Posted inLatest News

Smuggling conviction shows nation’s machinery for handling illegal border crossers

The nation’s machinery for prosecuting those involved in smuggling individuals who enter the country illegally was highlighted in a federal conviction announced Tuesday in Atlanta – the case involves a traffic stop for weaving in a lane, a smuggler who was first stopped for smuggling in 1996, and 10 Latin Americans who said they’d paid to be transported to the homes of relatives on the East Coast.

Posted inColumns

Harsh local approach to immigrants harms families, taxpayers

By Guest Columnist WESLEY THARPE, research director for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute

The hot topic of immigration is never far from Georgians’ TV screens and Twitter feeds these days. Stories of migrant children taken from their parents at the border captivate viewers on the nightly news. Candidates for high Georgia offices compete over who can be most threatening to the immigrant family next door. And President Donald Trump repeatedly claims that newcomers from other lands are bad for taxpayers, harm the economy and upend the nation’s social fabric.