In December 2005, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Zogby poll showed about 80 percent of Georgians were fed up with the illegal immigration and illegal employment crisis here and wanted the state government to address the issue.

So the General Assembly did exactly that and it was a heck of a fight.

In April 2006, state Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, was successful in having his very comprehensive reform bill, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (Senate Bill 529), signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

At the time, no one - including Sen. Rogers and those who worked very hard to pass the bill - dreamed that the elected officials of virtually all of the state's local governments would fail to observe the "compliance" part of the title. But, at the one-year anniversary of the bill going into effect, that is exactly what has happened.

The bill requires that all local governments obtain a "memorandum of understanding" with the federal government to use a database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system to screen applicants who have sworn they are in the U.S. lawfully and are eligible for "public benefits."

It isn't happening.

Of the 535 municipalities and 159 counties in the state, a June 23 list provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows that a grand total of nine entities - none in Northeast Georgia - are either enrolled in SAVE or have even applied for the system designed to verify that public benefits go to those who are eligible.

While the term "public benefits" brings to mind welfare and social benefits, according to the law, they also include all "professional licenses, or commercial licenses provided by an agency of a State or local government or by appropriated funds of a State or local government."

Put a different way, besides not having obeyed the state law designed to require Georgia governments to comply with federal law, each time a Georgia city or county issues or renews a business or commercial license to an alien without obtaining a sworn affidavit of lawful presence in the U.S. from the applicant and then verifying that status using the SAVE program, that local government is in violation of the law.

When it comes to anything concerning illegal immigration and employment, there seems be a lot of that going around.

In a war on terror and with brave Border Patrol agents risking their lives to apprehend illegal border crossers from all over the world, the concept that we would reward those who elude our first line of defense with a license to do business here should be a matter of very focused attention by voters in the coming elections.

The thought that we must obey the law here will likely strike many as "extreme" - there is a lot of that going around as well.

Senate Bill 529 also requires all public employers - the state itself and local governments are employers - to use the no-cost federal "E-Verify" database to be sure that newly hired employees have legal immigration status and are eligible to work in our nation.

On that, the local governments are doing only a little better.

About 60 Georgia counties have not obtained authority to use E-Verify. When it comes to the Georgia municipalities, the numbers get even worse: The Atlanta Business Chronicle recently reported that "only about one-quarter of Georgia cities had signed up for the program."

One must wonder how many illegals are being paid with taxpayer funds because of the noncompliance.

Some contractors doing business with government also are required to use E-Verify and on July 1, many more came under the rule.

One can only imagine the howls were the same governments to refuse to enforce the laws that grant taxpayer-funded education and medical care to those who have no legal right to live or work in our vanishing republic - which is supposed to be based and operated on the rule of law.

Maybe we need to pass another law saying that our elected officials must obey the current law, and then hope that it is obeyed.

• D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which is opposed to illegal immigration and illegal employment. He lobbied in favor of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 070808