Governor Nathan Deal says he will sign a controversial immigration measure headed to his desk.

The bill allows police officers to check the immigration status of people stopped for traffic violations. It also forces many companies to check the citizenship of new hires.

It’s among many bills approved in the final hours of the legislative session that wrapped up last night.

Spokesman Brian Robinson celebrated the passage of Governor Deal’s 2012 Budget, but cautioned there was still work to be to done:

“Today the governor begins the bill review promise. We have around 200 bills that we’ll have to consider, most of them have statewide import…still everything requires scrutiny and time and study. Even the budget which was largely the submission of Governor Deal, there were some changes and we will be going through line by line.”

Robinson says Gov. Deal intends to sign changes to the HOPE Scholarship, a new water bill allowing the cooperation between public and private groups to spur construction of new reservoirs, and a measure that could open up Sunday alcohol sales.

He has 40 days to sign or veto legislation.

Mr. Robinson did not comment on whether the governor expected to veto any legislation.