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Retired Immigration Agent’s Angry Letter to Gov Brian Kemp On His Pick for Insurance Commissioner #GALEO #JohnKing

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Left: Newly appointed Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King with GALEO Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez. Image: Facebook, GALEO.org

Retired Immigration Agent’s angry letter to Gov Kemp on his pick for Insurance Commissioner

 GALEO is a clear enemy of enforcement. John King is an active friend of GALEO. My own opinion of you as governor has been greatly and permanently diminished.”

A follow up to our recent column (Georgia Governor Appoints Replacement Insurance Commissioner With Ties to Anti-Enforcement Immigration Lobbying Group)  alerting readers to Governor Brian “I have a big truck” Kemp’s choice for his appointment to state wide office as Insurance Commissioner.

We explained that the appointee, John King, is a friend of the notorious GALEO Corp. and speaker for least one fundraiser for that anti-enforcement group. The fact that Doraville Police Chief John King was helping GALEO while GALEO was smearing King’s fellow law enforcement officers – including several county sheriffs – with false accusations of “racial profiling” because they assisted in immigration enforcement seems to have been lost on Gov. Kemp.

In 2014 GALEO – with the help and friendship of Police Chief John King – boasted on it’s website of their role in convincing Fulton County to end cooperation with federal ICE agents on holding criminal illegal aliens. GALEO Executive Director Jerry Gonzalez put out a press release with the following statement:

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.

Since Fulton County is the first jurisdiction in the state with such a recommendation, GALEO would also like to encourage other jurisdictions in the state to adopt similar policies and stop honoring the hold requests from ICE.”

The entire media release can be read here.

We think it is educational to share a few letters from Georgians that have been sent to Gov Kemp regarding his “historic” appointment of GALEO’s John King to constitutional office.

Here is a recent letter from Mr. Robert Trent, a retired federal immigration agent, to Kemp:

 “June 17, 2019

Governor Kemp,

I am Robert M. Trent, Senior Special Agent, USINS (Ret.). My final assignment was at the U.S. Immigration Officers Academy, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA. . I served as the Assistant Director for Enforcement Training.

 Having spent most of my life fighting for public safety through enforcement of our immigration laws, I am shocked and extremely disappointed to learn that in your recent appointment of John King to Insurance Commissioner, you have chosen to elevate a friend of the notorious GALEO organization to a position of power in our state government. John King has served as a valuable assistant in GALEO’s fundraising.

 GALEO’s Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez is giddy in his excitement over King’s appointment and boasting of the friendship and connection with your choice for an appointment to constitutional office. Like most conservatives, we expected to this happen only after the Democrats gained control of our state government.

 I have also just learned that you have lent your own prestige to a GALEO fundraiser with your attendance in the past.

GALEO is shamelessly dedicated to stopping enforcement of the immigration laws I swore to uphold and has a verified history of opposition to literally every tenant of commonsense policy that conservatives elected you to implement. If you have even mentioned illegal immigration since you took office it hasn’t filtered down to our attention here in South Georgia.

 Like many of my friends and colleagues, I am outraged beyond the words I send you today. This appointment and your association with GALEO is a memorable mistake on your part and it is obviously far away from your campaign promises on illegal immigration in Georgia.

GALEO is a clear enemy of enforcement. John King is an active friend of GALEO. My own opinion of you as governor has been greatly and permanently diminished.

 Robert M. Trent

Saint Mary’s, GA 31558″

 Other letters to Kemp on the appointment, including from legal immigrants who do not share GALEO’s anti-borders views on immigration and enforcement can be seen on the Dustin Inman Society blog page here.

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Georgia Governor Appoints Replacement Insurance Commissioner with Ties to Anti-enforcement Immigration Lobbying Group, GALEO – Brian Kemp

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Left: Newly appointed Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King with GALEO Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez. Image: Facebook, GALEO.org

 

Note, due to today’s funeral of our friend Billy Inman, this is a rush write up that will be expanded on soon. UPDATED AND FINAL – June 14 – 8:50AM

 

Yesterday, Georgia Republican Governor, Brian Kemp, announced his appointment of a metro-Atlanta police chief, John King, to be the replacement for the now-suspended elected Insurance Commissioner, Jim Beck. In Georgia, Insurance Commissioner is a statewide, constitutional office.

Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of the corporate-funded, anti-enforcement lobbyist group, GALEO, was quick to send out a media release praising the “historic” appointment and boasting that King had assisted the activist group as keynote speaker at a GALEO breakfast fundraiser several years ago.

“Congrats to Chief King, close friend of @GALEOorg !” was the much-repeated celebratory post on the GALEO Facebook page.

Kemp’s Insurance Commissioner appointee has no background or experience in the insurance industry.

Kemp’s appointment of the GALEO-connected police chief to Insurance Commissioner comes as a shock to many Republican voters in the state. Georgia’s conservative U.S. Senator David Perdue stopped the Obama nomination of a one-time GALEO board member, Dax Lopez, to a federal bench seat in 2016 because of his concern with the GALEO relationship.

DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez. Image: Daily Signal

Perhaps unknown to most Republican voters, in addition to marching in the streets of Atlanta against enforcement of existing federal laws on immigration, GALEO and its director are well-known in the state Capitol for lobbying against state legislation aimed at reporting criminal aliens to federal authorities and establishing an official database of illegal aliens serving time in the state’s prison system.

GALEO lobbies against voter ID, official English and local jails honoring ICE detainers. Executive Director Gonzalez is known to verbally attack female legislators when he does not approve of speeches or positions on illegal immigration. In 2011, Gonzalez posted this angry explanation of being asked to leave the Georgia Capitol when he lashed out at state Senator Renee Unterman for a speech she made on the floor of the senate.

GALEO online poster opposing 2018 legislation to improve reporting of illegal aliens to federal authorities

In 2011, GALEO’s Gonzalez was escorted out of a Rome, Georgia luncheon that featured a panel discussion on immigration when he began yelling at diminutive state Rep Katie Dempsey as reported by the Rome News Tribune.

State rep. Katie Dempsey. Image: Georgia General Assembly

Gonzalez is a former lobbyist for the radical MALDEF corporation. GALEO founder, former state Senator Sam Zamarippa was a MALDEF board member. MALDEF founder Mario Obledo is best remembered for his promise that “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” on the Tom Likus radio show in 1998.

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

Kemp ran on a platform that included his now famous “I got a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ’em home myself,”

Kemp and a GALEO fundraiser – Advice from a liberal AJC political blogger 

Republicans are learning that before he was elected governor, then Secretary of State Brian Kemp also gave GALEO a fundraising boost when he attended the annual GALEO Power Breakfast fundraiser in 2015.

On GALEO, the liberal AJC political blogger Jim Galloway informed readers today  that the Republicans will need to court the illegal alien lobby group as a necessary first step to “court Hispanic votes in the future” which ignores thirty years of election results since the Republican immigration amnesty of 1986.

All this creates a simple question: Does appointee John King agree with the GALEO agenda? He is due to be sworn in in the next few weeks, somebody should ask.

Governor Brian Kemp’s office can be reached at 404-656-1776 and Brian.Kemp@georgia.gov 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biden Regime Flying Illegal Aliens to New York with ‘Secretive’ Nighttime Flights Says Source

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Photo: Getty/Breitbart

Note: We have multiple reports that Chattanooga airport has taken at least one fight in the wee hours of the night with busses taking the off-loaded passengers out of town and into rural Georgia. dak

Breitbart News

August 17, 2021

Neil Munro

President Joe Biden’s deputies are covertly flying economic migrants into New York, says Rob Astorino, one of the Republican politicians running for governor.

“The issue is a matter of public safety, public health, and just as important, the public’s right to know,” Rob Astorino told Breitbart News. “We have been kept in the dark on all of this for months by our federal state and local governments, including the county that runs the airport,” he said, adding:

There is no economic fairness in this, especially for Americans who are on the lower end of the economic spectrum because their jobs are most at risk, or will be filled by non-citizens when they start to look for a job. … It is not fair to Americans that are dealing with a pandemic, rising inflation, and a shaky economy to have a President waving in hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of lower skilled people who are going to fill those jobs that Americans may need. There is no fairness whatsoever to that.

 

“It seems to me the Biden’s approach is more of the United Nations [rather] than an American president,” he added.

 

Migration damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages, raises their rents, curbs their productivity, shrinks their political clout, widens regional wealth gaps, and wrecks their open-minded, equality-promoting civic culture.

