Republican state lawmakers say if local governments try to protect immigrants with “sanctuary” policies, the state should strip them of their immunity to being sued.
The Georgia Senate approved Senate Bill 21 in a 33-18 vote Thursday, which if passed into law would remove protections that cities and counties currently have against lawsuits if they do not follow federal immigration law. The vote was made largely along party lines.
Senate Appropriations Chair Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican who sponsored the legislation, said his bill “adds teeth to Georgia law.”
“We currently have laws in place regarding immigration, but some of those laws in Georgia are not being followed,” he said.
The bill threatens the legal principle of sovereign immunity, which protects governments from being sued for civil infractions committed by employees against its consent. The legislation suggests that local governments that protect people who are living in the country without permission are knowingly violating the law and haven’t earned that protection.
After 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was killed near the University of Georgia campus last year, Republican lawmakers vowed to avenge her death by hardening immigration policy, which they said would prevent future such deaths.
The Georgia Legislature passed House Bill 1105 requiring jailers to hold any suspect believed to be in the country without legal permission if that person is wanted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Jose Ibarra, who authorities say was in the United States without authorization, was sentenced to life without parole in connection with Riley’s death. Ibarra was arrested on charges of shoplifting in Athens in October 2023 prior to Riley’s murder.
Local governments already are prohibited from enacting “sanctuary” policies, where local officials give safe harbor to people living in the country without legal permission, and last year’s bill was supposed to reinforce those policies. But Tillery and other Republican lawmakers said that didn’t go far enough.
Democratic senators disagreed, saying law enforcement staff don’t have the resources to enforce federal law.
Georgia sheriffs have said county jails are already overcrowded and there isn’t space available to hold migrants on federal charges for living in the country illegally.
The legislation “does not account for the already overtaxed resources of our law enforcement agencies. It does not account for Georgia’s existing overcrowding of jails,” according to a report from the Democratic caucus. “Instead, it forces the exhaustion of our resources to help Donald Trump keep campaign promises.”
President Trump last month signed the Laken Riley Act, a federal law giving immigration authorities more power to detain immigrants in the country without permission if they are charged with a variety crimes.
In a committee vote last week, Bez Rengifo, secretary of the Latino caucus of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said SB 21 would further hurt the Latino community.
“This doesn’t feel good to our people,” he said. “It just seems like a beatdown. Just another (piece of) legislation against the immigrants here in the state of Georgia and across the nation.”
Sen. John Albers, chair of the Senate public safety committee, disagreed.
“I don’t think anyone speaks for an entire community,” he said in the committee meeting. “In fact, our majority caucus chairman, (Sen.) Jason Anavitarte, and several Latino groups fully support this legislation.” Anavitarte is of Puerto Rican descent.
The bill now moves to the House for consideration.
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