'Lawmakers' Day 6: Chambers honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day, UGA 240th birthday

With last week's snowstorm, both chambers have to play catch up, pushing many of the canceled appropriations meetings from last week into this week. That meant there was little for both chambers to do.

The Capitol remembered the victims of the Holocaust on Monday for International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day honors the date Jewish prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp were freed during World War II.

Anat Sultan-Dadon addressed the Senate reminding them that diligence was still needed.

"As we join today in remembrance, we must acknowledge why we are charged with remembering," she said. "We must acknowledge that the words never again carry with them the sacred responsibility of a commitment to action. Just as we look at the past today with a vision that clearly distinguishes between good and evil, a vision that clearly highlights who stood on the right side of history and who was on the wrong side, who allowed for evil to spread.

"Years from now, the world will look back at this point in time: the time that we are in; we are the ones who share responsibility not only to remember the past, but to examine what we are doing today in order to actively stand against evil," she added.

Caption

Martha Haythorn (center) pictured with Georgia Sens. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas), Max Burns (R-Sylvania), and Bo Hatchett (R-Cornelia) after the Senate floor celebrated her 25th birthday.

Credit: Georgia Senate

The Senate came together to celebrate the 25th birthday of Martha Haythorn, a Senate assistant ante room clerk. Haythorn has Down syndrome, but that hasn't stopped her from hosting her own Zoom show, talking about disability policy with legislators or graduating with a degree from Georgia Tech and amassing a large fan club in the Senate.

Along with Haythorn receiving a Senate vest, birthday balloons and fried pies to celebrate, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones pulled some strings to get her very own Yellow Jacket football helmet.

"I want to make a difference and I want to create a better, happier, stable society," Haythorn said. "So you can all join me in that movement because that movement really helps people like me and me live my best life — and my life is worth living. And I am not going to apologize because my mother gave birth to an extra chromosome and gave me this. Don't limit me, don't lower your expectations for me because I have Down syndrome. I have 'up syndrome' and I approve this message."

In the House was another birthday celebration, this time commemorating the University of Georgia's 240th birthday. UGA was the nation's first state-chartered public university.

"More than these things and more than a land and a building, UGA is tradition and it grows stronger every year with every student and every class," Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) said. "I ask you to give the University of Georgia on its 240th birthday a round of applause and our thanks for leading our state. Go Dawgs! Sic 'em!"

Later in the day, GPB's Sarah Kallis spoke to lawmakers reacting to what immigration officials called targeted operations around the state. Federal law enforcement made arrests in Atlanta, Savannah and other Georgia cities over the weekend.

"I trust our law enforcement, whether it be here in Georgia or around the nation, to do their jobs," Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) said. "And we have somebody here that is in our country illegally. They have broken the law. So it is the job of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, as well as working in partnership with our local and federal agencies, to make sure that they are held accountable."

"I'm just deeply disturbed that ICE has come into our communities and particularly into our faith group and taken people away from their loved ones, people who are not ± not people who need to be arrested," Sen. Kim Jackson (D-Stone Mountain) said. "They haven't committed any type of violent crime or any crime really at all. As a pastor, I'm especially deeply disturbed that they went to a church, knocked on the doors, during a church service while the pastor was preaching and tried to remove someone from that service."

Immigration has been top of mind for lawmakers this session. Sen. Blake Tillery introduced a bill in the Senate that would crack down on so-called sanctuary cities. Senate Bill 21 would waive sovereign immunity for sheriff's deputies and jailers who fail to enforce immigration law.

The House and Senate join together Tuesday for Day 7 to hear the Georgia Supreme Court's State of the Judiciary address.

Watch Lawmakers tonight to see Sen. Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs), Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega), Rep. Tanya Miller (D-Atlanta), and Rep. Rob Leverett (R-Elberton) discuss the State of the Judiciary address and the latest on the legislative session.