For example, Rep. John Katko (R-NY) represents a district in upstate New York with few legal immigrants but many labor-intensive dairy farms that prefer to hire skilled, disposable, and powerless migrants — perhaps including many of Biden’s new migrants — instead of Americans or robots. The per capita income in his district is roughly $35,000, significantly below the $42,000 annual income in New York.

WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 14: Rep. John Katko (R-NY) speaks during a press conference following a House Republican caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on April 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. The House Republican members spoke about their recent trip to the southern border and the surge of migrant children entering the United States. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

International migration also minimizes the incentive for job-creating investors to create well-paid jobs in the upstate communities that have reared and educated many young Americans. Instead, downstate investors prefer to create jobs near their location because they know migrants will move to those jobs. The New York Times described the migration flow to investors on August 7:

One of the detainees [caught on the border], Alex, 30, from Ecuador, was wearing a bead necklace with a crucifix and an Our Lady of Guadalupe pendant for protection. It was his first attempt to cross into the United States, he said, and he had paid a smuggler thousands of dollars to guide him toward New York. “I’m a noble man,” he said. “I came to fight for a better life, and to provide for my family.” Read the rest here from Breitbart News

Future Dem voters: Biden’s DHS Secretary Pushes Amnesty for Illegal Aliens At The Border

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Photo: Breitbart News

Breitbart News

John Binder

June 25, 2021

“Mayorkas also suggested that the role of DHS, under his and President Joe Biden’s direction, is “to build safe and legal pathways for people” to stay in the U.S. indefinitely.”

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas used his visit to the United States-Mexico border with Vice President Kamala Harris to tout amnesty for illegal aliens.

On Friday, during a press conference in El Paso, Texas, alongside Harris, Mayorkas said he was “hopeful” that an amnesty for illegal aliens would be approved by Congress.

“I am hopeful that Congress will pass immigration reform to fix a system that everyone recognizes is broke and I am thankful for [Sen. Dick Durbin’s] years-long effort and championing this effort,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas also suggested that the role of DHS, under his and President Joe Biden’s direction, is “to build safe and legal pathways for people” to stay in the U.S. indefinitely — a stark contrast to former President Trump’s DHS, which sought to stem illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

The amnesty push by Mayorkas comes as Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has said he is crafting amnesty legislation that would be sent off to Senate Democrats for negotiating.

In March, the Democrat-controlled House — with support from 30 House Republicans — passed H.R. 1603, known as the “Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021,” and H.R. 6, known as “American Dream and Promise Act of 2021.”

Together, the two plans would give amnesty to about 2.1 million illegal aliens working on U.S. farms and another 4.4 million Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)-enrolled and eligible illegal aliens and those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Already, many Senate Democrats are seeking to slip an amnesty past Congress through a little-known “reconciliation” maneuver. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is crafting a proposal that would include forcing American taxpayers to spend $150 billion on providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

An amnesty would come as nearly 16 million remain jobless, all of whom want full-time jobs. Another 5.3 million Americans are underemployed but likewise, want full-time employment.

An analysis released this week by the Center for Immigration Studies revealed that amnesty for illegal aliens, which would immediately flood the U.S. labor market with millions of newly legalized foreign workers for whom employers can legally hire, would have a devastating impact on the nation’s ongoing unemployment problem…Read the rest here.

 

Fast Fact: USCIS Announces It Will Violate the Law: Back to accepting incomplete applications filed only to gain work permits

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Image: John Moore/Getty Images – via Daily Wire.
The below from the Center for Immigration Studies
By Robert Law on April 2, 2021

Another day, another instance of the Biden political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security ignoring laws that they dislike.

Instead of going through notice and comment rulemaking, as required under the Administrative Procedure Act, to revise regulations, or getting Congress to pass legislative changes, the Biden administration seems to believe it can unilaterally create its preferred immigration system with impunity. The most recent example was yesterday’s announcement by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that it will allow applicants to submit incomplete applications.

To a casual observer this might not sound like a big deal, but it is.

The requirements for properly filing applications and petitions are clearly spelled out in Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Specifically, 8 CFR 103.2 says:

§ 103.2 Submission and adjudication of benefit requests.

(a) Filing –

(1) Preparation and submission. Every form, benefit request, or other document must be submitted to DHS and executed in accordance with the form instructions regardless of a provision of 8 CFR chapter I to the contrary. The form’sinstructions are hereby incorporated into the regulations requiring its submission. Each form, benefit request, or other document must be filed with the fee(s) required by regulation. All USCIS fees are generally non-refundable regardless of if the benefit request or other service is approved, denied, or selected, or how much time the adjudication or processing requires. Except as otherwise provided in this chapter I, fees must be paid when the request is filed or submitted.

