Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law this week that will require jails to collaborate with federal immigration and conduct a check of the immigration status of inmates.

The legislation, HB1105, aims to strip funding from sheriff’s offices who refuse to work with federal immigration officials to check individuals in their custody who seem to be in the country illegally.

Kemp signed the bill at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth on Wednesday. According to him, the law is an effort to avoid a repetition of the killing of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.

The bill “became one of our top priorities following the senseless death of Laken Riley at the hands of someone in this country illegally who had already been arrested even after crossing the border,” Kemp said.

“If you enter our country illegally and proceed to commit further crime in our communities, we will not allow your crimes to go unanswered,” he added.

Riley’s suspected killer, Jose Ibarra, unlawfully entered into the United States in 2022, according to immigration officials.

Before the signing of the bill into law, Democrats expressed opposition to it, claiming that people would be less cooperative with police and reluctant to report crime as the law would turn law enforcement officials into immigration police.

Critics also hold on to studies that suggest immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

Immigration advocates held a rally on Wednesday in protest against the immigration measure, claiming that it holds adverse implications for illegal immigrants in Georgia as they claim that something as little as joining a protest could get the immigrants deported.

In addition to HB1105, Kemp signed a separate bill that requires cash bail for an additional 30 crimes. The bill also prevents people and charitable bail funds from posting cash bonds for more than three people in one year unless they meet the requirements to become a bail company.

Most of the provisions of the law on illegal immigrants were to go into effect immediately while the bail law will go into effect on July 1.