GA Latino Organization Reacts to HB 87 Ruling

Festival Peachtree Latino is coming to Piedmont Park this weekend. Touted as the largest family and multicultural event in the southeast since 2000, the free festival features hundreds of exhibitions, family activities, sporting events, parades, arts and crafts, ethnic foods and outdoor musical performances.

The 12th annual festival is set to take place on Sunday, Aug. 26 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and see here for more information.

The festival comes to Midtown on the heels of this week’s ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. In June 2011, a federal judge halted two significant provisions of 2011’s controversial Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act, which originated as House Bill 87 (HB 87). This week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed part of the ruling by upholding the provision allowing local law enforcement officials to request documentation of citizenship of people they find suspicious.

This provision, Section 8 of the act, is known as the “Show Your Papers” provision by those who oppose the law and say that it would lead to racial profiling.

The court’s decision comes a month after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Arizona’s immigration law, known as SB 1070.

SCOTUS upheld SB 1070’s “Papers Please” provision, which requires police to question people’s immigration status if the police suspect they are in the country without legal documents.

The distinct difference of this provision in Georgia’s law is that police are not required to question citizenship status, but will now have the power to do so if they choose to use it.

The 11th Circuit appellate court also struck down the other provision, Section 7, which was originally halted in 2011 by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash last year. The Section 7 provision would have punished people who knowingly gave rides to or harbored undocumented individuals.

Attorney General Sam Olens stated in a release on Monday, “I am pleased that the the 11th Circuit has reversed the lower court’s injunction and allowed Section 8 of HB 87 to stand. While I disagree with the Court’s decision on Section 7, after over a year of litigation, only one of the 23 sections of HB 87 has been invalidated. We are currently reviewing the 11th Circuit’s ruling to determine whether further appeal would be appropriate at this stage of the case.”

The lawsuit was filed by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Dream Activist.org, the Taskforce for the Homeless and other human rights organizations against Gov. Nathan Deal, who signed the act into law in May 2011.

Members of those organizations had mixed feelings about the ruling.

Dulce Guerrero, a DREAM activist and undocumented Mableton resident, said, “It wasn’t a surprise. (The SCOTUS ruling) basically gave permission to other states to replicate this… It’s going to lead to racial profiling. I hope police don’t drive around and act like ICE agents, which isn’t their job. This law gives them permission to do so.”

Azadeh Shahshahani, Immigrants' Rights Project Director of the ACLU of Georgia, helped file the lawsuit against Deal in 2011.

She said she was pleased the court struck down section 7 and was “disappointed” that it upheld the “Show Your Papers” provision.

“I hope law enforcement will not engage in racial profiling,” Shahshahani told South Cobb Patch. If police are found “inflicting abuse and discrimination on the community, we will challenge it.”

On Wednesday, Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of Midtown-based GALEO, released this statement regarding the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals federal court ruling on HB87:

"The ruling against HB87 is a big win for our communities now, and opens the door for future litigation to stop the 'show me your papers' racial profiling provisions in the law.   

We will not tolerate racial profiling in our state and will work with civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice closely to monitor police activity all across the state with the help of community members.  In fact, community members who suspect racial profiling practices by law enforcement agencies can call our toll free hotline, 1-888-54GALEO, to leave a message for follow up.  All calls will be confidential and we will work with civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice to file complaints against any jurisdiction in Georgia which implements racial profiling in their policing practices.  Most law enforcement officials that I have spoken to have said that HB87, as written, is nearly impossible to implement in a non-discriminatory manner.

To be clear, HB87 and the ruling authorizes, but does NOT require, law enforcement officers to ask about immigration status.  We do hope law enforcement officials will exercise discretion to uphold public safety for all and not work against their best intentions to promote healthy community policing.  Only through community trust throughout a jurisdiction will public safety be enhanced. 

Finally, as the Obama Administration did in Arizona immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Arizona law, GALEO calls on the Obama Administration for an immediate suspension of all 287(g) agreements in Georgia and the suspension of Secure Communities because of the recent ruling and because of the documented racial profiling that has become apparent with these programs.  With this ruling, a continuation of these federal programs will only encourage discriminatory racial profiling across the state.  We urge the Obama Administration to end these federal programs in Georgia."