When Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal followed the lead of fellow Republican governor Jan Brewer of Arizona in signing the country's toughest laws against undocumented immigrants last month, he served up yet another example of why this country has a greater need for comprehensive immigration reform than for draconian laws that do this country more harm than good.
Last week, Deal was looking for ways to get Georgians to fill a farmworker shortage when some agricultural areas lost more than half of their workers after House Bill 87 was signed. The legislation, which goes into effect on July 1, allows law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of criminal suspects. Police can identify and detain undocumented immigrants and turn them over to federal authorities.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have filed a lawsuit against the legislation.
This country needs to understand that undocumented workers are not taking "American jobs." That much was evident last year when the United Farm Workers' 'Take Our Jobs' national campaign yielded only 11 workers from 89,000 inquiries.
"That really was thought up by farmworkers trying to figure out what is it we needed to do to show that we are not trying to take away anyone's job," UFW president Arturo S. Rodríguez told the Associated Press.
We really can't blame Arizona and George for taking tough stances against undocumented immigration. After all, the federal government has been negligent in coming up with a solution. However, their actions have a major impact on hard-working families who fear they are being unjustly blamed for this country's economic woes.
If state legislators put as much thought into lobbying our federal lawmakers for comprehensive immigration reform as they do in coming up with ways to punish undocumented immigrants, perhaps Georgia wouldn't have a farmworker shortage.