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In January of 2004, President George W. Bush promoted his “Any Willing Worker” proposal, proclaiming, “New immigration laws should serve the economic needs of our country. If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job.”
Note: The below is a partial and in progress story about legislation (SB 379) passed in 2022 under the GOP-ruled Gold Dome and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. There is much more to say, but not today. Still investigating.
Update, Dec. 2, 2023: “During the 2022 legislative session, Governor Kemp and lawmakers partnered to pass SB 379, representing a historic investment in apprenticeships in Georgia through the HDCI Program. The HDCI Program awards up to $50,000 in funding to Georgia businesses to upskill workers through registered apprenticeships and increase skilled talent within Georgia’s high-demand industries.” Here.
“Undocumented immigrants can participate in the Registered Apprenticeship Program” – that was part of the reply received today that originated from Kimberly Burgess, M.S. Apprenticeship Coordinator at Coastal Pines Technical College, Golden Isles Campus.
A very nice man at TCSG, Danny Mitchell, informed me today that H1B workers can and do participate in the ‘RAP” which is part of the “High Demand Career Initiative” (HDCI) program.
It’s illegal to hire “undocumented immigrants.” Federal and state law requires presenting documents in the hiring process. Use of fake or stolen SSN ID is a federal and a state felony. H1B workers, (here lawfully) are in the U.S. on temporary visas that can be renewed but eventually, most temp workers leave. It is not at all clear how sending illegal aliens or foreign, temporary workers through this taxpayer-funded apprenticeship program helps “Georgia’s future workforce” or “hardworking Georgians.”
Related: What Is the H-1B visa?
“The H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers with specialized skills to work in the United States for a specific period of time. Typically, the roles require a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. Occupations that qualify for the H-1B visa are typically in fields such as technology, finance, engineering, architecture, or more.” (boundless.com)
Curious? Me too (see here for an idea of the origins of the legislation that created this program).
From the TCSG website: About Registered Apprenticeship Programs in Georgia:
“A Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) is an employer-led workforce development model and strategy designed to provide employers with additional support to train skilled workers and meet growing workforce needs. RAPs serve as valuable investments into local workforce as they combine real work experience with classroom learning all while providing a paid job to apprentices. Furthermore, registered apprentices not only benefit from acquiring and mastering high-demand skills, but also tend to achieve higher wages, and more upward mobility within their employer and industry. Currently, Georgia has more than 10,000 active apprentices in Registered Apprenticeship Programs” (here).
More from Georgia.gov:
“Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) recently announced a round of $1 million in funding to create 120 new apprenticeships across the state. These apprenticeships will train students for careers in-demand industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, and construction, and provide employers with opportunities to fill their workforce needs.
This step builds upon new workforce-focused initiatives Governor Kemp signed into law earlier this year to take Georgia’s education and career training initiatives to the next level. Investment numbers show that companies choose Georgia time and again for new businesses and expanded operations, and they do that because they know Georgia has a talented workforce ready to meet their needs.
To push Georgia’s workforce training into high gear, state legislators created the High Demand Career Initiatives (HDCI) Program, which awards up to $50,000 in funding to Georgia businesses to train students and upskill workers through registered apprenticeships.”
All this was created by the passage of SB 379 in 2022. At the time, we pushed for pro-enforcement language that would have excluded blackmarket labor. We were not successful. But, we never considered that the legislature would pass a bill to pay an employer to send a temporary visa holder to an apprenticeship program in the name of expanding Georgia’s future workforce. Live and learn.
SB 379 passed in the Senate with only four “NO” votes. All Democrats. It passed in the House with only one “NO” vote, from then-Rep Phillip Singleton – a Republican.
I don’t have time to write all this up today or this week. I am hopeful that local newspapers will regard this as “news.” In most places, that is a long shot hope.
I am pasting the notes I collected this morning below. I say again: I have 2022 emails on this from a House Committee chairman that I may share at a later date.
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—> UPDATE: Nov. 26 –
See guidelines, employer awards and application. Here.
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Notes:
I spoke to Danny Mitchell (TCS) HDCI Program Manager) Nov 20, 11:20 AM
H1B employees and refugee employees can participate (and are). Apprentices need not be TCSG students. TCSG is merely admin on funding. When asked about illegals, told me I “would need to talk to the lawyers…”
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APPRENTICESHIP SB 379 (2022)
Want to become a registered apprenticeship partner?
Apprenticeships Open Doors for Georgia’s Future Workforce
Coastal Pines Technical College
“Becoming a registered apprenticeship partner with Coastal Pines Technical College is an easy 3-step process. The registered apprenticeship program is designed to help businesses fill workforce needs by establishing apprenticeship employment pathways. The companies listed below have established a partnership with Coastal Pines Technical College to meet the demands of the local workforce within their business environment.” Here.
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“…Upon successful completion of the requirements of a contract under this article, the
61 board shall provide a contract completion award to the employer sponsor. The contract
62 completion award amount shall be determined based on the number of hours of education
63 and training required for the successful completion of the apprenticeship under such
64 apprenticeship program but shall not exceed $10,000.00 per apprentice.
65 (e) Each employer sponsor shall only be eligible to enter into contracts under this article
66 for up to five apprentices per year.
67 (f) An apprenticeship sponsor may assist with the application for and completion of an
68 apprenticeship contract authorized by this article.
‘Apprentice’ means a person who is at least 15 years of age, except where a higher minimum age is required by law, who is employed in an eligible apprenticeable occupation, and is registered in Georgia with the United States Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship.
(2) ‘Apprenticeable occupation’ means an occupation approved for apprenticeship by the United States Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship.
