{"id":1927,"date":"2008-11-17T12:31:51","date_gmt":"2008-11-17T16:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.com\/blog\/?p=1927"},"modified":"2008-11-17T12:34:52","modified_gmt":"2008-11-17T16:34:52","slug":"hearing-in-cherokee-county-tomight-7pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/17\/hearing-in-cherokee-county-tomight-7pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearing in Cherokee County tonight 7PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cherokee to tackle illegal immigration<\/strong>
\nBy NANCY BADERTSCHER<\/p>\n

Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/em><\/p>\n

Sunday, November 16, 2008<\/p>\n

The Cherokee County Commission is making another stab at cracking down on illegal immigrants with an ordinance that makes renters prove their citizenship and threatens to suspend the business licenses of companies with undocumented workers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The commission tried something similar in 2006, with an ordinance on renting that put a bigger burden on landlords.<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

If you go<\/p>\n

What: public hearing on a new Cherokee County ordinance “to prohibit harboring of illegal aliens and suspension of business licenses of business entities that knowingly employ unauthorized aliens”
\nWhen: Monday at 7 p.m.
\nWhere: Cherokee County Administrative Complex, 1130 Bluffs Parkway, Canton<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The first ordinance was immediately challenged in court and never enforced, and the same groups that objected to it will be in the audience Monday night when the new ordinance is presented to the public.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest ordinance would require prospective renters to pay a $5 fee for an occupancy license and provide personal information to the county, including their country of citizenship. The county then could check their immigration status and ultimately force them out by revoking their occupancy permit.<\/p>\n

The second provision gives the county the right to suspend the business license of any company found to be employing undocumented workers. Exceptions are made for independent contractors.<\/p>\n

Buzz Ahrens, chairman of the Cherokee County Commission, said the new ordinance is meant to send a strong message on a problem that the federal government has failed to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething needs to be done, and this is a bottom-up approach,\u201d Ahrens said.<\/p>\n

Elise Shore, regional counsel with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the groups that filed suit over the first ordinance believe the county is wrong to be pushing a new one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it violates the injunction and certainly the spirit of the injunction,\u201d Shore said. \u201cIt\u2019s our position that it\u2019s legally problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

To avoid amassing large legal bills, the county in 2007 did not challenge the issuance of an injunction that barred enforcement of its \u201calien harboring\u201d ordinance, pending the outcome of challenges to similar ordinances in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Cherokee\u2019s original ordinance required landlords to collect documentation from their tenants and, in the event of a complaint, turn that information over to the county marshal or the county\u2019s business license department.<\/p>\n

Landlords who were found to be renting to illegal immigrants ran the risk of having their business licenses suspended and of being forbidden to collect rent.<\/p>\n

Ahrens said he expects the commission will \u201cget a lot of flack\u201d over the provision on renters and could end up modifying the ordinance so it deals only with businesses.<\/p>\n

But he said county officials are convinced that illegal immigrants are costing locals jobs, adding to the burden on the county\u2019s hospitals and government services and even playing a role in the gang problem.<\/p>\n

County Manager Jerry Cooper said, at one point, more than 20 percent of the inmates in the county jail were illegal immigrants. \u201cThat\u2019s a direct cost,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a significant cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2006, some people questioned how effective the ordinance would be since the majority of the county\u2019s rental properties lie within cities, such as Canton and Woodstock, which are not controlled by county ordinances.<\/p>\n

Ahrens said he hopes this time that the cities will consider adopting identical ordinances. \u201cIf we get the cities to join in, it will be fairly impactful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The county hired Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, to assist in developing the language of the new ordinance, Aherns said.<\/p>\n

Kobach has helped other communities design ordinances relating to the harboring of illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

Shore said ordinances that are almost identical to Cherokee County\u2019s proposed ordinance have not withstood legal challenges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cherokee to tackle illegal immigration By NANCY BADERTSCHER Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday, November 16, 2008 The Cherokee County Commission is making another stab at cracking down on illegal immigrants with an ordinance that makes renters prove their citizenship and threatens to suspend the business licenses of companies with undocumented workers. The commission tried something similar in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thedustininmansociety.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}