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 2006, with an ordinance on renting that put a bigger burden on landlords.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“Something needs to be done, and this is a bottom-up approach,” Ahrens said.

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.

“We believe it violates the injunction and certainly the spirit of the injunction,” Shore said. “It’s our position that it’s legally problematic.”

To avoid amassing large legal bills, the county in 2007 did not challenge the issuance of an injunction that barred enforcement of its “alien harboring” ordinance, pending the outcome of challenges to similar ordinances in other parts of the country.

Cherokee’s 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’s business license department.

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.

Ahrens said he expects the commission will “get a lot of flack” over the provision on renters and could end up modifying the ordinance so it deals only with businesses.

But he said county officials are convinced that illegal immigrants are costing locals jobs, adding to the burden on the county’s hospitals and government services and even playing a role in the gang problem.

County Manager Jerry Cooper said, at one point, more than 20 percent of the inmates in the county jail were illegal immigrants. “That’s a direct cost,” he said. “That’s a significant cost.”

In 2006, some people questioned how effective the ordinance would be since the majority of the county’s rental properties lie within cities, such as Canton and Woodstock, which are not controlled by county ordinances.

Ahrens said he hopes this time that the cities will consider adopting identical ordinances. “If we get the cities to join in, it will be fairly impactful,” he said.

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.

Kobach has helped other communities design ordinances relating to the harboring of illegal immigrants.

Shore said ordinances that are almost identical to Cherokee County’s proposed ordinance have not withstood legal challenges.

HERE