Committee looks at illegal immigration legislation

ATLANTA – State House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle recently announced a special committee on immigration reform tasked with drafting legislation aimed at stopping the flow of illegal aliens into the state.

“A respect for the rule of law is one of the basic founding tenets of our state and nation. If the federal government continues to neglect its responsibility to enforce the law, we’re going to use every option at our disposal to lessen its impact in Georgia,” Cagle said in a news release. “The members of this committee will take a broad, in-depth look at ways to confront this problem and offer concrete solutions to improve the regulations we have on the books already.”

State Rep. Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City, and state Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, will co-chair the committee.

“The creation of this joint committee was inspired by the federal government’s continued failure to deal with the problem of illegal immigration and its drain on taxpayer resources in Georgia,” Ralston said in a news release. “I expect this committee to look at every legislative solution available to the General Assembly that picks up where Washington D.C. has let us down.”

Other committee members include state Reps. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome; David Casas, R-Lilburn; Rick Austin, R-Demorest; Michael Harden, R-Toccoa; Greg Morris, R-Vidalia; and Stephen Allison, R-Blairsville; and state Sens. Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville; Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga; Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock; Bill Heath, R- Bremen; Butch Miller, R-Flowery Branch; and John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee.