by Ty Tagami | Apr 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A federal judge in Atlanta is weighing whether to order the government to restore the immigration status of 133 current or former college students, 26 of them in Georgia, who recently received word that it had been revoked.
Judge Victoria M. Calvert of the Northern District of Georgia said she would issue a ruling on a temporary restraining order “pretty soon” after an attorney for the students and recent graduates said in a hearing Thursday that his clients had learned that their status under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program had been revoked. He said the revocations were apparently for no legal reason, with notice coming typically by email from their consulates or from their universities.
The attorney, Charles Kuck, said the loss of student visitor status means they cannot attend school, work, or return to the United States if they leave the country or are deported.
Kuck said none of his clients — who attend schools including Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, Emory University, and Kennesaw State University — had committed offenses, such as a violent crime, that merit revocation. Some had misdemeanors or traffic violations, including one with a DUI conviction a dozen years ago, Kuck said, but he said those are not legal reasons to revoke their visiting student status.
He told the judge he suspected the government used artificial intelligence to identify his clients and then acted on the results whether or not revocation was merited.
“The right thing to do here is to put the kids back where they were and then let us figure this out,” Kuck said.
A lawyer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said there was no evidence of permanent harm to Kuck’s clients, and that a restraining order would “interfere with the executive’s right to control immigration,” meaning President Donald Trump’s efforts to expel certain immigrants. But he said a “narrow” restraining order would be acceptable.
Kuck said his clients had locked themselves in their homes, fearful of arrest and deportation. A Georgia Tech student who recently earned a Ph.D. had to decline a job offer as a professor due to a traffic violation.
The students spent significant sums on tuition for degrees they may not get if their status is not restored, he said, adding that the stress had been overwhelming.
“Two nights ago, one of our clients tried to commit suicide,” Kuck said.
Judge Calvert scheduled a follow-up hearing to consider a preliminary injunction on April 24, with a ruling on a temporary restraining order possible by midnight Friday. She said she needed time to analyze the case “carefully and thoughtfully” because other courts might follow her lead.
Kuck estimated that as many as 4,000 students in the country had their student visitor status similarly revoked, noting that several other federal judges had already issued temporary restraining orders.
During a press conference after the hearing, a representative from CAIR Georgia accused the government of targeting students from “disfavored” nations. Other advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, asserted that the government is fueled by anti-immigrant fervor gripping the nation.
Kuck said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, administers the student visitor program and that he just wants the agency to “follow the law, just as ICE requires our clients to follow the law.”
by Dave Williams | Apr 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers will be focusing this summer and fall on some unfinished business left over from this year’s General Assembly session.
House Speaker Jon Burns Thursday announced the creation of three “blue-ribbon” study committees that will consider further reforms to Georgia’s election procedures and examine the state’s hemp policies and insurance rates.
“During the 2025 legislative session, members of the General Assembly considered a number of bills aimed at providing clarity on these issues that directly impact the lives of our fellow Georgians and the future of our state,” said Burns, R-Newington. “During the interim, these study committees will meet to gather the facts, hear from stakeholders, and determine a path forward for 2026.”
For the first time since 2020, when President Donald Trump claimed without proof that widespread election fraud had occurred in Georgia in that year’s presidential election, Georgia lawmakers did not approve major changes in the state’s election laws this year. The state House and Senate were unable to agree on provisions in a comprehensive election bill, and the measure died when lawmakers adjourned for the year early this month.
Likewise, legislation aimed at banning beverages containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the intoxicating component from hemp, did not make it past the finish line.
The study committee on insurance rates involves an issue the legislature did act on during the recently concluded session. Gov. Brian Kemp is scheduled to sign a comprehensive tort reform bill next week with restrictions on civil litigation aimed at curbing the rise of liability insurance premiums. The panel’s work could lead to recommendations for protecting consumers from predatory pricing to make sure Georgia’s insurance market operates fairly and transparently.
by Dave Williams | Apr 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The recently completed multi-year overhaul of Georgia 400 at Interstate 285 is starting to pay off.
The heavily trafficked interchange has moved down the American Transportation Research Institute’s rankings from the nation’s ninth-worst freight traffic bottleneck to 29th, Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry told members of the State Transportation Board Thursday. Peak-hour speeds at the interchange have increased by 12 miles per hour, he said.
“We’re moving in the trajectory we want to move in,” he said.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has been working since 2016 on an ambitious plan to improve major highway corridors across the state to ease the flow of freight. The Georgia 400/I-285 overhaul is the first to be completed, although crews are still working to add toll lanes along 400 in Fulton and Forsyth counties.
