Cherokee puts off vote on renter law targeting illegal immigrantsBy NANCY BADERTSCHER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Monday, November 17, 2008

The Cherokee County Commission decided Monday night to wait until at least mid-January to consider passing an ordinance that would require all renters to pay a $5 fee and subject themselves to verification that they are in the country legally.

The ordinance, Cherokee’s second attempt in three years to crack down on illegal immigrants, also would give the county the power to suspend the business licenses of companies that hire undocumented workers.

Buzz Ahrens, chairman of the commission, said the board would take the time to further review the ordinance, and to digest feedback it received Monday night at a public hearing.

Some residents said the ordinance that could send a bad message to businesses that might consider locating in Cherokee County and subject the county to a costly legal fight. Others said the ordinance is overdue and voiced frustrations about what illegal immigrants are doing to their neighborhoods and to taxpayer-funded government services.

Billy Inman of Woodstock made an emotional plea for passage of the ordinance, recounting for the commission the struggles that he and his wife have gone through since a wreck in 2000 that killed their son. He blamed it on an illegal immigrant.

“Something has got to be done, and this is a good start,” Inman said.

The ordinance could supersede one that was passed in 2006, but was never enforced after civil rights groups filed suit.

The new ordinance, like the earlier one, targets illegal immigrants who rent houses and apartments and live in extended stay motels. It would require each renter to pay a $5 licensing fee and provide information on their country of citizenship. The county could then investigate their legal status and go after both them and their landlord, if the renters are proven to be illegal citizens.

The provision on businesses is new and would require businesses to verify the legal status of their employees. Companies found to be employing illegal immigrants could have their business licenses suspended.

Debbie Seagraves, a lifelong Cherokee County resident, told commissioners she’s “very concerned and dismayed that we’re considering another questionable and scattershot ordinance.”

She said she believes the ordinance could discourage business recruits and “add insult to injury” by requiring a $5 fee from renters, some of whom may have lost their homes because of the economic downturn.

The commission also heard differing legal opinions on whether the ordinance could withstand a court challenge.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said they think the county commissioners would be violating an injunction in a lawsuit over the earlier ordinance if they adopt the new ordinance.

“The two ordinances have the same effect of discouraging landlords from renting to a particular group,” said Elise Shore, with MALDEF.

Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law who is assisting the county, said he believes the ordinance would withstand legal challenge and would help reduce the county’s problems with illegal immigrants.

“When the incentives are stronger for people to obey the law, people actually do obey the law … and they self-deport,” Kobach said.

HERE