Georgia is likely to enforce a part of its controversial immigration law, which is also known as “the show me your papers law”. According to this law, the police in Georgia will be allowed to verify the immigration status of the people. The police may investigate the status of a person if they feel that the person has committed crimes and if he does not provide identity documents such as his driver’s license or his passport.
Similarly, this law allows the police to ascertain the immigration status of an individual either by getting in touch with the government authorities or by making use of the federal identification databases. Policemen in Georgia will now be able to detain people who do not have proper immigration papers and if they find undocumented immigrants, they can contact the immigration officers and take the undocumented immigrants to the detention centers.
However, the policemen may not detain the suspects based on nationality, color and race. Similarly, authorities may not investigate the status of the people who contact the police to report crimes and people who are victims of crimes.
This law of Georgia is similar to the anti-immigrant law implemented by the Governor of Arizona. Alabama is one of the states that implemented a similar law last year and that law is still in effect. This law of Georgia, aims at protecting the taxes paid by the legal residents and the US citizens and Georgia looks forward to get rid of the undocumented immigrants from the state.
At the same time, President Obama has promised that he would reform the immigration laws and help the undocumented immigrants to obtain legal status in the country. Reports state that there are more than 440,000 undocumented immigrants in Georgia and around 10,206 of them have filed their deferred action applications.