Ideally, applicants and petitioners only submit “perfect” applicants and petitions, meaning a completed form with all evidence and fees included that efficiently allows an adjudicator to make an approve/deny decision. Reality is different and the adjudicative process drags on inefficiently.

As a threshold matter, USCIS does not even begin to adjudicate a benefit request until the agency accepts the request and processes the required fees (if any). According to the USCIS Policy Manual, “In order for USCIS to accept a benefit request, a submission must satisfy all applicable acceptance criteria.” The agency explains that this generally means (1) a complete, properly executed form, with a proper signature; (2) correct fees; and (3) the required initial evidence for intake purposes, as directed by the form instructions.

Accepting the form does not guarantee approval for the benefit request; it is merely the threshold requirement that initiates adjudicator review. If the officer is unable to make an adjudicative decision, he or she may issue a Request for Evidence (RFE) to give the requestor an opportunity to supplement the record. When adjudicators issue RFEs, it delays the final determination and contributes to backlogs.

On the other hand, USCIS is supposed to reject benefit requests that do not meet these minimum requirements. As outlined in the Policy Manual, reasons for rejection may include (1) incomplete benefit request; (2) improper signature or no signature; (3) use of an outdated version of a USCIS form at time of submission; (4) principal application error; and (5) incorrect fee, including missing fees or fees in the wrong amount.

In 2019, senior Trump administration political leadership at USCIS discovered that the agency was accepting woefully incomplete Forms I-589, I-612, and I-918 in violation of the form instructions and regulations. For those (understandably) unfamiliar with USCIS form numbers, the three forms at issue are:

The Biden Plan: Hotels to Cost Taxpayers $72,000 per illegal alien?

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Photo: CIS.org/Twitter

“After taking office, Biden proposed a pathway to citizenship for millions of people in the United States unlawfully, and promised in an executive order to “create a humane asylum system.”

In a fresh twist on the Biden administration’s decision to house illegal immigrants at hotel facilities, crunching the numbers on the $86.9 million that is set to be spent on 1,239 beds shows that the cost to U.S. taxpayers will be nearly $72,000 per border-crosser housed.

“That works out to $71,666.67 per migrant, paid by your tax dollars, meaning that you are now a co-conspirator to one of the largest smuggling schemes in history,” wrote Andrew Arthur, a fellow with the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative policy research nonprofit.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to The Epoch Times that the Biden administration plans to use hotel facilities to accommodate family units unlawfully crossing the U.S.–Mexico border.

“The $86.9 million contract provides 1,239 beds and other necessary services,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tae D. Johnson…

The story from Epoch News continues here.

NY TIMES story, front page

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National Push by a Local Immigration Activist: No G.O.P. Retreat

 

D.A. King, center, at a July rally in Washington  against amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Credit…Christopher Gregory/The New York Times

By Julia Preston

ATLANTA — He says the United States is filling up with immigrants who do not respect the law or the American way of life. He refers to Latino groups as “the tribalists,” saying they seek to impose a divisive ethnic agenda. Of his many adversaries, he says: “The illegal alien lobby never changes. It’s the Wall Street wing of the Republican Party joining forces with the Chamber of Commerce, the far left and the Democrats in an effort to expand cheap labor and increase voting for the Democratic Party.”

D. A. King, who quit his job as an insurance agent a decade ago to wage a full-time campaign against illegal immigration in Georgia, is one reason this state rivals Arizona for the toughest legal crackdown in the country. With his Southern manners and seersucker jackets, he works the halls of the gold-domed statehouse, familiar to all, polite and uncompromising.

Now, like other local activists around the country, he is looking beyond Georgia to stop the House of Representatives from following the Senate and passing legislation that would open a path to legal status for illegal immigrants.

As lawmakers return to their home districts for the August recess, advocates like Mr. King are joining forces with national groups that oppose legalization and favor reduced immigration for an all-out populist push.

“These local people live in the middle of these places, they know how to be effective in their districts,” said Roy Beck, executive director of one of the largest national groups, NumbersUSA, who is now holding regular strategy calls with Mr. King and more than 50 other state advocates.

