Education, policing, and free speech: Immigrant communities prepare for Georgia’s 2025 legislative session

One of the most controversial pieces of legislation to come out of the Georgia General Assembly’s 2024 session was House Bill 1105—a measure that, among other things, requires local law enforcement to notify federal immigration officials about undocumented people in their custody. Last spring, after Governor Brian Kemp signed the bill, many expressed fear it would lead to a rise in police checkpoints, and police enforcement in general that would harm not only undocumented people but immigrant communities as a whole.

“It’s going to affect everyone, no matter where they come from,” a local landscaper, who moved to Georgia from Central America, told 285 South at a May protest outside the state capitol. 

While advocates are still tracking what sort of impact HB 1105 has had, they’re also preparing for a fresh round of anti-immigrant bills during the new legislative session—while also pushing for reforms to make the state more welcoming. This year, the General Assembly convened on January 13, just a week before Donald Trump will be sworn into a second term as president. Like Republican governors across the country, Gov. Kemp supports policies enabling the mass deportations that the president-elect made a central theme of his campaign. Georgia’s nearly 1.3 million foreign-born residents make up roughly a tenth of its population and, according to 2016 estimates, about 400,000 Georgians—almost 4 percent of state residents—are undocumented. 

On the first day of the session, lawmakers seemed to take direct aim at undocumented high school students, proposing House Bill 18, which would require students who wish to participate in dual-enrollment programs—accessing college classes while still in high school—to be legal Georgia residents. “The way that’s worded would potentially prevent students who are not legally residents, or don’t legally reside here, [from accessing] dual programs, which is a way a lot of students save money on being able to afford college,” Jean-Luc Rivera, deputy executive director of the Latino Community Fund–Georgia (LCF-Georgia), told 285 South. 

LCF, he continued, is getting ready to rally supporters to “push back on legislators causing harm to our community.” 

At the same time, it’s pushing for measures that would benefit its constituents, as are other immigrant organizations. Last year, Sen. Jason Estevez introduced a measure to provide in-state tuition for some noncitizen students; it didn’t make it past the finish line, but groups like LCF are hoping to see it revived this time around. 

“We just want people to have education, regardless of their background,” Jean-Luc said. “There are so many folks who just can’t afford it because they don’t have access to in-state tuition, and it’s just so ridiculously expensive.”

His group is also pushing for a bill that would require schools to provide interpreters for parents of students who speak English as a second language and who are on an individualized education plan—so their families can understand what they’re learning.

Also in last year’s session, Rep. Mesha Mainor introduced a bill requiring schools to improve interpretation services in accordance with standards set by the State Board of Education. It didn’t make it to a final House vote by the time the session ended, despite support in both chambers; LCF is hoping to see that measure reintroduced, as well. “It would have been the first language-access bill passed in decades,” Jean-Luc said. “Hopefully we can get some movement again there.”

Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)–Atlanta, the largest legal organization in the Southeast representing people of Asian and Middle Eastern origin, is also pushing for tuition equity—providing in-state tuition across immigrant communities, said the organization’s executive director, Murtaza Khwaja. Advancing Justice is hoping to see bills giving people access to driver’s licenses, including undocumented immigrants, and will be advocating for more money for language access. 

They’ll also be on the lookout for voter restriction laws that disproportionately affect Asian American or Pacific Islander communities in Georgia, like bans on drop-box voting, limitations on early voting, and bills that specify “citizens-only” voting. It’s already the case that only U.S. citizens can vote, Murtaza noted: “The only reason for passing those types of legislation is just to spread anti-immigrant rhetoric and anti-immigrant sentiment.” 

Resisting threats to free speech

In recent interviews, advocates also said they’re paying attention to laws cracking down on free speech—in particular, targeting pro-Palestine political organizing and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which urges an end to international support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Legislation like that has already been introduced in states around the country. In Florida, for instance, when lawmakers considered a measure to impose penalties on college students who supported a “foreign terrorist organization,” critics worried it could be used to conflate criticism of Israel with support for the Palestinian group Hamas, which has been on the State Department’s list of terrorist groups since 1997. 

Azka Mahmood, executive director of CAIR Georgia, which provides legal services to people who have experienced religious discrimination, said that they’ve been studying bills targeting freedom of speech and protest, and that she suspects it’s “only a matter of time that they’re going to be introduced in Georgia.”

“State legislatures have been incubators for bills like these,” said Murtaza. “We are already plugged into these coalition spaces on how to organize and advocate against them, and advocate for policies that are more reflective of our communities.” 

“House Bill 30, passed last year, labels some form of critique of the State of Israel as anti-Semitism,” Murtaza said. “That could be used against students and universities to accuse them of being anti-Semitic when they’re speaking out in protest of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the Israeli actions in Gaza.” 

Advancing Justice is also watching for bills forbidding people from owning land based on their country of origin, such as the failed Senate Bill 132, which was introduced last year; and legislation restricting public universities from hiring students from certain countries, including China and Venezuela, to work on research projects. (Florida enacted such a law in 2023.) Murtaza said he’s anticipating bills targeting the teaching of “critical race theory,” and banning sanctuary cities. 

Throughout the legislative session, Azka said, her group and others will be trying to inspire community members to take action. “We need communities to be highly engaged with their elected officials,” she said. “If they feel strongly about a policy, they need to be speaking out.”

To that end, various nonprofits are organizing lobbying days, where people in their communities can learn how to advocate for policies they believe in and how to meet with lawmakers directly: Asian American Advocacy Day on February 4, Latino Day on February 5, a lobbying day for immigrants and refugees on February 13, Muslim Advocacy Day on February 27. 

Lawmakers “should be scared, they should be ashamed to pass bad bills,” Azka said. “They should be ashamed to take away our civil rights and they should be ashamed to divide our communities.”