Republicans in the Georgia House advanced legislation targeting immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission following an emotional debate spurred by the killing of a 22-year-old nursing student in Athens.
Despite heavy pushback from Democrats, the House voted 97-74 mostly along party lines to approve House Bill 1105, which would permit police to arrest, with probable cause, anyone who is suspected of being in the country illegally and detain them for deportation.
It would also require jailers and sheriffs to report to federal authorities when someone in custody has been found to lack legal documentation. Failure to do so could result in local governments losing state funding or state-administered federal funding.
Rep. Jesse Petrea, who sponsored the legislation, said he had worked on this effort for at least a year. However, he said the bill took on new importance following the death of nursing student Laken Riley, whose body was found in a wooded area near the University of Georgia’s intramural fields hours after she went for a run.
House Speaker Jon Burns praised the bill, which now moves to the Senate for consideration.
“While we continue to pray for Laken Riley and her family, the Georgia House took action today to strengthen public safety and security in our state, stand firmly against illegal immigration and for the rule of law — and I am proud of the passage of House Bill 1105,” Burns, a Republican from Newington, said in a statement.
The suspect charged in Riley’s death, Jose Antonio Ibarra, lives in Athens but is not a U.S. citizen. Authorities say he entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was previously arrested in New York.
“Oftentimes, these issues get obfuscated. This is a public safety bill,” said Petrea, a Savannah Republican, “and it addresses how law enforcement interacts with individuals who are illegally in the country and then break the laws of our country subsequently. It’s about that and nothing more.”
In response to Democratic critic Rep. Segun Adeyina, who said the bill discriminates against immigrants, Petrea said this bill “is not about immigrants and I’m not going to listen to that rhetoric any further.”
Rep. Pedro Marin, Georgia’s longest-serving Latino legislator, said crimes committed by individuals should not be used to generalize about entire communities, and he worried lawmakers were pursuing fear as a political strategy.
“My heart goes out to Laken Riley and her family,” said Marin, a Democrat from Duluth. “Justice must be brought swiftly to her family and the community.”
But, he added, “we have had enough of attempts to promote racial profiling.”
Studies have typically found that immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes than native-born U.S. citizens.
Rep. Reynaldo Martinez, who was Gwinnett County’s first Latino mayor, spoke in support of the bill.
“We are not after the immigrants,” said Martinez, a Republican from Loganville. “What we are after is these folks that commit crime.”
Georgia law already restricts cities and counties from adopting a “sanctuary policy,” where local officials give safe harbor to people who are living in the country without legal permission.
However, some local governments, such as Athens-Clarke County, limit their coordination and refuse to keep people in jail after completing their sentences, making it harder for federal authorities to deport them. Athens-Clarke authorities say they check the criminal history of people in custody and keep people detained with outstanding warrants, but they don’t jail immigrants in the country illegally if they have no other criminal history.
Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz said Wednesday on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, that the city is not a sanctuary city but would always remain a “supportive community.”
Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican, said HB 1105 ensures that local governments follow the law, and it imposes strict penalties for those who refuse to do so.
“There’s no more important bill we will consider this year,” he said.
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