The zeal of militants like Mr. King is a problem for the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, and other Republican leaders, who are hoping to steer their divided caucus to pass a House version of legislation to fix the broken immigration system, which could include legal status for those who lack it — though probably not citizenship.

Mr. King’s “respectful but firm” message for the speaker, he said in an interview, is that “any vote for legalization would be a matter of very great consequence for the people who voted for conservative congressmen from Georgia.”

Mr. King says his wrath grew slowly, beginning in the 1990s with a feud with Mexican neighbors who disrupted the quiet of his leafy street. In Mr. King’s account, they parked fleets of run-down vehicles on their lawn and at one point housed 22 people in a jerry-built warren of rental rooms in the basement.

He took the neighbor to court over code violations, and the conflict boiled for seven years until the family moved away.

A visit in 2004 to the Southwest border convinced Mr. King that the country was facing “what was easily described as an invasion.” Returning to Georgia, he made common cause with the struggling father of a teenage boy killed in a car accident by a reckless driver who was an illegal immigrant. He named his organization the Dustin Inman Society, after the boy.

The mistrust of Mr. Boehner among Mr. King and his allies deepened recently when the speaker rebuked an anti-amnesty hero, Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, for commenting that young immigrants here illegally had “calves the size of cantaloupes” from running drugs across the border.

Mr. King in Georgia said he sided squarely with the congressman of the same name, although he might have chosen a milder metaphor. He nonetheless spared little in his description of Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who was one of the authors of the Senate bill, calling him a “smarmy and dishonest” turncoat. During the Senate debate, Mr. King designed and paid for thousands of bumper stickers as well as three large billboards along a commuter highway near Atlanta.

“Help us stop RubiObama amnesty!” one big sign read, with President Obama’s name joined by his hallmark red-white-and-blue letter to that of Senator Rubio.

His billboards instructed drivers to call a senator from Georgia, Johnny Isakson. Mr. Isakson, who supported a comprehensive bill in 2007, voted against the Senate legislation this year.

In Georgia, Mr. King has not been afraid to take on many adversaries, including the farmers and growers, business organizations, labor unions and Latinos. A big-shouldered former Marine, he often shows up with his own placards at rallies called by his opponents — just to let them know he is watching.

“I was taught that we have an American culture to which immigrants will assimilate,” Mr. King said. “And I am incredibly resentful that’s not what’s happening anymore.”

Mr. King, 61, runs his one-man operation from the small guest room of his home on a tree-shaded cul-de-sac in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, equipped with an aging desktop computer and a chair that he acknowledges “needs a new coat of duct tape.” He lives on small donations, and to keep it all going he spent down his savings, ran up his credit cards, refinanced his house three times and “sold the stock my grandmother left me.”

He is unmoved by the protests of Latino and immigrant groups that the Obama administration has already done more than enough enforcement, with more than 1.6 million deportations those groups say have sown fear in their neighborhoods.

Mr. King wants a lot more enforcement before the House does anything else on immigration. He sees the Senate bill as a scheme by Democrats to create legions of new government-dependent voters for their party. He feels certain House Republicans will ultimately reject it.

“The tribalists will not make any difference with any Republican who has enough sense to get on an airplane every Monday and fly to Washington,” Mr. King said.

In his recent meetings in the statehouse, Mr. King huddled with two Republicans, Senator Josh McKoon and Representative Edward Lindsey, who called in by phone. They laid plans for Republicans in the state legislature to send a letter to all the Georgia lawmakers in the House, urging them to focus on enforcement and avoid legalization.

Mr. King is joining a surge of activity among his allies that was spurred by the Senate vote in June. At NumbersUSA, Mr. Beck said, more than 400,000 people signed on to an e-mail list as the vote approached, expanding its followers to more than 1.6 million names. Mr. Beck said a recent conference call he convened with followers was joined by 58,770 people.

But Jerry Gonzalez, a Latino leader in Georgia who is one of Mr. King’s oldest rivals, pointed to new demographics that House lawmakers would have to consider. The number of registered Latino voters in the state grew to 184,000 in 2012 from 10,000 a decade earlier, with more than 200,000 legal immigrants eligible to become citizens.

