Georgia Cops Go “Hispanic Hunting” With New Law

Now that Georgia’s House Bill 87 has become law, Latino leaders in that state are bracing themselves for an onslaught of anti-Latino behavior and profiling. News Taco spoke to Jerry Gonzalez, a Texas native who is currently the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO). The types of incidents in which Latinos — not necessarily immigrants, either — are being targeted in that state both as a consequence of and in spite of the laws of that state are worrisome.

Gonzalez told that that, although HB 87 is only one of 12 bills that targeted the state’s growing Latino population in Georgia this session, the legislature there has been working on passing similar bills since at least 2006. These laws have included things like denying immigrants access to license plates, making driving without a license an arrestable offense (so they can then be deported from jail), encouraging local law enforcement to act as immigration officers with federal 287g programs and denying students without papers access to college.

As a consequence of the 287g programs in particular, Gonzalez told News Taco that police in Georgia have begun to racially profile Latinos, regardless of their legal status.

“It’s an extremely hostile environment for immigrants and Latinos in Georgia,” Gonzalez told us. “There’s open discrimination all over the place. Significant cases of racial profiling have been going on for a long time, particuarly in the African-American community, but now even more so in the Latino community because of these 287g jurisdictions.”

Because driving without a license is now an arrestable offense, and the 287g programs can be used to deport people without proper documentation to be in the country, local la enforcement officials in Georgia have begun to racially profile all Latinos, Gonzalez said.

“They say ‘Let’s go Hispanic hunting,” so they can entrap undocumented immigrants and send them to jail,” Gonzalez told News Taco.

We’ll have more from Gonzalez as the week goes on, especially with regard to the current climate in Georgia for Latinos and how GALEO is going to proceed in light of recent legislation.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD