GALEO infamous in state politics for its extreme positions on immigration and radical leadership

Jason Anavitarte registered to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.

Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan office phone – 404-656-5030

Republican Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan has endorsed a candidate for state senate who is a former board member of a leftist organization that lobbies against immigration enforcement, voter ID, ICE holds and official English for government.

State Senate District 31 hopeful Jason Anavitarte served on the board of directors of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) from 2006 to 2009. During that time, GALEO lobbied against passage of the nationally noted SB529, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act which established a requirement that public employers and their contractors sort out newly hired blackmarket labor with use of the federal employment verification system now known as E-Verify.

The legislation also required state use of the federal 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to screen jail inmates for immigration status and report illegal alien prisoners to ICE for deportation proceedings. The bill, now law, that GALEO vehemently opposed also requires that local and county governments verify the legal status of people applying for local, state and federal public benefits.

GALEO Executive Director and former Democrat fundraiser, Jerry Gonzalez, drew much attention during the lobbying frenzy against the 2006 state immigration enforcement measure when he escorted self-described illegal aliens into the gold-domed state Capitol telling legislators they should regard the illegal aliens  as “constituents.” Gonzalez described the illegals as merely “immigrants.” The staged and pre-announced GALEO transporting and encouragement of the illegals made a memorable note for pro-enforcement groups and news in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

As has been reported elsewhere, GALEO was established in 2003. Along with Jane Fonda, Anavitarte is also listed as a GALEO “Founding Friend.”

A February Twitter post from Lt. Governor Duncan describes Anavitarte as a “proven conservative…”

The endorsement from Duncan has raised eyebrows in conservative quarters of the state’s Republican Party not only because GALEO is well known for its corporate-funded opposition to immigration enforcement, but because candidate Anavitarte, now running as a Republican, filed to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.

The Lt. Governor also serves as president of the state senate.

Perhaps the most jarring surprise for pro-enforcement voters in Duncan’s endorsement is the fact that in 2016, U.S. Senator David Perdue terminated the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation process of another former GALEO board member and State Court Judge, Dax Lopez, who was nominated for a federal judgeship by former President Barack Obama. Perdue made it clear that his office investigated the nominee’s ties to the controversial GALEO and ended the chances of confirmation because of that relationship.

“After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his longstanding participation in a controversial organization including his service on its board of directors” Perdue wrote in his statement on the matter.

The obvious – and many say troubling – difference in judgment between Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor and its senior U.S. Senator is not going un-noticed by grassroots GOP voters.

According to the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, snared a primary endorsement from President Donald Trump in 2018 due in large part to Kemp’s tough talk and campaign promises on illegal immigration. Kemp has not mentioned immigration since the November, 2018 election.

Ballotpedia lists four Republican candidates for Georgia’s senate District 31.

*UPDATED: 12:55PM – We are already getting emails from now extremely angry conservative voters who are calling the 404-656-1776 phone number at the governor’s office and being told to ix-nay on the phone calls. “Use the contact form.”

Here is one of many: “Thanks, D.A. I just called and got the same line (“In order for your comment to be documented, . . . go to the web site.”). I pointed out that he is distancing himself from the voter and got the same reply. With this, on top of everything else he either has or hasn’t done, he has lost my vote.” DH – Atlanta.

**Updated January 27 – My mistake: There is no voice mail on the governor’s 404-656-1776 phone line at the Georgia Capitol as of yesterday (Sunday). 

Having been a reluctant and active denizen of Georgia’s state Capitol since 2004, I can assure those who aren’t that the number one activity that gets the immediate and full attention of the elected officials there is an organized group of voters who actually drive to Atlanta and go into the Gold-Domed beehive during legislative session.

The number two most effective way to get their attention is to ring their telephones – this includes phones in the governor’s office, where the phone number is and has been 404-656-1776.

 Constantly ringing phones with voters on the other end is a signal that something has become “an issue” that must be managed, if not actually dealt with.

We are hearing from multiple Georgians that staffers in Governor Kemp’s administration are attempting to discourage citizen telephone calls to his office. I have been checking the official contact page for a couple months and noted that the phone number (404-656-1776) into Kemp’s office had been removed sometime after he was sworn in. It had been posted there since 2003 that I am aware of, likely long before that.

Almost identical versions of “the receptionist told me we have to mail outside letter or fill out online form.  They are not taking messages nor tallying calls” is what I was being told by miffed constituents.

The Governor is apparently being blasted with calls concerning the refugee decision to be made by Friday (tomorrow).

