Gwinnett Cities in Confusion Over Immigration Enforcement
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Gwinnett’s municipalities are still confused about their obligations under the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, even though the law has been in effect for over a year-and-a-half.
The GSICA (formerly Senate Bill 529) require cities, counties and state agencies to, among other things, verify the employment eligibility of their own new hires (via the E-Verify program); require the recipients of public contracts to verify their own employees; and verify that all recipients of public benefits including business licenses are eligible to receive them.
It is the cities’ compliance with the requirement to verify for public benefits that I have set out to document. So far, the results are pretty dismal.
Last week, I sent a request (under the “Open Records Act“) for documents related to the cities’ enrollment in the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program (SAVE), which is the only program available to them for the verification of eligibility for public benefits. The Open Records Act requires government agencies to respond to the request within three days; either with the requested records, a timetable for compliance or a reason why the records are not available.
The deadline has passed; however, a majority of the municipalities have yet to even acknowledge my inquiry. The table below, which will be updated as information is received, documents the status of each cities’ compliance with state law.
[Last Update: 02/04/09 2:05 pm]
Auburn — Timely response. Has not applied for SAVE. Unknown status re E-Verify
Berkeley Lake — Did not respond
Buford — Did not respond
Dacula — Timely response. Applied for SAVE in early 2008, but was rejected (failure to provide required info). Has not reapplied. Not enrolled in E-Verify
Duluth — Timely response. SAVE application pending; unknown submission date. Enrolled in E-Verify July 2008
Grayson — Timely response. Did not know about SAVE. Had applied for E-Verify, but not completed process. Re-enrolled as result of inquiry
Lawrenceville — Late, ambiguous response. Currently not participating in SAVE; unable to determine if application has been made.
Lilburn — Did not respond
Loganville — Did not respond
Norcross — Late response. Has not applied for SAVE. Enrolled in E-Verify August 2008 (possibly incorrectly)
Snellville — First request returned undelivered. Second request sent.
Sugar Hill — Did not respond
Suwanee — 2/9 Late, incorrect response. Sent E-Verify Memorandum of Understanding (two applications), not SAVE MoU
