Immigration is focus of new Deal ad

Former Rep. Nathan Deal is putting illegal immigration front and center in his bid for governor of Georgia, targeting the issue in his first television ad unveiled just hours after the Justice Department filed suit against Arizona's strict anti-illegal immigration law.

"Liberals won't like it when I empower local law enforcement to help deport illegal aliens," Deal says in the ad. "But it must be done, because the federal government has failed to secure our borders and illegal aliens are costing Georgia taxpayers over a billion dollars every single year."


Deal has already made illegal immigration a theme of his primary campaign, inviting the White House in an earlier news release to "sue us too" over a proposed crackdown. In his debut commercial, Deal boasts that he "wrote the law to stop illegal aliens from receiving taxpayer-funded health care."

Battling for second place in Republican primary polls, Deal is hoping to make it into a runoff with the current GOP front-runner, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine. A poll released last week showed Oxendine and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel tied for first place.

Handel recently won the endorsement of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who has become a popular figure among some national conservatives over her stance on immigration.

Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes is expected to win the Democratic nomination to face off against the winner of the Republican primary. Several other Democrats, including state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, are also running.

Here's Deal's ad: