John Amis | Associated PressGeorgia Republican gubernatorial candidates Casey Cagle, Hunter Hill, Brian Kemp, Clay Tippins, and Michael Williams wait to start a debate in Atlanta.  

ATLANTA – Republican candidates for governor took turns vowing to crack down on illegal immigration at a Thursday debate, mirroring a tone that has largely shaped the Republican primary this year.

The crowded field of conservatives includes a state senator who hit the road this week with a “deportation bus” and Georgia’s sitting Secretary of State, who is airing an ad saying he has a big pickup truck “just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself.”

The five Republican candidates vying to replace a term-limited Gov. Nathan Deal made last-minute appeals to voters at the Atlanta Press Club debate Thursday, with just days left before the Tuesday election.

A candidate must receive 50 percent plus one vote in order to win the party nomination outright. 

“If a city or county were to declare itself a sanctuary city while I’m governor, they wouldn’t receive a nickel of state funding from my administration,” said Hunter Hill, a former state senator from Atlanta and a former Army Airborne Ranger.

“But it’s got to go deeper. We have to address the policies that are driving illegal immigration because it’s undermining the structure of our country,” Hill added, referring specifically to “long-term entitlement spending.”

Hill was in third place in two polls released in the past week. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is the frontrunner, with support in the 30 percent range in both polls. Secretary of State Brian Kemp is in second place in those surveys, with him claiming nearly 20 percent of the vote in a Fox 5 Atlanta poll.

Cagle made headlines this week when he said he would heed President Donald Trump’s call for help along the border and pledged to send Georgia National Guard troops. It’s a move the Democratic frontrunner, Stacey Abrams, called a “wrong-headed use of our National Guard” and a “demonization of the people who live within our state.”

Cagle pushed for a measure this session that would have required local prosecutors to work with federal immigration enforcement officials. That measure stalled in the House. He’s also filed a complaint against the city of Decatur for having a “sanctuary policy” within its police department.

“I want to hold them accountable and that’s what I’m going to do as governor and that’s what I’ve done as lieutenant governor as well,” Cagle said.

Kemp, who is featured in the pickup truck ad, has proposed what he calls a “track and deport” plan.

Kemp, who has focused his appeals on rural Georgia voters, was asked how he would reconcile his get-tough approach with his pledges to grow small business when many employers – particularly farmers – depend on undocumented workers. 

“Just because you’re going after criminal illegal aliens that are driving the drug trade and disrupting our economy, making it less safe and bad for business, doesn’t mean you don’t understand that there needs to be reasonable guest worker programs,” Kemp said.

The federal system, he said, should be reformed.

Clay Tippins, who is a businessman and former Navy SEAL, said the candidates really have similar views on the issue. He emphasized his plan to also focus on what he called downstream issues, such as drugs and sex trafficking.

“Everyone on this stage is going to stand firm against illegal immigration,” Tippins said. “We stand to secure our borders, we’d defund sanctuary cities, we’d send the National Guard to support President Trump’s agenda at the border. 

“Instead of candidates talking about databases when they already lost seven million Social Security numbers and driving around talking about pickup trucks and buses and taking people back to Mexico – that’s not real solutions to real problems,” he said.

Williams said his controversial “deportation bus” was an attempt to call attention to his plan to require all 159 counties in Georgia to participate in the federal 287(g), which is an initiative that delegates authority for immigration enforcement to local law enforcement. Right now, only six local agencies are part of that program.

“I’m willing to go out there to stand in front of hundreds of people that are protesting to defend this,” Williams said.

Georgia Public Broadcasting aired the Thursday night debate. The candidates will square off for the last time 2 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at a debate sponsored by Channel 2 Action News and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Democratic debate airs 1 p.m. Sunday.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for The Valdosta Daily Times, CNHI’s newspapers and websites.