(Related: Here is an Action Alert received here from the discredited hate-mongers at the SPLC urging phone calls to Gov. Kemp in favor of more refugees “because it makes our communities stronger.” They already knew the phone number. So should Georgians paying attention)

Two days ago I called the 404-656-1776 number and asked the nice young lady who answered to check the contact page to see if I had overlooked the phone number. She agreed with me that it wasn’t there, took my name and phone number and went out of her way to assure me that she would double check with her superiors and have somebody call me back.

Later in the day another staffer called to tell me that the page was being updated  and that an 800 number would be added. I made him tell me I was correct, the 404-656-1776 number was indeed absent.

No phone number version

Thanks to the magic of the WayBackMachine internet archive , here is a link from the recent past – Dec 5, 2019 – that illustrates the chief executive’s online contact page without the phone number. Here is a link to the contact page from March 31, 2019 – no phone number.

It’s back!

Today I checked the Governor’s website, went to the contact page and was happy to see that something had caused the 404-656-1776 number to reappear. But I see no 800 number…

Funny how things work.

We also note that there was a period of time last year when there was no voice mail on the 404-656-1776 lines. If you didn’t call during business hours, you were unable to leave a message to the governor’s office.Updated January 27 – My mistake: There is no voice mail on the governor’s 404-656-1776 phone line at the Georgia Capitol as of yesterday (Sunday). 

We suggest that Georgians not only call the governor, but, if you are able, also send an email behind your call. And rest assured, they do track the quantity of calls they get on every issue. But, without the push of the mostly liberal media, it’s only “an issue” if voters make it an issue.

Example? When is the last time you heard Governor “Big Truck” Brian Kemp mention illegal immigration or his campaign promises on that topic? Right now, it’s not an issue.

*Added 12:10 PM Apparently not an issue, even in the State of the State Address today.

The phone number to Georgia’s governor is 404-656-1776.

Despite campaign promises, Kemp is mostly mum

 In a twenty-minute press conference in his office Wednesday morning, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp formally announced his pick to replace retiring Senator Johnny Isakson. It is notable that in his introduction speech for businesswoman and political trainee Kelly Loeffler, Kemp broached the topic of border security and illegal immigration.

As far as we can tell, this is Kemp’s first public remark related to illegal immigration since the 2018 election. We offer a no-cost, hand car wash to anyone who can accurately cite a quote or remark from Kemp on the issue since then.

“Senator Loeffler will fight to strengthen our immigration laws and finish the Border Wall so we can stop Mexican drug cartels from flooding our streets – here in Georgia – with drugs, weapons, violence, and fear” said Kemp.

According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ranks the Peach State ahead of Arizona in its population of “undocumented workers.”

Kemp’s silence and blatant disregard for the issue is in defiance of his detailed campaign outline for a state “track and deport plan” in which he pledged to “create a comprehensive database to track criminal aliens in Georgia.” “He will also update Georgia law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons” and to create a criminal alien database” went the promise.

Still shocked by his inaction on illegal immigration in his first year, pro-enforcement political insiders paying attention to legislation in the Georgia Capitol are carefully watching to see if Kemp will put the power of his office – and begin to honor his campaign promises – by pushing for a simple bill that was held up in the Republican-ruled House in the 2019 session. HB 202 from Rep Jesse Petrea would require the state Department of Corrections to post a quarterly, public report citing the number of foreigners in the prison system, their immigration status, home nation and crimes for which they are serving time.

The measure was stopped in the House Rules Committee and must now begin the hearing process from the beginning, according to the House Clerk’s office.

While it does not begin to approach the tough-talk promises of action on criminal aliens from candidate Kemp, the end result of the Petrea’s HB 202 becoming law would be that Georgia taxpayers would have access to hard, official, indisputable data on at least one part of the cost of illegal immigration – which is one reason the bill was smothered last year by business-first Republican leadership.

A simple one-pager, HB 202 is still alive and has the votes to pass. As this writer noted elsewhere, Kemp could have ordered the DOC to begin the data sharing last year. But he didn’t.

 Illegal immigration is still an issue for Georgians

• A likely illegal alien was arrested in Marietta last month and charged with molesting at least two boys.
• Pro-enforcement Americans are fighting against the marxist radicals in Gwinnett and Cobb Counties who are waging a very carefully staged war on ICE, immigration enforcement and the lifesaving 287 (g) operations in those jurisdictions.
• Despite a state law requiring participation, the Georgia Department of Public Safety is not in the 287(g) program.
• Jerry Gonzalez, leader of the corporate-funded and anti-enforcement GALEO told a metro-Atlanta newspaper that verifying ID and hiring records with use of the no-cost IMAGE certification is a “white nationalist agenda.”
• Readers not familiar with the folks at GALEO or Gov. Kemp’s relationship with them may want to see the angry letter from a retired immigration agent to the governor here.
• It could be worse. Election runner-up Stacey Abrams’ “New Georgia Project” is in open opposition to ICE even operating in Georgia.