McMurry said work is well underway on improvements to the interchange of I-20 and I-285 east of Atlanta, while a planned overhaul of the I-20/I-285 interchange west of Atlanta is about to enter construction. The DOT also is converting reversible toll lanes along I-75 south of Atlanta into non-reversible lanes, the commissioner said.
“We’re working toward solutions on many of these,” McMurry said. “It takes time to get there.”
by Dave Williams | Apr 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.6% last month, six-tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate.
The number of jobs rose by 6,900 in March to 4.98 million.
“Georgia’s job market is full of opportunity, with nearly 5 million jobs and three openings for every Georgian,” said state Commissioner of Labor Barbara Rivera Holmes, who took over the reins of the agency at the end of last month.
“As labor commissioner, I’m committed to working alongside the governor, lawmakers, and job creators across the state to connect talent with opportunity.”
The job sector with the most gains in March was health care and social assistance, which gained 3,100 jobs. The information sector was next, posting a gain of 2,400 jobs.
The transportation and warehousing sector lost 3,200 jobs last month, while accommodation and food services was down by 1,100 jobs.
Also on the down side, Georgia’s labor force declined by 6,619 in March to 5.38 million, the number of employed fell by 6,654 to 5.19 million, and the state’s jobless ranks rose slightly – 35 jobs – to 192,143.
However, first-time unemployment claims declined by 1,168 during the month to 12,296.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 16, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in cases that could decide in the near term whether large waterfront houses can be built on a sleepy island while in the long term reverberating far from the coast.
The dispute is over the preservation of the Gullah-Geechee way of life lived in small bungalows on Sapelo Island, where officials in McIntosh County have voted to allow the construction of larger houses.
But it’s also about whether Georgians everywhere can overrule their local governments on what is often a hotly contested topic: zoning.
The justices heard arguments in three cases Wednesday, but two are ancillary, concerning the local probate court judge who agreed to let voters hold a referendum to potentially overturn the county zoning decision.
The core case, Bailey et al. v. McInstosh County, asks whether the Georgia Constitution grants counties exclusive authority over zoning and, thus, immunity from referendums.
For the residents of Sapelo Island, it boils down to whether they can keep a longstanding zoning ordinance that restricts homes to a maximum of 1,400 square feet. They want to maintain a local culture that stretches back to the period when slavery ended for ancestors who then became small landowners and built modest houses.
The McIntosh County Commission voted to eliminate that size limit. Sapelo residents responded by securing approval from the probate court judge for a referendum on whether to restore the restriction. A superior court judge agreed to a county petition to halt the referendum but also paused enforcement of the zoning law pending the outcome of this appeal to the high court.
The state Supreme Court opened the door to challenging local government decisions by referendum two years ago by deciding that voters in Camden County could use one to prevent the purchase of land for a spaceport. The facility would have lobbed commercial rockets over the Cumberland Island National Seashore, prompting concerns about the health of the coastal marsh and about the quality of life for nearby residents.
In the McIntosh County case, the justices are tasked with deciding whether their authorization of that Camden County referendum also applies to zoning decisions.
To answer that question, they’ll have to interpret ambiguity in the state constitution.
“The referendum power applies to zoning ordinances because all potentially relevant legislative power for counties to pass ordinances, resolutions, and regulations emanates from the home rule section of the constitution,” said Philip M. Thompson, the attorney for the referendum proponents.
But Ken E. Jarrard, the attorney arguing for the county, said the state constitution grants counties special power over zoning that is separate from the constitutional basis for other local authority.
“The power of zoning and the home rule power are absolutely different, and there’s a reason that they are different,” he said. “It’s on purpose, it’s borne out in the evolution of the constitution.”
The paragraph of the constitution that is in question:
“The governing authority of each county and of each municipality may adopt plans and may exercise the power of zoning. This authorization shall not prohibit the General Assembly from enacting general laws establishing procedures for the exercise of such power.”
Does that mean the state’s authority to intervene in local zoning matters is limited to procedure? And what is meant by home rule anyway?
“Generally speaking, anyone who uses the phrase ‘home rule’ generally isn’t entirely sure what they mean by that,” Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson quipped midway through Thompson’s presentation, eliciting guffaws in the courtroom.
Thompson, who’d used the term at least a dozen times by then, responded in kind, drawing a laugh from Peterson:
“Counsel at the podium included your honor.”
The high court did not make an immediate decision in the case. Rulings typically come one to five months after oral arguments.