Illegal alien business owner operator can get tax dollars to send an illegal alien employee through the GA apprentice program. (?)
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The constant refrain from the people who run the state government in Georgia is that employers need more workers to make more profit. If I understand this, the GOP-ruled legislature passed a bill which was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp to use tax dollars to pay employers to send existing staff to this apprenticeship program so they can increase the employers’s profits.
“In 2022, the High Demand Career Initiatives (HDCI) Program, authorized by Georgia Senate Bill 379, was signed into law by Governor Brian P. Kemp. As Georgia’s first-ever state-funded apprenticeship initiative, the HDCI Program represents a historic investment by the State of Georgia in registered apprenticeships. The HDCI Program provides funding to Georgia employers to incentivize the creation and expansion of registered apprenticeship programs throughout the state. This program aimed to both upskill Georgians and increase skilled talent within Georgia’s high-demand industries.”
About Registered Apprenticeship Programs in Georgia
A Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) is an employer-led workforce development model and strategy designed to provide employers with additional support to train skilled workers and meet growing workforce needs. RAPs serve as valuable investments into local workforce as they combine real work experience with classroom learning all while providing a paid job to apprentices. Furthermore, registered apprentices not only benefit from acquiring and mastering high-demand skills, but also tend to achieve higher wages, and more upward mobility within their employer and industry. Currently, Georgia has more than 10,000 active apprentices in Registered Apprenticeship Programs.
PRESS RELEASE
TCSG Announces Availability of $1 Million in Funding To Support Apprenticeships
ATLANTA, GA–
The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG), announces the availability of $1 Million in High Demand Career Initiatives (HDCI) Program funds to support the development and expansion of registered apprenticeships in Georgia’s high-demand industries. The program is focused on supporting Registered Apprenticeship expansion in the areas of Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace, Agribusiness, Automotive, Construction, E-Mobility, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Supply Chain, Film and Entertainment, Public Services, and Information Technology.
“Apprenticeships are not just an investment in a company’s workforce, they’re an investment in the future of Georgia’s workforce,” said TCSG Commissioner Greg Dozier. “They offer a mechanism for employers to develop their own talent pipeline and offer attractive career pathways to new and existing employees.”
Administered by TCSG, the HDCI Program provides up to $10,000 in funding awards to incentivize employers to upskill Georgians through registered apprenticeships and increase skilled talent within Georgia’s high-demand industries.
William ‘Danny’ Mitchell
(TCSG) HDCI Program Manager
Office of Workforce Development
O: 404.679.5474 | C: 470.487.2591 | wmitchell@ tcsg.edu
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“A Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) is a robust & comprehensive training model that helps employers transform and develop entry-level employees into high-skilled talent. RAPs serve as a strategy for building talent pipelines and retaining skilled employees.
A Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) is a work-based learning system that fulfills workforce needs by preparing individuals for skilled trades through paid On-the-Job Learning (OJL) with Related Technical Instruction (RTI).
Most RAPs are completed in 1-4 years, with actual timelines determined by United States Department of Labor (USDOL) guidelines. The Apprentice will participate in Related Technical Instruction (RTI) – which may include online coursework – as well as work alongside a skilled tradesperson for the Employer partner (OJL) on their way to earning a degree, certification, and/or license, in addition to receiving a nationally recognized USDOL credential in their desired skilled trade.” Here from TCSG.
______
“Good morning….,
Thank you so much for reaching out to me regarding the Registered Apprenticeship Program offered at Coastal Pines Technical College. The apprenticeship program is an on-the-job training program that is offered to current students at Coastal Pines. You must be enrolled in an academic program at the college to participate.”
There are two pathways to participation in the program:
Pathway 1 – Current Coastal Pines Student Placement
If you are not enrolled at the college, you would need to apply for admissions and be accepted to the college.
Pathway 2 – Apprenticeship Partner Employees Can Enroll in Classes
Undocumented immigrants can participate in the Registered Apprenticeship Program. They will need to have the ability to pay out of pocket for tuition/fees/books associated with their academic program. The rate of tuition and fees are more for foreign students (non-us citizens).
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Take Care,
Kimberly
| Kimberly Burgess, M.S.
Coastal Pines Technical College Golden Isles Campus Apprenticeship Coordinator |
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Here on a page liked to the U.S. DOL site
NPS PROGRAM REGISTRATION AND ADHERENCE TO FEDERAL, STATE,
AND LOCAL LAW REQUIREMENTS (page 6)
The Office of Apprenticeship’s registration of an apprenticeship program on a nationwide
basis under the National Program Standards of Apprenticeship (and the registration of
individual apprentices under the same program) does not exempt the program sponsor,
7
and/or any employer(s) participating in the program, and/or the individual apprentices
registered under the program from abiding by any applicable Federal, State, and local
laws or regulations relevant to the occupation covered by the program, including those
pertaining to occupational licensing requirements and minimum wage and hour.
_____
Governor Kemp and TCSG Announce Historic Apprenticeship Investment
ATLANTA, GA–Governor Brian P. Kemp and the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) today announced $1 million in awards for the inaugural Registered Apprenticeships program as part of the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI). These investments will create 120 new apprenticeships throughout the state across multiple industries in need of workers following generational investment and job creation in the Peach State, including healthcare, manufacturing, and construction.
“Providing opportunity for hardworking Georgians to thrive has always been and will remain a top priority for my administration,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “Apprenticeships open doors both for our students to gain quality, on-the-job experience and for employers to fill their workforce needs. This innovative approach will ensure the next generation has the skills they need to succeed in the best state to live, work, and raise a family.”