We make the same no-cost car wash offer to anyone who can cite any comment from Governor Kemp on any of the above examples.

“I got a big truck”

Perhaps most obvious to voters who can remember back to last year is candidate Kemp’s “yep, I just said that…” campaign ad shtick that involved his “I got a big truck” (video) and the possibility of his personally rounding up “criminal illegals.”

Asking about the current whereabouts of the truck seems a fair question for Governor Kemp from the faithful GOP voters.

From here, we will begin to produce regular updates on Governor Kemp’s campaign promises, his silence – or any actions – on the illegal immigration crisis in Georgia

Stay tuned.

*Note: Here is a link to Gov. Brian Kemp’s contact page, but unless my vision is worse than usual, it seems he has removed the phone number from the page. If so, here it is: 404-656-1776

GALEO – a partial history

Part 1

The Islander

October 17, 2022

The illegal alien lobby in GA: An introduction to GALEO

“California is going to become a Hispanic state and if anyone doesn’t like it they should leave. They ought to go back to Europe.” — Mario Guerra Obledo, co-founder of MALDEF, on the Tom Likus radio show, 1998

To provide some insider insight into how our state government really works, here is an abbreviated outline of just one of the many corporate-funded, far left non-profits that have staff and lobbyists working against immigration enforcement around the state and in the Georgia Capitol. Space does not allow more than a partial storyline. But I cannot give readers an honest view of the innocuously named Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, known as ‘GALEO,’ without the above quote from a founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Mario Obledo.

The CEO of the Atlanta-based GALEO is former Democrat Party fund raiser, community organizer and Biden supporter Jerry (Gerardo E.) Gonzalez. Before he was awarded with the leadership of GALEO, he was also a MALDEF lobbyist under the Gold Dome where he is known for his vitriolic outbursts at Republican legislators in committee hearings and hallways. Gonzalez and his anti-enforcement corporation have actively fought every immigration enforcement bill in the state legislature since 2003.

Gonzalez once brought the leader of the Socialist Workers party into Georgia to fight for driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.

Gonzalez boasts on the GALEO website that American luminary Jane Fonda was a GALEO “founding friend.” A leader in Atlanta’s LGBTQ community, Gonzalez is also noted for his antics at a 2011 business luncheon at the Coosa County Country Club focused on use of E-Verify to detect newly hired illegal aliens by private employers in Georgia. Gonzalez had angrily shouted at Rome’s diminutive Republican state Representative Katie Dempsey from the audience after the event and was escorted off the property by local police according to the Rome News Tribune.

I was in the state Capitol in 2011 when Capitol Police warned Gonzalez that he would be removed if he continued his hallway-screaming at GOP state Senator Renee Unterman after she spoke in favor of immigration enforcement. Jerry is not what most would call “tolerant.”

A condensed list of Gonzalez’s accomplishments running GALEO Inc. include fearlessly marching in the streets of Atlanta demanding amnesty for illegals and escorting a busload of illegal aliens into the state Senate Chamber. GALEO has actively opposed voter ID (it’s “anti-Hispanic”), English as the official language of government in Georgia (“it would be an insult to “our culture”), ICE holds for criminal illegals in Georgia jails (“…bad for communities”) and in 2011 joined the ACLU and the SPLC in a federal lawsuit to stop state implementation of HB 87, the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” – apparently enforcement of immigration law is “anti-immigrant.”

After this writer and several other pro-enforcement citizens spoke in favor of HB 202 in the House Public Safety and Homeland Security committee in 2019, we watched as GALEO lobbyists joined the SPLC and the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) lobbyists in testifying against advancement of the bill. HB 202 would have required the Georgia Department of Corrections to publish a public, quarterly report on the number of foreigners in the state prison system, the number of that group who already are subjects of ICE detainers, their home nations and crimes committed along with the percentage of the entire prison population these aliens represent.

I write “would have” because the Republican-dominated House Rules Committee killed the bill.

Sponsors at GALEO fund raisers have included the Coca Cola Co., Telemundo, Western Union, Cox Communications (parent company of the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper), Georgia Power, State Farm Ins. Co., Univision, Atlanta’s Kilpatrick Townsend law firm and Southwest airlines.