 

Pending legislation under Georgia’s Gold Dome to allow illegal aliens to pay lower tuition at public universities than legal immigrants and U.S. citizens #HB120 #KaseyCarpenter

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Image: A.F. Branco – In 2016 three Georgia residents, all illegal aliens who had graduated from Georgia high schools, went to court with the contention that their deferred action on deportation status as DACA recipients somehow provided “lawful presence” in the U.S. Further, they said DACA should allow them to attend the universities the Board of Regents has placed off limits to illegal aliens.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them in 2019. On page 26 of the March 2019 11th Circuit opinion the court wrote: “As explained above, appellants are not lawfully present in the United States.”
The court noted the obvious (even the liberal AJC reported it): illegal alien students are still subject to deportation proceedings. “As DACA recipients, they simply were given  a reprieve from potential removal; that does not mean they are in any way ‘lawfully present under the (INA) act.”

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Updated: Typos corrected 5:32 PM 28 January, 2021.  **Updated 9:15 AM 29 January, 2021 with note on lack of criminal restrictions for eligibility.

UPDATE FEB 19, 8:47 PM – THERE IS NOW A SUBSTITUTE BILL (LC 49 0393S) WITH A SLIGHT CHANGE IN LANGUAGE DESIGNED TO CREATE FAKE NEWS. IT IS WORKING. MORE SUNDAY.

Instate tuition for illegal aliens in Georgia – House Bill 120 sponsored by Republican Rep Kasey Carpenter of Dalton

 Carpenter has three Republican co-signers and five Democrat co-signers. Without ever using “DACA,” the hoped-for contention is that DACA provides “lawful presence.” It doesn’t.

See bottom for a list and contact info of cosponsors.

Rep Kasey Carpenter’s legislation, HB 120, would change Georgia law to allow illegal aliens to access instate tuition rates in Georgia’s public university and technical college systems. Three schools would be exempt because they do not admit illegal aliens at any tuition rate.

Rep Kasey Carpenter Photo: GA General Assembly

These instate rates are much lower than out-of state tuition (what non-residents pay). For academic year 2019-2020, the average tuition & fees for Colleges in Georgia is $4,721 for in-state and $16,879 for out-of-state.

This would mean illegal aliens would pay a lower rate than Americans and legal immigrants from Michigan or Nebraska (for example).

The bill is being promoted in the liberal AJC in a way that makes it sound like it would only apply to illegal aliens with Obama’s illegal DACA action. Here is a quote from an AJC article before the bill officially dropped:

“ (Rep Kasey) Carpenter said his bill would apply to participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.”

The reality is that “DACA” is not mentioned anywhere in Carpenter’s state tuition amnesty bill. Carpenter, along with his far-left, Atlanta-area Democrat co-sponsors has structured the measure so that nearly any ‘youngish’ illegal alien living in Georgia, DACA or not, can pay much less tuition in Georgia taxpayer-funded post-secondary schools than Americans and legal immigrants from most other states *if they meet the bill’s guidelines. *(updated 3:19 PM, January 28, 2021)

Note: Read a well written explanation of what may happen to DACA in the near future from Regulatory Review.

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Requirements for instate tuition for illegal aliens in Carpenter’s bill:

* Student must have graduated from a Georgia High School or obtained a Georgia GED.

* Claim domicile in Georgia since January 1, 2013 or be a dependent “child” of a parent (including illegal alien parents) who claims Georgia domicile since January 1, 2013.

*  Be younger than 30 at time of initial application to a Georgia post-secondary school. This appears to mean the illegal alien who is older than 30 now could have applied in the past and been rejected but can use the date of that original application. (We have not done the math).

* Has not been issued a temporary (non-immigrant) visa to enter the U.S.A. by the federal government.

*The bill says student must be “lawfully present in this state” and present evidence of that status – and that the regents may not allow instate tuition to non-citizens who are not “lawfully present.”

All italics mine.

**UPDATE: January 29, 2021 – DACA has guidelines for eligibility regarding criminal records and convictions. In HB 120 we see no such limiting language. This bill is a separate, state level illegal alien tuition amnesty that should be rejected out of hand by responsible lawmakers.

_______________________

The term “lawful presence” (different from “legal status”) seems to be the rock Carpenter, his Democrat co-sponsors and his foreign labor backers are tying themselves to. Congress, and only congress, makes the determination of immigration status. According to a 2019 appellate court decision discussed further down, “lawful presence” is not defined anywhere in the Immigration and Nationality Act that regulates immigration. Illegal aliens with DACA for example, do not have “lawful presence.”

