ATLANTA, July 21 (UPI) -- Georgia officials said they will appoint a board to crack down on state and municipal officials who don't enforce the state's new immigration laws.
Gov. Nathan Deal, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker David Ralston said in Atlanta they are working on establishing the seven-member Immigration Enforcement Review Board, but did not say when that would occur, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Thursday.
The board will be empowered to investigate complaints that government officials are violating a state immigration law that went into effect July 1, hold hearings, issue subpoenas, adopt regulations and mete out penalties, the Journal-Constitution reported.
Government agencies risk loss of state funding and officials who knowingly violate the law could be fined up to $5,000, the newspaper said.
The panel will have the authority to investigate allegations of local government establishing refuge for illegal immigrants by not reporting immigration status information to federal officials, the newspaper said.
City and county officials said they worry the new law will create unfunded mandates for them, and that they didn't know of any local governments in the state that have created illegal immigrant sanctuaries.
The law's supporters say illegal immigrants have taken a toll on Georgia's public schools, hospitals and jails.
A Pew Hispanic Center estimate indicates there are 425,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia -- the seventh-highest in the country.
"It's costing us millions of dollars to have illegals in our country. We definitely need someone to oversee this entire situation because it has gotten greatly out of hand," said Lori Pesta, president of the Republican Women of Cherokee County.
"I feel bad for the folks that are going to be targets of this (Sen. Joseph) McCarthy-like panel looking for ghosts that don't exist. This is the witch hunt commission, said Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-area immigration attorney and a board member of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.
