Should all who apply for a business license be made sure that they are here legally?
Should this be a national requirement for all businesses?
Should illegal aliens be allowed to own a business here since they have disrespected our laws?
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City business owners must prove citizenship
Filling out an application is not enough anymore. Business owners within the city of Conyers must now confirm they are in the country legally before they can run a business.
Reporter: By Alena Parker, Staff Reporter
Email Address: alena.parker@rockdalecitizen.com

CONYERS — Filling out an application is not enough anymore. Business owners within the city of Conyers must now confirm they are in the country legally before they can run a business.

Local government agencies were recently called to verify citizenship and immigration status of business owners through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Conyers City Council voted Jan. 20 to enter into an agreement with the federal agencies though Conyers city attorney Michael Waldrop noted they did not have much choice.

“The Georgia Legislature has required that cities and counties participate in the SAVE program to verify the legality of those who do business and receive benefits from the city,” Waldrop told the council members.

Councilman Marty Jones voiced concerns that paying for notary services every year, in addition to getting a business license, would be inconvenient “on the operations side.”

“People who write the regulations don’t have to live by them,” Jones said.

The new requirement will affect the roughly 1,800 businesses in Conyers.

“Unless you have a notary in your office, the proprietor is going to have to go somewhere — whether it’s the city, the bank, the post office, somewhere — to get someone to notarize this document (affidavit), swearing that he is, in fact, a legal citizen or here legally, whatever the status may be,” Waldrop said.

The new requirement will affect those applying for retirement benefits, health benefits, contracts, alcoholic beverage licenses, occupation tax certificates, taxi cab licenses, insurance company licenses, pawn brokers licenses, massage therapists licenses, billiard room operations licenses, precious metals and gems dealers licenses, conducting flea market licenses and peddlers and itinerant trades licenses, according to the city documents.