Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in a major address on illegal immigration yesterday, promised to build an “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” wall across the southern border— and also outlined nine other specifics ranging from fixing the broken entry-exit visa system to implementing nationwide e-verify and ending sanctuary cities. The address prompted InsiderAdvantage CEO Phil Kent, a gubernatorial appointee to Georgia’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board (IERB), to praise his “solid” proposals and note that “Georgia had the foresight to already implement some of Trump’s proposals when the General Assembly passed a law in 2011 to ensure a legal workforce.”
“The Department of Homeland Security for years has reported that Georgia has more illegal aliens than the border state of Arizona.” the IERB member said, “Which is why the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011 (H.B. 87) mandated the use of the online federal e-verify requirements for businesses with 11 or more workers. Other states did this, too, but we now need a president to push for nationwide e-verify for it to be more effective.”
“H.B. 87 also tries to ensure that public benefits are expended on individuals who are here legally – also a primary motivator for passage of the law by a large majority of the General Assembly,” Kent said. The state law “requires all applicants for the new issue or renewal of a business license to swear on an affidavit to the issuing local government they are authorized to use e-verify.”
In his Phoenix speech, Trump said that America’s current immigration system “serves the needs of wealthy donors, political activists and powerful politicians. Let me tell you who it does not serve, it does not serve you the American people” – and Kent agreed wholeheartedly.
One of Trump’s 10 points is the end of “sanctuaries”— cities or counties where violent illegal immigrant criminals are protected by local authorities from federal prosecution or deportation and all too often released. Trump would cut funding to such areas that defy federal law. Kent says this will affect Georgia, “where counties like DeKalb and Clayton sometimes refuse to honor federal requests for ‘holds’ on criminals in local jails when they are slated for release.”
Kent also praised the “287(g) partnership programs” that Trump supports but have been, in the candidate’s words, “gutted” in recent years. This is where local law enforcement enters into an agreement to assist in turning over apprehended illegal aliens for prosecution and/or deportation to federal agents. “H.B. 87 required that no fewer than 10 Department of Public Safety officers apply for 287(g) training each year. Georgia was ahead of the curve in this area. And 287(g) program agreements have worked effectively for years in Cobb County under Sheriff Neil Warren and in Gwinnett County under Sheriff Butch Conway,” Kent noted.