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TRIDENT Refit Facility, Kings Bay Apprenticeship Program
Overview
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Panel Video: Parole and the CBP One App
Event Summary
The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel discussion entitled “Parole and the CBP One App: Fact and Fiction”. Speakers examined the legality of the CBP One App scheme, the number of entries, legal challenges, and the myths put forth about it.
Mark Morgan, former Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, joined Center for Immigration Studies experts to discuss how the Biden administration took the CBP One smartphone app – a tool originally designed to smooth legal cross-border traffic – and turned it into a means of facilitating illegal immigration.
Participants:
Mark Morgan, Visiting Fellow, Border Security and Immigration Center, Heritage Foundation
Former Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, former Acting Director of U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Andrew Arthur, Resident Fellow in Law and Policy, Center for Immigration Studies
Former Immigration Judge, former Counsel on the House Judiciary Committee, and former Acting Chief of the INS National Security Law Division.
Moderator: Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies
Date and Location:
August 23, 2023
Washington, DC
Fact and Fiction
Video of entire panel discussion below.
“Under the CLP rule, if an alien enters the United States illegally, there is a rebuttable presumption that that alien is not eligible for asylum. And there are exceptions and ways that they can rebut it. One of those exceptions is if the would-be illegal migrant schedules a time and place to enter the United States through a port of entry they will then be processed under the old asylum rules, and here’s how they do it. As Mark said, you download the app and, while in northern Mexico or central Mexico, you can then make an appointment to show up at a port of entry. You will get a date for that appointment. Any time during that 23-hour period of the date of that appointment, you can show up at one of eight ports of entry. Five of them are in Texas. And when you are in there, according to assertions that have been made by the state of Texas, they don’t ask you whether you want asylum. They really don’t ask you anything. They run some background checks and then they release you into the United States. CBS News reported a few weeks back that 131,000 people by the end of June had been paroled into the United States who would use the CBP One app. We know from CBP’s latest statistics that through the end of July 188,500 people have either come through the ports or are ready to come through the ports using that.
Again, it is a 23-hour period at a port of entry, one of eight ports of entry along the southwest border, which means that one of those aliens could show up at 11:00 at night. Mark will tell you, you know, you have shift change and you have other personnel on duty, and they could be screened by that person. Or they could show up at the time that the kids come over to go to school, which is a pretty common phenomenon at the southwest border. Some overwhelmed Border – or some overwhelmed CBP officer is then going to have to very quickly make a determination to let you into the United States.
And again, the only information that they can base their determination on is what the United States government has. As James Comey once famously said, if we don’t have information on you, if you don’t make a ripple in the pond, we’re not going to know anything about you. We’re not going to know whether you’re a criminal. We’re not going to know whether you have terrorist ties. We’re not going to know whether you’re a member of a drug cartel. That more or less is the system that they have set up under CBP One and that’s how it works.”
Martha Zoller:
“And you know, I have had Marilyn Marks on before, and she’s taken a lot of pot shots at me. But I’ll be very honest, she’s one of those people that you can’t have a conversation with, because she’s only got her point of view and she’s not willing to consider anything else. And look, I’m a, I’m as open as anybody else. Anybody can call in. I got DA King attacking me almost every day on Twitter, where I’ve reached out to him. I’ve told him on Twitter. I’ve called him in the past. He can be on any time he wants to to call, to, to talk about immigration if he wants to. But a lot of people just wanna get on their mountain, say their point of view, and not ever entertain anybody else.”
Audio below FF to 04:16-ish.
UPDATE, May 6, 2024: As we feared, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones put SB 354 on the Senate floor after being educated from here on the fact that it dismantled the existing process that requires the verification of lawful presence for applicants for occupational licenses. According to Gov. Kemp’s website, SB 354 was a a “high priority” for Lt. Gov. Jones. Kemp signed SB 354 into law on May 2. Readers can catch up on SB 354 here.
“…dismantling existing law to reduce the level of illegality of illegal employment would be a very memorable, Democrat-like sort of maneuver.”
The “Red Tape Roll Back” initiative announced by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) last week is, among other, similar goals, aimed at shrinking state government to make it easier to access business and occupational licenses. This is not a new idea.
“A regulatory environment promoting competition, while encouraging the startup and expansion of new businesses, and taking the heavy hand of government out of the equation is a priority. The reforms the Senate will lead on this year will reduce costs and paperwork while minimizing uncertainty for those who want to start or grow a business in Georgia” says Jones. Again, this is not a new agenda.
The Lt. Governor and Senate members would do well to remember that many of what special interest lobbyists refer to as “outdated barriers to employment and occupational licensing” were put in place to fight the organized crime of illegal immigration. And that despite the silence on illegal immigration in Georgia from the governor’s office, the fact is that only six states suffer more “undocumented workers” than we do.
We hope the Lt. Governor hasn’t picked up the agenda pushed by organizers of the 2021 House Study Committee on ‘Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent.’ If so, in a state where illegal immigration-related laws are already largely treated as inconvenient “barriers” to profit, this should not be regarded as a wise, pro-enforcement move. As this writer wrote here at the time (“House committee on ‘barriers’ skips transparency, continues one-sided agenda”) “taking the heavy hand of government out of the equation” in the 2021 push was presented as “how reducing the numbers of occupations that require a license, eliminating “antiquated restrictions” and reducing training periods … to match regulations in other states…”
The hoped-for result? A less thorough licensing process – and more profit.