Carpenter says he is trying to educate more workers. In a pandemic. With high unemployment. A move that will lower wages for Americans if successful.

Carpenter and his Democrat co-sponsors seem to be trying hard to allow the state of Georgia to create its own amnesty for tuition rates. By using the “DACA” label in talking points, but leaving it out of the bill language, they could allow perhaps thousands more illegal aliens to obtain this immigration amnesty for special treatment on tuition than the 21,000 or so illegal aliens that actually currently have DACA status.

We expect the argument to be that illegal aliens with a Georgia drivers license can use it to demonstrate “lawful presence” in Georgia to pay less tuition than legal immigrants.

See bill here

Image: The Dustin Inman Society

FACTS:

 Associated Press: “Some illegal immigrants get licenses in Georgia.”

llegal aliens with deferred action on deportation (DACA or no DACA) can and do qualify for a Georgia drivers license because of federal law (REAL ID Act) – this special treatment applies to obtaining drivers licenses and official ID cards only.

The Georgia state senate passed a bill to end this insanity in 2017. All but one Republican voted in favor. The liberal AJC reported on it with “Georgia Senate passes measure aimed at immigrants without legal status.”

The House never allowed the bill to see a hearing and the bill died. We are forever grateful to former state Senator Josh McKoon for his courage and determination.

Drivers license issued to non-citizens in Georgia, including illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation. Photo: DDS.

Carpenter and his Dem pals may be trying to use the drivers license as a way to get illegal aliens instate tuition. The effort seems to be to use the DACA amnesty as a way to confuse lawmakers and voters on Carpenter’s tuition amnesty bill, it should be noted that illegal aliens with DACA have already lost their case in federal court – twice – when they tried to claim “lawful presence.”

“Illegal aliens who have been awarded deferred action on deportation proceedings through the DACA amnesty by both the Obama and Trump administrations are illegal aliens and do not have “lawful presence” says the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision was handed down March 6, 2019.

The ruling was in response to a suit brought by several illegal aliens in Georgia who were challenging the Board of Regents policy that requires lawful presence for instate tuition purposes and admittance to some USG universities.

The Eleventh Circuit rejected all of the students’ claims. The court noted that  ““lawfully present” is not a stand alone immigration classification, and it is not defined anywhere in the (Immigration and Nationality) Act  *(opinion here).

We wrote it up here, with a link to the court’s opinion.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Photo: Twitter.com

Georgia Attorney General, Chris Carr:

“We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status…” from the liberal WABE news.

The bill seems to depend largely on lawmaker’s ignorance of the issue and the slanted promotional and inaccurate headline coverage in the media.

________

HB120

Sponsor: Rep Kasey Carpenter (R) Dalton

*Cosponsors

Rep Dale Washburn (R) Macon

Rep Mathew Gambrill (R) Cartersville

Rep Bee Nguyen (D) Atlanta

Rep Zulma Lopez (D) Atlanta

Rep Wes Cantrell (R) Woodstock

Rep Shea Roberts (D) Atlanta

Rep Angelika Kausche (D) Johns Creek

Rep Mathew Wilson (D) Brookhaven

*As per Clerk’s office 10:00 AM Jan 27, 2021

Image: Dustin Inman Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGIA LT GOV GEOFF DUNCAN HAS APPOINTED STATE SENATOR CHUCK PAYNE TO COMMITTEE CHAIR “…politics is best and high standard of Moral Turpitude in law.”

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Photo: Dustin Inman Society

Including this post, the full DIS “Chuck Payne” file here.

From the Office of Lt. Governor, Geoff Duncan:

Senate Announces New Committee Chairs

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

Today, Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan and the Senate Committee on Assignments announced new standing committee chairs for the first session of the 156th Georgia General Assembly.

“These committee chairs are uniquely qualified to develop real and lasting solutions aimed at building a better Georgia,” said Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan. “The Senate will continue to prioritize diligent committee work and sound public policy, and I look forward to working closely with each one of our chairs, and their committee members, as we work to enact policies that advance both the lives and livelihoods of all Georgians.”

The following members were named to chair standing committees:

Sen. Larry Walker (R – 20) will serve as chair of the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee.

Sen. Blake Tillery (R – 19) will serve as chair of the Appropriations Committee.

