State Rep. Heath Clark and his co-signers have introduced HB 147 which is being pushed by a lobbying group in Washington D.C. called R Street Institute. (InsiderAdvantage Feb. 8 oped by Marc Hyden.) The bill is an effort at reciprocity with other states— all other states— in issuing professional licenses.
Example: If California has issued a professional license to a resident for “occupation X” and that person relocates to Georgia, the idea is to issue a license for the same job here without most of the current processing. It is sold as “cutting red tape for business…” But as with almost all bills, problems can arise.
In Georgia, home to more “undocumented workers” than Arizona, professional licenses are “public benefits.” State law implemented in 2006 (OCGA 50-36-1) requires that an applicant for public benefits – including professional licenses – swear on a notarized affidavit that he is either a U.S. citizen or a “lawfully present” and eligible foreign national. The applicant is supposed to present verifiable document to prove that eligibility. Then, by law, a non-citizen’s lawful status should be verified using a federal database called SAVE.
Critics of HB 147 say Clark and his cosigners aim to dismantle that system and grant the license merely because it is issued by another state. Says one Capitol observer to InsiderAdvantage: “Most Republicans will take a dim view when they learn that their representative who ran as a conservative wants to eliminate the law aimed at preserving jobs and wages for Americans, including legal immigrants.”
According to Twitter post from Democrat Senate Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on February 4th, “there are 18 million Americans on unemployment programs & an additional 779,000 UI claims were filed last week. The economic picture for Americans is bleak…” Were Clark & Co.’s bill to become law, critics say Georgia could soon catch up to California with the number of illegal aliens we host.
D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society who has worked with state legislators on public benefits laws since 2006, says: “There is a difference between striving to be ‘number one for business’ and an anything-for-a-buck attitude on allowing illegal aliens to obtain a professional license in Georgia. We trust that conservative voters will say as much when they learn about this legislation.”
