KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press
ATLANTA – The Georgia House passed a new version of an immigration bill on Tuesday that restores a key provision requiring employers to check the immigration status of new hires, just 12 hours after the Senate had taken the measure out.
The House’s refusal to exclude the provision makes the bill’s fate uncertain, though backers in both chambers say they’ll continue to work on it as the end of the session Thursday looms. The bill would also authorize law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of certain criminal suspects, a provision similar to one in a tough law enacted last year in Arizona.
Rep. Matt Ramsey, the bill’s sponsor, presented the new version that would require private employers with more than 10 workers to prove they check new hires’ immigration status in a federal database called E-Verify before they could get a business license or other documents needed to operate. The Senate had passed a version of the bill Monday night that stripped that language.
“It restores the well-thought-out, well-reasoned legislation that we passed several weeks ago out of the House,” Ramsey said of the amended bill as he presented it to his House colleagues.