With an eye on lobbyist Darlene C. Lynch at the Business and Immigration for Georgia (BIG) Partnership, it is distressing to see that many of the same anti-enforcement organizers of the extremist 2021 effort are involved in shaping the agenda for the 2024 version of “modernizing state occupational licensing requirements” and “strengthening Georgia small businesses.” As she did in the 2021 House study committee, Lynch seemed to play a prominent role in the Secretary of State’s GA WORKS Licensing Commission and the Senate Study Committee on Occupational Licensing. Gold Dome experience says there is little doubt it is also true in the Lt. Governor’s office.
Lynch’s 2021 recommendations included removing the requirement that law enforcement officers be U.S. citizens. She also patiently explained that on “overhauling licensing schemes” …there’s a couple of different ways states are doing it. One is to remove unnecessary immigration related requirements that don’t really matter for that particular profession.” Legislators would do well to familiarize themselves with all of the James Online 2021 House Study Committee reports to fully grasp what may be coming.
The 2023 Senate Study Committee is chaired by Sen. Larry Walker (R- Perry) who did not allow public comment after testimony from a long list of pre-arranged business interest witnesses in the summer meetings. Indeed, this writers written request to provide some expert, pro-enforcement balance went unanswered (committee video archive).
Many thanks to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for the public comment period he provided and for the opportunity afforded me to urge that his commission recommend that regs now in place dealing with verification of ‘lawful presence’ for business license applicants be regarded as off limits to “modernizing” the business and professional license system.
While there is no good time to reduce vigilance on making Georgia as unattractive to illegal immigration as possible, even a seemingly minor reduction or elimination of related existing laws would result in making “dollar-first Georgia” even more attractive to the millions of potential future Democrat voter, illegal aliens the Biden administration has moved into the United States since 2021.
As a reluctant denizen of the Gold Dome for most of two decades, it is disturbingly obvious that not many legislators have even a basic level of knowledge of these hard-fought statutes. I offer just one example of recommended reading for all concerned: OCGA 50-36-1, Verification of Lawful presence.
We note that if it is part of the plan, dismantling existing law to reduce the level of illegality of illegal employment would be a very memorable, Democrat-like sort of maneuver.
D.A. King is founder of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPolicticsGA.com .
A version of this essay was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion outlet, “James Magazine Online” on November 15, 2023.
The below is from the Martha Zoller radio show, Nov. 15, 2023. Martha was commenting on the statements from candidate Nikki Haley. See below and here.
Apparently Haley was merely re-hashing the RAISE Act?
Transcript by Rev.com. My cost: $20.00 and about 2 hours of my time.
Audio below
Niki Haley, candidate for president:
When it comes to legal immigration, it’s a broken system. It shouldn’t take someone 10 years to become a citizen (note from D.A. : It doesn’t). So…
But what we need to do is reform it. So for too long, Republican and Democrat presidents dealt with immigration based on a quota. We’ll take X number this year, we’ll take X number next year, the debate is on the number. It’s the wrong way to look at it. We need to do it based on merit. We need to go to our industries and say, “What do you need that you don’t have?” So think agriculture, think tourism, think tech. We want the talent that’s going to make us better, then you bring people in that can fill those needs.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
Um, that was Niki Haley talking to some folks in a diner in Iowa about legal immigration. There’ve been some people that have um pushed back on what she said. But what she’s talking about is really the RAISE Act, that yes, we have a very, very serious illegal immigration problem that could be fixed with the border being secure, with doing some things related to stay in Mexico. I mean, honestly, we’d have a lot easier time securing the Mexican border than we do have our own border. We could get some help from Mexico doing it, but there’s a lot of things we could talk about related to illegal immigration and we do. Okay? Because we have way too many people that have come in over the last three and a half, thirty years and especially in the last three and a half years. And then we have uh, a lot of people that we don’t know how they got in.
But what Niki Haley is talking about in this clip is legal immigration, okay? We need to shift from what is just an overall number of visas, at 1.1 million, that you apply for to that are some visa programs that are more merit-based, meaning that you have to meet some criteria. So in the RAISE act, which I supported, um it was things like being able to speak English. That wasn’t the only thing, there was a whole list of things. Where the more items, more boxes you could check the more likely you were going to be, to be able to get a um, a visa, okay?
You ought to have an ability to make legal, H-1B visa holders, they’re tech people, H-1B visa holders that have been living here for a number of years. They have children that have been born here, they are legal immigrants. They are not illegal immigrants. They are legal immigrants. They are waiting for a green card. We’ve got to speed up that process. That is not anti-American. That is pro-American. These are people that are following the law, okay, and want to come into this country and have the proper documents to come into this country. These should be separate from the what, two and half million a year that have been coming in, two million a year that we know of that have been coming in at the border since Joe Biden has been President. And the 1.1 million that legally immigrant. It’s a separate situation.
Lets go to the phones now and talk to Alan in Dahlonega. Hey Allan, how you doing?
Alan:
I’m good. You?
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
I’m fantastic. Thank you.
Alan:
All right. Appreciate it. Um, I tuned just a little bit ago so you might have already talked about this, but um, uh I heard um, about uh what Niki Haley had to say uh, on the news about social media?
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
Yes.
Alan:
And uh, I was thinking um, hopefully um everybody’s not getting all their news from social media. Maybe she’s uh, maybe they’re getting too much from TikTok or maybe she is. I don’t, I don’t know what’s going on here but uh, you know, I liked her most of the time but uh just things like that I thinks like infringing on uh, uh first amendment um-
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
Yeah. I do think, I think that you know, I think what she said was to be clear, she said she wanted the, she was going to ask the social media companies to um turn over their algorithms and she was going to say that every person had to use their actual name on their handles. I do think that oversteps. I agree with you on that. I, I, I do think that the government needs to work with social media companies about um, about, you know, what their algorithms are and what they’re doing. I think there ought, they ought to work with it because they’re functioning off of like 1990s law. And you know technology’s come a long way since the 1990s.
