is an open house for uncompensated public assistance and a desperate need to undermine our elections. Obama’s Socialist agenda has caused massive disruptions in industry, the rising costs of oil, natural gas and taking away the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of coal miners.
Even as I write this blog, the price of gasoline at the pump is rising, when this government should release their grasp on energy permits and allow unfettered drilling, discovery of new regions to search for our future needs. In this nation we have an abundance of petroleum to last us a hundred years or longer, so we do not need to be dictated to by foreign potentates or Obama’s environmental friends. Gas should be a $1.49 as it was under George Bush and not escalating in price during a desperate need to $4.29 and up? If you are expecting a different route under either party you are grossly mistaken, but when heavily influenced by the TEA PARTY, the Conservative TEA PARTY, then change to this country could be significant. Changes such as a fair and equitable tax code, not one that has been formulated just for the wealthy or other participants. Everybody pays their fair share, including the “Freeloaders” who live like parasites off the host taxpayer.
No more compromise for people who steal into the United States, or slip right past Customs and Immigration at any entry port, including arriving on international flights posing as a tourist or other visitor. Entry into the U.S. has no real penalty as its been seen as a civil infraction, unlike countries as Mexico where it is a Felony and every person who flies in, or crosses from its Southern or Northern border is tracked. No wonder this country has an estimated 20 million plus over stays and illegal aliens, when once you are here there is no true prosecution, unless you have a criminal record. No wonder when state, county and city management allow ordinances that consign the notorious label of Sanctuary cities and states as California, Nevada. It seems under Obama USICS service that these city policies have been allowed to thrive spreading nationwide, with little or no convictions of the officials who enacting these laws.
THE PEOPLE SHOULD AVOID ANY MORE INACTION BY EITHER PARTY BY JOINING THE REVOLUTIONARY TEA PARTY. NO MORE QUID PRO QUO ( Emptying your pockets to pay somebody off) In conclusion, all American citizens and residents should absorb the evidence against President Obama as his Socialist-Marxist consultants point our country towards a country of federal benefits, without having to work for a living but a dependence on government. This is fine for the “freeloaders” but not for honest people, who want to rise in their jobs and grasp the American dream for risk and hard work. Also learn and judge whether Obama is truly a U.S. citizen or a conspiracy of the far left? I offer no opinion except that I understand the consequences should this be true. I assume nothing, but leave it to your own decisions. Investigate it more at TEA PARTY DOT ORG.