Local Tea Party Patriots Hold Meeting On Illegal Immigration

As one side in the illegal immigration debate gears up in an attempt to dissuade Gov. Nathan Deal from signing House Bill 87, also known as the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011,” others in the state are urging people to get behind it.

Tuesday, Walton County Tea Party Patriots held a meeting to address illegal immigration in Georgia. The featured speaker for the event was attorney John Falk.

“While he does not necessarily have any specific expertise on immigration, he is a practicing attorney and a municipal court judge in Taliaferro County,” said Patrick Acree, a local pastor and founder of the Walton County Tea Party Patriots. “Dr. Falk is also a professor of law at Keller Graduate School. He will be speaking to the legal issues of immigration.”

While some in the state worry if the law goes into effect it could impact the state’s tourism as a result of boycotts, like those organized against Arizona, proponents of the bill point to the impact of illegal immigration on Georgia’s unemployment numbers. The latest figures released by the Georgia Department of Labor put Georgia’s unemployment rate at 9.4 percent, down four-tenths of a percentage point from a revised 9.8 percent in February and down from 9.9 percent last year. However, the state’s unemployment rate is still above the national average, which is currently 8.8 percent. A Feb. 1 study released by the Pew Hispanic Center estimated Georgia’s undocumented population at 425,000, ranking it seventh in the nation. Proponents of the bill believe, if signed into law, HB  87 will help root out illegal workers who compete with the state’s legal workers.

The Walton County Tea Party Patriot meeting will take place in the back meeting room of the Robert E Boss outdoor pavilion at the . It is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.