Alan:
Right.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
I mean it’s kind of like it took forever to change the telephone laws because they were like 1906 rate or something like that. So we’ve got to look at that. And I personally, I do not respond to anyone that does not use what looks like a real name or has their real name in their um a, a, uh, has their real name in their description because to me, it’s kind of like, remember the old days of letters and stamps, right? So I, we used to get mail-
Alan:
Right.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
… here at the station of people that liked you or didn’t like you,
Alan:
(laughs)
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
… and basically the rule of thumb was if they didn’t have a return address on the envelope it went into the circular file. If they wanted, you know, if, if you’re not willing to put your name on your complaint that you’re going to mail to me, then I’m not going to take the time to read it. (laughs) So, that’s kind of what the way I am about social media. If you don’t use a real name, I don’t really read it.
Alan:
Well and then like I said, the other thing is maybe people ought to consider uh, I don’t know how else we can do it, but electronically the newspapers or something or some other way besides just you know so many of these s-, especially millennials like that get their all they’re news from social media.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
It does. And yeah I have a daughter. My youngest child’s 31. My kids are 31 to 41. And so my youngest child’s like, “Mom. I’m getting all this stuff in my feed that I didn’t sign up for. I didn’t ask for it.” And it’s all news-related. And uh you’re right. You’ve got to go somewhere else. I think it’s no different than Wikipedia, okay? It’s not a bad place to start. You might find something you want to learn more about. But you need to go to other sources to learn about it.
Alan:
All right. I appreciate it.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
Thanks Alan.
Alan:
That’s it.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
Appreciate, appreciate your call very much. And you know I do think, I don’t know Logan, I want to chi-, I’m always making Logan chime in these days because I think it’s important to get a person his age point of view. I don’t know if you heard the clip that Niki Haley said but basically she said, first we’re going to get, I want to see their algorithms. Second, I want them to require that that people are verified to be real people, not bots, okay? I think the second one might be a little easier to do, that you can verify that it’s a real person. But the first thing, I mean, that’s kind of proprietary to a company. I don’t know if the government can ask for that. I do think there needs to be an update of laws related to social media because they are running on 1990s laws.
Logan:
Right.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
But I don’t, you know and I don’t, I don’t know if a President can actually control that.
Logan:
I’m not sure if they can and, and I’m not sure about the, you know, you have to have your real name on social media. And I can see why she might have said that, but also it kind of restricts your freedom that those apps give you. Uh because you know you can have various different Twitter handles and what not, and just kind of restricts it. But I get where she’s coming from but I think, like you mentioned, she kind of overstepped her boundaries there.
Martha Zoller GOP radio show host:
Absolutely. And you know what? People I know social media’s fun because you can say whatever you want and nobody knows who you are, but eventually you’re going to know who you are and you need to think about what you say. It’s the Martha Zoller show. We’ll be back….
end
The below is from the Martha Zoller opening monologue to start the week on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. I say again: I get the impression she pushes amnesty and inaccurate related “facts” to her listeners pretty much every day. We’ll get to this when time allows, but part of the recurring theme seems to be if an illegal alien obtains an ITIN he should be rewarded with amnesty. SMH
Good news! Martha didn’t push her mindless defense of Gov. Brian Kemp today that goes like this: “He had to change his tactics” and refuse to honor his 2018 pledge to enforce anti-sanctuary city laws in Georgia, to create a public database of what he referred to as criminal illegals” and to send legislation to the general assembly that he labeled “the Kemp Track and Deport Plan.” So, that’s something, eh?
Transcript by Rev.com
Audio below
Amnesty supporter Martha Zoller:
… now. So, as I’ve said before, you know, I get criticized for it ’cause there’s some hardliners out there, but as I’ve said before, there is a complica- it is a complicated issue, but it’s not that complicated to solve. The first thing you gotta do now on the northern and the southern border, because there’s a big problem on the northern border now, a 500% increase in people crossing on the northern border. There’s bigger challenges because when you cross in cold weather, and there’s a lot of people that somehow have gotten to Canada that are not Canadians that are coming across this border. So you’ve got to secure the border, you’ve got to use troops if you have to. You’ve gotta build a wall where it makes sense to build a wall. But the whole concept of building a wall was never gonna be, you built a 2,000-mile wall on both on the north and south of the border.
It always depended upon terrain, and geography, and where it could be built, okay. So, you know, what’s co- the goal is to drive people to the legal points of entry so that they have to do the things that people do to come in legally or be turned away. So that’s gotta be done first. Then you’ve got the people on… there’s an app for that, you know, that have signed up that we pretty much know where they are. Need to round those folks up and get them outta here because they’re not all asylum seekers, seekers. We’ve probably already let terrorists in. We probably have, I hate to be so negative about that. I got an email saying, “Martha, don’t say that because it’ll scare people.” Well, I’m scared, okay. I’m not changing the way I live my life, but I am aware that there’s probably cells of, of Hamas or Hezbollah in the United States right now, um, think that’s true.
