Georgia Republicans praise Trump’s immigration crackdown
ATLANTA, Ga. - Crackdowns by federal immigration agents in Georgia and elsewhere are winning praise from Republican leaders in the Peach State.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it made 956 arrests nationwide on Sunday and 286 on Saturday, including some in Georgia.
Those included a man arrested while at a church service in Tucker.
State Sen. Kim Jackson represents Tucker. She’s a pastor herself. She called the arrest disturbing and suggested it was purposefully carried out as a scare tactic.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it made 956 arrests nationwide on Sunday and 286 on Saturday, including some in Georgia.
“Instead of waiting for him to not be at church, maybe be at his home, be somewhere else where there wouldn’t be a large crowd of people to be terrified, they came to the church,” said Jackson.
Her Republican colleagues disagree.
Georgia Senate Republicans praised President Donald Trump’s plan to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said they will continue to look for ways to his deportation plan.
“I’ve always been a big ally of the President and we will continue to help him having that close relationship with him and his istration can only be beneficial to some of the things that we’re trying to do here in Georgia,” said Jones.
State Sen. Blake Tillery sponsored SB 21.
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“If a local government or a local government official doesn’t abide by Georgia immigration law, then they stand responsible for the tragedies. That may happen because they didn’t follow Georgia immigration law,” said Tillery.
The bill would remove legal immunities for what are considered sanctuary cities and require law enforcement to honor ICE detainer requests.
“If you’re going to commit a crime while you’re here, we need you to go home. We don’t need anybody else committing crimes against our citizens who are here illegally and coming here illegally in the 1st place is a crime itself,” said Tillery.
Speaker of the House Jon Burns represents parts of south Georgia where farming is important.
Reports from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute show that the deportation of illegal immigrants could hurt Georgia’s agriculture community.
“President Trump is doing what he was elected to do. A crackdown on illegal aliens. I want to make this clear that that we’re not against anyone coming here legally establishing themselves. The workers that come here are temporary workers. They’re doing it by the book and doing it legally. I don’t believe there is any threat to them, but folks who are here illegally, especially those with criminal intent, yes. We’ve seen it. Not only with the Laken Riley tragedy that we saw that played out right here in our home state but there’s been many more of those situations around the country,” said Burns.
Gov. Brian Kemp took to X, formerly Twitter, to for the arrests as well.
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