Sen. Matt Brass (R – 28) will serve as chair of the Banking and Financial Institutions Committee.

Sen. Bruce Thompson (R – 14) will serve as chair of the Economic Development and Tourism Committee.

–>Sen. Chuck Payne (R – 54) will serve as chair of the Education and Youth Committee.

Sen. Max Burns (R – 23) will serve as chair of the Ethics Committee.

Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R – 52) will serve as chair of the Finance Committee.

Sen. Marty Harbin (R – 16) will serve as chair of the Government Oversight Committee.

Sen. Ben Watson (R – 1) will serve as chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.

Sen. Lindsey Tippins (R – 37) will serve as chair of the Higher Education Committee.

Sen. Dean Burke (R – 11) will serve as chair of the Insurance and Labor Committee.

Sen. Donzella James (D – 35) will serve as chair of the Interstate Cooperation Committee.

Sen. Brian Strickland (R – 17) will serve as chair of the Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Tyler Harper (R – 7) will serve as chair of the Natural Resources and the Environment Committee.

Sen. John Albers (R – 56) will serve as chair of the Public Safety Committee.

Sen. John F. Kennedy (R – 18) will serve as chair of the Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee.

Sen. Bill Cowsert (R – 46) will serve as chair of the Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee.

Sen. Randy Robertson (R – 29) will serve as chair of the Retirement Committee.

Sen. Jeff Mullis (R – 53) will serve as chair of the Rules Committee.

Sen. Greg Dolezal (R – 27) will serve as chair of the Science and Technology Committee.

Sen. Jennifer Jordan (D – 6) will serve as chair of the Special Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Lee Anderson (R – 24) will serve as chair of the State and Local Governmental Operations Committee.

Sen. Ed Harbison (D – 15) will serve as chair of the State Institutions and Property Committee.

Sen. Frank Ginn (R – 47) will serve as chair of the Transportation Committee.

Sen. Lester Jackson (D – 2) will serve as chair of the Urban Affairs Committee.

Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (R – 32) will serve as chair of the Veterans, Military, and Homeland Security Committee.

A comprehensive list of committee appointments can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U2QQpTlfaf1NvGpKoHNEGK6eYnWgrgWARBPqVqmctfA/edit?usp=sharing

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Press Contact:

Macy McFall

Deputy Chief of Staff &

Director of Communications

Macy.McFall@ltgov.ga.gov

Office: 404-463-1380

 

Georgia Gets in Ballot Trouble with Rule Changes – IAG

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Photo: IAG

“Previously, the signature on the absentee ballot had to match the signature on eNet, a computer database that maintains Georgia’s voter registration and absentee ballot information. If the signature on the ballot didn’t match, it was thrown out.”

Insider Advantage Georgia

November 11, 2020

By Phil Kent

Criticism of poor management and decision-making by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger continues, coupled with GOP voter fraud lawsuits that have been filed or will be filed. The controversy and lawsuits are partially spurred by changes in state election laws. One change, agreed to by the Republican secretary of state last March, is especially stunning. And it leads to a big question: Why did he agree to a settlement that smuggled in a major change to mail-in voting?

John Daniel Davidson, writing in The Federalist, has researched and written about Raffensperger’s incredible cave-in involving a settlement in federal court with the Georgia Democratic Party, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which had sued the state over for absentee voting rules.

The settlement introduced “ballot curing” to Georgia law. Ballot curing, as Davidson describes it, is when voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected for some reason— the signature on the ballot doesn’t match the one on file, the ballot is missing certain voter information, etc.— are notified and given a chance to correct or “cure” their absentee ballot. “Under the settlement, state election officials agreed to contact voters whose ballots were rejected within three business days. If an absentee ballot is rejected in the 11 days before Election Day, officials agreed to contact the voter in the next business day,” Davidson writes.

But here’s where it gets worse. Because more than 8,000 absentee ballots were rejected in Georgia’s 2018 general election, this provision in the settlement got the most media play. Yet the most important one is a crucial change to the rules for accepting absentee ballots in the first place. Consider Davidson’s findings:

“Previously, the signature on the absentee ballot had to match the signature on eNet, a computer database that maintains Georgia’s voter registration and absentee ballot information. If the signature on the ballot didn’t match, it was thrown out.

“In a cleverly worded section of the settlement, Georgia election officials agreed to a subtle but profound change…, we hope you read the rest here.