Then I hope people would look at the RAISE Act, uh, which deals with the legal immigration issue, uh, because there are H-1B, H-1A (Note from D.A.: the H-1A nurse program, enacted by the Nursing Relief Act of 1989, expired on September 1, 1995.[4][5] The last H-1A visas were issued in Fiscal Year 2000.[6] – here.) visa holders that are waiting for green cards, they’re waiting longer than what they would normally have to wait. And, uh, because of that, uh, they have lots of limitations on them. Their spouses can’t work. There’s other things, but these are people that wanna stay in the United States. They filed the paperwork, they’ve done the process, they’ve done their time. The big challenge is w- if they… As they wait for the green card, is it’s their employer that’s implied for the green card. So their employer, they kind of are indentured servants. They can’t change jobs. So that’s a big problem that could be fixed through the RAISE Act that was introduced by Senator Perdue.
Then we’ve got to have more pressure on employers so that they don’t have incentives to hire illegal immigrants. There ought to be E-Verify everywhere. There’s supposed to be E-Verify everywhere, but there are some places where they’re not. We need to make sure that employers have more penalties for hiring illegal immigrants, that will stem the tide if there’s not work. Um, but then ultimately, what we’re gonna have to do is there’s a whole group of people that have been here a long time that have different levels of, of situation. And again, you know, I don’t know if it’s 20 years Newt Gingrich talked about 25 years, 20 years, 10 years, 15 years. I don’t know what it is. That’s for other people to decide, that if you have lived here X period of time, you have not interacted with law in other ways, and you have followed certain… It ought to be taken on a family by family basis and looked at.
There’s also a group of people. I mean, I know this is complicated. I’m making y’all… I’m, I’m sure you’re head splitting around like Linda Blair, but you’ve got also a group of people that have gone and gotten tax ID numbers and they’re filing taxes every year. Those folks… I mean, I think they ought to be put at the front of the line because they’re, they’re paying taxes even though they could get away with not paying taxes, that shows they wanna be a part of the country. So I don’t think there’s one answer to this. I do think it’s complicated, and I am a Conservative, I am a no illegal immigration person, but you also have to know, you know, you’re dealing with people here that are in different situations.
Let’s just… For example, a person that I helped at one point in time, because I didn’t know she was an illegal immigrant, but she finally confessed to me that she was, and she had come in on a false document, but since she had come into the United States, she had married, been married for 13 years to an American, and she had two children. She had, uh, documentation that when she paid for it… she was a Venezuelan at that time, this is 25 years ago, she paid $3,500 for this document. So she thought it was a legal document. In her mind, I’m paying money, I’m getting this document back, it must be legal.
She noticed that the name was spelled wrong, and when she asked about it, they said, “Oh, don’t worry. It’s fine. It’s fine.” So she came in on a false document, and she’s been working, she’s been doing things. Um, and you know, I told her, “I cannot help you except for to say I know you to be a good worker because you’re here illegally, and I don’t want you to be taken away from your children.” But there’s a, there’s a situation here. So finally, you know, an immigration lawyer was able to help her and she was able to stay with her family. And I think that that was a good end to that situation.
But I think that right now that’s what we’re having all around the country is there are people that are intentionally breaking our laws in coming in. There are people that are being taken advantage of by the cartels, and there are people that are in 21st century slavery because they owe money to the cartels, and they can’t pay it back. And so because of that, they’re in a big situation where they’re just being trafficked, either labor trafficking or sex trafficking, and we need to stand up against all of that and we’re gonna need a president that understands how to put this process back together.
And you know what, there’s a couple of people on the Republican side that have done it. I think Nikki Haley could do it. I think Donald Trump could do it. I think Donald Trump did do it. So I think it’ll be a big issue in this next election. We’ll be back on the Martha Zoller Show.
AJC
Feb. 19, 2018
Secretary of State Brian Kemp launched his statewide bus tour Monday with a trip to a former city jail converted into a coffee shop, where he outlined a crackdown on illegal immigration.
The Republican told a few dozen supporters it was “insane” that immigrants in the country illegally get healthcare coverage when “residents are getting priced out of the market.”
In a nod to Gov. Nathan Deal’s criminal justice overhaul, he said tougher restrictions on access to insurance benefits should also be up for consideration.
“I’m all for accountability courts and helping those who need helping,” he said. “But for those who are here illegally, and not following the rules, we need to send them home.”
Kemp is one of five leading Republicans in the race to succeed Deal. He faces Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, former state Sen. Hunter Hill, business executive Clay Tippins and state Sen. Michael Williams in the May primary.
Two Democrats – former state lawmakers Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans – are competing for their party’s nomination.
After his campaign stop, Kemp said discussions with hospital executives who lament about spending millions in indigent care to people who aren’t in the country legally helped inform his policy.
“I get that medical professionals have a duty to do that, but the American people are paying for it,” said Kemp, who like other Republican contenders is a critic of the Affordable Care Act. “Families are paying $2,000 a month for insurance with a $5,000 deductible. And people are fed up with that.” read the rest here from the liberal AJC.
Martha Zoller radio show, Nov 8, 2023 – about 10:27 – ish.
Martha felt it necessary to talk on-air about my attention to her now blatantly dishonest and mindless defense of Gov.Kemp on his defiance of his 2018 campaign promises again today and repeat her support for another amnesty for illegals. I was not listening closely and was only able to record a short part of Martha’s latest. I report the rest from notes made while she was speaking and memory after she finished.
If indeed Martha wants her positions well-known, she really needs to arrange a podcast of her entire show each day. Erickson does.
My scribbled notes (no quote marks on the parts I am not sure of) before the recording started I guess about 30 seconds) with the transcript and audio of the rest below that.
On “…D.A. King,” I gather sometimes speaking directly to me (?): “Hardline…”, :…living in the past… “I know he loves me…” that’s why he posts so often, stays on me…makes those posts… every day? He feels like he has been…
Transcript from recording below – audio below that.