I watched in person sometime about 2005 as Gonzalez marched in protest of then-CNN newsman Lou Dobbs with a large group of fellow travelers carrying signs calling Dobbs a “racist” with other placards reading “THIS IS OUR CONTINENT- GO BACK TO EUROPE!” I asked some of the group with Gonzalez to where my black friends who opposed illegal immigration should return. “Africa” was the quick, loud, and defiant reply.

I am out of space for now but not close to the end of the story. Please save this edition and see here next time for more recent information on how deeply GALEO is involved in Georgia politics and how our state government really works. You won’t get this from “the news.”

Part 2.

The Islander

October 31, 2022

More on the illegal alien lobby in Georgia – GALEO Inc. and our government

In my previous column here, we began an insider’s account and history of the corporate-funded GALEO Inc. as related to our government. As promised, here is some additional information. It’s worth the reader’s time to check out the October 17, 2022 edition of The Islander if you missed part one.

The innocuously named Georgia Association of Latino and Elected Officials Corp. (GALEO) is run by former MALDEF lobbyist and Biden-supporter Jerry (Gerardo E.) Gonzalez, who is known for badgering female Republican state legislators and escorting admitted illegal aliens into the state Senate Chamber. Gonzalez has been widely quoted in liberal news media as part of the effort to erase the obvious difference between illegal aliens and real immigrants – like this writer’s adopted sister. Gonzalez says use of the word “illegal” in the term illegal immigrant/alien is akin to use of “the N-word.”

It is imperative that readers understand a large part of the names of far-left groups are intended to provide a basis for mindless marginalization of critics. Example: “You don’t agree with us? You must be “anti-Latino.” “You oppose illegal immigration? – you are against Hispanics, and you are clearly “anti-immigrant.” Those of us who have been fighting for enforcement and sanity on immigration for decades were being attacked with the shameless race-baiting and name calling long before the Democrats and the liberal media took the practice mainstream and nationwide.

A 2015 press release from community organizer Gonzalez provides important insight into part of GALEO’s dangerous agenda: “On behalf of GALEO, I would like to commend Fulton County Commissioners’ leadership and resolution urging the Fulton County Sheriff to stop honoring the ICE hold requests in order to keep families together but to also enhance public safety. We urge the Fulton County Sheriff to move forward quickly and implement the recommendation.”

The liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper refers to GALEO as a “civil rights group.”

GALEO’s Institute for Leadership (“a nationally recognized Latinx leadership program”) conducts classes every year to train future leftist community organizers – in partnership with UGA’s J.W. Fanning Institute. Really.

In 2015 then President Barack Obama nominated GALEO board member, tactician, and fundraiser Dax Lopez for a lifetime seat on the federal bench in the Northern District of Georgia. Lopez was also a DeKalb County state court judge at the time. Happily, the confirmation process was stopped by then U.S. Senator David Perdue after Perdue was presented with irrefutable facts about GALEO by the Dustin Inman Society. Thank you, Senator Perdue.

Fast forward to 2022 Georgia: Dax Lopez was appointed to the prestigious and powerful state Judicial Qualifications Commission in June. The JQC educates Georgia judges about their ethical duties and conducts investigations and hearings regarding judges’ misconduct. Really.

Readers may have assumed that Georgia politicians, especially Republican elected officials who present themselves as conservatives would avoid all things GALEO Inc.

Consider this: GALEO board member and current Democrat candidate for state senate Jason Esteves (District 6, Fulton County area) is a favorite to win the seat Nov 8th. Current Republican state Senator Jason Anavitarte (Paulding Co) was a GALEO board member about the time he ran for the state House – as a Democrat. In June 2019, Gov Brian Kemp appointed then Doraville police chief John King as Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner. An ecstatic Jerry Gonzalez boasted to the media that “several years ago, Chief John King served as a keynote speaker for one of GALEO’s Power Breakfasts, one of our annual fundraising events…we look forward to working alongside his leadership,” Gonzalez gushed.

In 2015 then Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Attorney General Sam Olens, Republicans both, attended the 12th annual GALEO “Power Breakfast.” Then Gov. Nathan Deal (R) was scheduled to attend but changed plans at the last minute. Another notable attendee that year was AJC political reporter and blogger Greg Bluestein who was captured in a GALEO promo photo wearing a name tag provided by one of the corporate sponsors – not the press ID that normally hangs from working reporter’s necks.

It is a sad truism that most people have no idea how their government really works. We have done a bare outline of just one corporate-funded leftist group here. Unless you already visit our websites, follow us on Facebook or me on Twitter (@DAKDIS), we are guessing you read it here first.

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