Martha Zoller:
“… talking about any of you, that are one or two people, that live, eat, and breathe that issue. I understand why you’re there, and I understand why you feel betrayed, because it seems like you give and you give and you give flexibility, and you never get any of the things that you’ve been trying to get. And you feel betrayed by politicians, and I get that. What I want… You know, and I know, you know, people think that my explanation of what happened, um, is lacking, because I see what you post, but you know what? It doesn’t bother me, because I think if anybody goes back and listens to the explanations that I’ve given, if anything, I’ve taken it into consideration too much all the sides of the issue.
And I… I give myself that problem, okay? I see ’em… Uh, sympathetic is not the word, but I acknowledge that my point of view is not the only point of view. I think I’m right, okay? I think I’ve done the reading, the research, the… All of that, to be right. But I also understand it takes time to get there, and that what we need to do is find the places where we overlap. Find the places where we agree, and act on those, then we can actually get things done, okay? So that’s… That’s all I’m looking for. I am looking for leadership, I am looking for getting things done, and I am looking for a good life for the American people. We’ll be back.”
“I think right now, we’ve got more laws on the books than we can enforce, and I think this ought to be a good time, now more than ever, to, uh, show that we are really conservatives, and we are really about small government, and that’s about, uh, repealing useless pieces of legislation, things of that nature.” – Lt Gov Burt Jones
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones was a guest on the Martha Zoller radio show, Nov.6, 2023 to talk about his rollout of the effort to reduce regulation and make businesses more efficient. He calls it the “Red Tape Rollback initiative.”
Audio here. Transcript by Rev.com below.
My cost: $22.00 and about an hour.
Update: Nov 8, 2023: Later in the day many state Senators stood with Lt. Gov Jones to support his Roll Back Regs for business initiative. Photo below.
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Martha Zoller:
It is the Martha Zoller show. We’re gonna continue our discussion on what is happening in Israel with Hamas and all of that, but we’re gonna bring it back closer to home right now, because the best thing we can do, as Americans, as Georgians, is to do the best we can with what we have here in this country. Uh, there are a lot of things that are out of our control, and I know that that is frustrating to people.
And joining me right now is Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who has been working hard in the off session, uh, on kind of letting people know what his plans are gonna be going forward into the next legislative session. Uh, Lieutenant Governor Jones, thank you for being with me today.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Hey, Martha. Good to be with you. Hope you’re doing well this morning-
Martha Zoller:
Thank-
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
… and thank you for having me on.
Martha Zoller:
Sure thing. Tell us about this red tape rollback initiative and what it’s going to do.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a pretty simple concept. We always talk about being conservative, uh, Republicans and have less government and things of that nature. But you know, every year, ever since I’ve been up in the legislature, we always pass more and more bills, more and more legislative, uh, that people have to, uh, abide by either, either from a business standpoint or individually.
And I said, “You know what? The second half of the biennial, uh, why don’t we, uh, start, uh, taking some, some, uh, legislation off the books and useless, uh, uh, regulations and things of that nature?”
Uh, because I think right now, we’ve got more laws on the books than we can enforce, and I think this ought to be a good time, now more than ever, to, uh, show that we are really conservatives, and we are really about small government, and that’s about, uh, repealing useless pieces of legislation, things of that nature.
And, uh, it’s gonna range from, I, I gave the Senators a, uh, I gave ’em kind of free, free fall, just told ’em to, you know, “Bring to us what you think, uh, uh, in, in your area doesn’t, doesn’t warrant, uh, uh, being on the books, and we’ll look at it and talk, uh, look at [inaudible 00:02:00] repealing it, uh, this upcoming session.”
Martha Zoller:
You know, in Texas, they do two-year budgets, and in the off year, they do oversight. They just, they go basically through the budget looking th- for problems like you’re talking about.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Mm-hmm.
Martha Zoller:
Senator Isakson, before his death, he had introduced that a number of times in, um, the United States Senate on the federal level. And you know, I don’t, it’s not, it didn’t go anywhere. But you know, it’s not a bad idea, and we used to, a long time ago, have this thing where e- a department a year went through kind of an up and down view of almost every line in their budget. So I love this idea of looking for where we’ve overlapped, looking for regulations, all of that sort of thing, because there are some tools in place that we could use that would really make us more efficient.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Oh, no question. Yeah. Looking at agencies and duplication of services and things of that nature [inaudible 00:02:55] definitely s- something that I’m glad you told me that, uh, Johnny Isakson, that was his i- his idea at the federal level, because you know, I’ve always, uh, admired, uh, his service to our state and everything.
And, and, uh, you know, and it does. It needs to be looked at every, uh, um, o- occasionally, you know. What are we doing? How can we, uh, serve the people of Georgia better, uh, whether it be through, uh, eliminating some regulatory things that are not needed, duplication of services and things of that nature?
And I, I figured there’s no better time than the second half of a biennial, when a lot of people are looking at their reelections and things of that nature, um, that it, it’d be nice for ’em to be able to go home and, and tell people, “Instead of, instead of more restraints that we’ve put on, uh, citizens, there, here’s some of the things that we did to, uh, to alleviate some of the burdens that we might have and, uh, whether it be an interpersonal level or business level or whatever.” So we’re excited about it and, uh, I appreciate you having me on to showcase it.
Martha Zoller:
Well, one of the things you’re also looking at is expanding the definition of small business. And we know that most Georgians work for what’s defined as a small business. So how would that help? And how would that work?
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Well, you know, I mean, yeah. I don’t know how, how you can, uh, you know, I, I consider, uh, my business a small business, you know, but I, but some people might not, uh, consider that.
But I will say this, uh, because the things that, um, when, when companies are trying to get permitting or, and, and things of that nature, either at the local level or through Secretary of State’s Office, uh, th- they need to, I always tell people, “There needs to be a, some sort of a timeframe in which they know that they can, uh, expect a result.”
You know, and, uh, so many times, I see businesses held up, uh, by either local, uh, permitting processes or engineering processes, things of that nature, or the Secretary of State’s level, where they’re just trying to get somebody to call ’em back and, and, and issue a, a renewal license, things of that nature.
So we’re, we’re gonna look at all those things and see what, what we can do better. Uh, there’s always places that we can improve. And, um, and, uh, and so that’s what, that’s what the nature of this exercise is and the, and the upcoming session is gonna be about.
Martha Zoller:
So school safety, I know, is something you’re focusing on, you talked about last week.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Sure.
Martha Zoller:
And, um, uh, I’m on the State Board of Education and, and I, you know, it’s something we think about. And I will tell you, too, that Will Schofield, who’s the longest serving superintendent in the state of Georgia, he, he’s the superintendent for Hall County, one of the things he’s doing is he says, “If you look at school shootings, it’s usually somebody we know. It’s somebody who was-“
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Mm-hmm.
Martha Zoller:
“… affiliated with our school, maybe went to our school, worked at our school.” G- Generally, it’s not-
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Sure.
Martha Zoller:
… some random person that just comes into the school. And what they’re doing is, um, teaching, from teachers all the way down to students, how to interact, how to deal with difficult situations, how to, how to deal with their feelings and all of that kind of stuff. So he’s all for hardening schools and doing those ki- things, but he’s making huge, uh, progress in lowering the level of violence in the schools in Hall County across the board by teaching these skills. And I think that’s something worth looking at.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Mm-hmm. No. I’d definitely love to speak with him about that, Martha. Maybe you could fac- can facilitate that [inaudible 00:06:15].
Martha Zoller:
I would absolutely do that. (laughs)
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
What, what we, uh, what we rolled out, uh, it was a grant program that, it really got misconstrued, misrepresented-
Martha Zoller:
I agree. Yeah.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
… in the media is, uh, is i- it was, it was basically a grant program for those school systems’ school boards that would want to participate, uh, and, and they could use dollars to, uh, to beef up security, to hire off-duty police officers, things of that nature.
And, uh, and also, if, if they so choose, they could, they could have a staff member, uh, who would be, um, uh, if, if gone through the proper training, could, training, could be, also serve as the on-staff, uh, security [inaudible 00:06:54] as well. But of course, you know, the, the liberal media blew it up as if we were trying to arm every schoolteacher.
And at the end of the day, we’re not taking anything away from the local school boards and what their abilities are, uh, in governing, uh, school systems. All we were trying to do is for those systems that really can’t afford, uh, to be able to have, uh, extra security, law enforcement agencies on, on the staff, uh, then they would be able to be given a, a grant that could potentially help ’em do that.
So, um, but I love your concept about what your Hall County Superintendent’s doing and would love to… All, all we’re trying to do is find the best way possible that we can ensure that our schools are safe, our kids and our teachers are safe. And, and we’re gonna explore every option, uh, there is out there to do so.
Martha Zoller:
Absolutely. So tell us a little more about what you’re working on for this next session, because I know we’re, we’re in the throes of hearings and study groups and all that kind of stuff. What’s on your radar?
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Uh, I know. I know. Well, you know, well, well, we’ve got a special session coming up, obviously, with the, um, you know, having to look at the maps that a judge, uh, you know, ruled, uh, against the maps we’d drawn, so we’re gonna have to do that here in a couple weeks right after, um, Thanksgiving, I guess.
But, uh, you know, this coming session, it’s gonna be a lot like sessions in the past. We’re gonna look at, uh, you know, how we can, uh, continue to make, uh, the, um, uh, Georgia economy one of the best and the state to do business in.
We’re gonna look at how we can improve our K-12 education. I’m a big proponent of, of, uh, of the school choice measure that we put forth this past year.
And obviously, public safety is a huge, a huge thing every year. And we’re gonna continue to do things to see how we can la- help local and state governments with, uh, public safety.
And, and, uh, and so, um, you know, those are all, those are all a- all measures that are, that are, um, that are at the legislature every, every session. And we’ll, we’ll continue to look at how we can best put our, put our spin and touches on the, on the whatever the final p- product looks like at the end of the session.
Martha Zoller:
If people need to interact with your office, uh, Lieutenant Governor, how can they do that?
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Oh, yeah. They can go to, uh, Burt, uh, Jones for GA, burtjonesforga.com, uh, or they can, uh, go to lieutenant governor for Jones, uh, for, on the, uh, official side, luca- luca- lieutenantgovernorburtjones.com on the official side. And, and, uh, and we’re one of those, um, Martha, we’re one of those that we aim to please. We’ve got a great, uh, customer service or public relations, uh, team that ne- any time somebody has an issue, they can give us a call. We’ll be happy to, uh, uh, try to, try to best assist ’em in whatever their issues are.
Martha Zoller:
Yeah. I mean, I’m getting great feedback on your constituent services through your office, so I wanted to make sure people knew how they could do that.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Sure. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you having me on today, Martha.
Martha Zoller:
Thanks.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
And always a, always a pleasure to be with you.
Martha Zoller:
Thank you so much. Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, about his rollout of trying to reduce regulation and make businesses more efficient. This is one of the things he promised to voters when he was elected, and it’s one of the things he’s, he is trying to do now. We’ll be back on the Martha Zoller show.
