Immigration Politics Georgia

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D.A. King

Attention pro-borders Georgians: Beware the Libertarians under the Gold Dome

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“Libertarians believe that if someone is peaceful, they should be welcome to immigrate to the United States.” From the Libertarian Party website page on immigration.

The topic in this space last week was a Gold Dome bill (SB 354) from state Senator Larry Walker (R-Perry) and this writer’s request that readers help us convince Gov. Kemp to veto that measure. There is more to say.

 Senator Walker has apparently been influenced by several Libertarian lobbying concerns – which means the same for the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Allowed a vote by Lt. Governor Burt Jones, Walker’s bill passed the Senate with zero “no” votes and only two in the House.

Sen.Larry Walker

The nutshell explanation of Walker’s “workforce development” legislation is that in a stated effort to make it easier to work in Georgia, some low-skilled jobs in the barbering/cosmetology industry will no longer require an occupational license. On its face, it seems like a reasonable goal – “deregulation” yada, yada. Except for the fact that the current system of issuing an occupational license in Georgia also entails a statute-created process by which applicants for that license are screened for immigration status both by the state and then by the feds.

“Undocumented workers” have a very difficult time getting an occupational license if the 2006 law (OCGA 50-36-1) is enforced. But, if the occupational license process goes away, so does the immigration check.

  • Fact: This affidavit is part of the occupational licensing process in Georgia

Heads up: Georgia’s vast, corporate-funded illegal alien lobby works tirelessly to create a future Democrat voter majority here by inviting and settling more illegal aliens while helping them gain employment. Anyone who thinks these fanatics won’t take advantage of Walker’s legislation if Kemp allows it to become law doesn’t know much about the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby. (Homework: Google “GALEO, HB1105”).

It’s true that Georgia also has a separate law (OCGA 36-60-6) that requires some private employers to use the no-cost E-Verify program that is designed to prevent illegal aliens from working here. But it only applies to employers with more than ten employees and is not in force at all in municipalities and counties that do not require a business license/occupational tax certificate.

Also last week, radio host Scott Ryfun was kind enough to have me on his “Straight Talk” show to make the same plea for his listeners to contact Gov Kemp about a veto. After my short segment, I listened to the rest of Scott’s show and was fascinated to hear various opinions from callers on both sides of whether SB 354 should become law. Ryfun does great radio.

I think I heard several callers say that U.S. citizens should not be inconvenienced because we have defacto open borders and a raging illegal immigration crisis. And that a requirement that applicants swear they are not illegal aliens in the occupational/professional licensing system is an excessive hardship. And that immigration is a federal responsibility, and we should leave enforcement to the feds.

Having watched the Republicans in Washington institute a “one-time” federal amnesty for illegal aliens in 1986 and the Democrat administration in power today discard the laws in place on immigration, I do not agree.

“A truly free market requires the free movement of people, not just products and ideas” – another policy statement from the Libertarian Party website.

SB 354 is not Senator Walker’s only “workforce development” bill. And with the input of the Libertarian lobbyists in Atlanta there will be more next year. How does allowing other states to decide who can obtain an occupational license in Georgia sound?  Get used to it. “Reciprocity where reasonable” on occupational and professional licenses is a stated goal from Walker. I suggest you ask your own state Senator about that one.

Gov. Kemp’s Capitol office phone number is 404-656-1776

Where we are: In a state with 500,000-ish illegal aliens, the Republicans we sent to Atlanta have passed legislation that dismantles existing state law designed to make employment difficult for illegal aliens in the name of “freedom,” “deregulation” and “workforce development.” It’s ever so Libertarian. And the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby is quietly grateful.

Governor Kemp’s Capitol office phone number is 404-656-1776. Please pick a side.

 

  • A version of the above column was originally published in the Coastal Georgia newspaper The Islander on April 15, 2024.

Veto needed for GA’s SB 354 from Sen Larry Walker Updated

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  • Update: To none’s surprise, Gov. Kemp quietly signed SB 354 into law on May 2, 2024

     Pro-enforcement readers have a chance to take an active role in preventing the Republicans in the state Capitol from dismantling long-standing state law aimed at illegal immigration. I respectfully urge you to take advantage of the opportunity.

Maybe the illegal aliens most members of the General Assembly have invited to Georgia won’t murder another college co-ed. You never know, right? For all but two Republican legislators under the Gold Dome, that possibility is merely the cost of “workforce development,” Georgia being “number one for business!” and obedience of directives from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Sen. Larry Walker (R- Perry) lead sponsor of SB 354. Contact info here.

Senate Bill 354 is an anti-enforcement bill concocted by the Georgia Chamber and sponsored by Senators Larry Walker (R- Perry), Brian Strickland (R-McDonough), Jason Anavitarte (R- Dallas), Kay Kirkpatrick (R-Marietta), Kim Jackson (D-Atlanta), Steve Gooch (R- Dahlonega), John F. Kennedy (R-Macon), and Randy Robertson (R- Cataula). The stated goal is to make it easier to go to work in Georgia.

What does SB 354 do? It dismantles state law put in place in 2006 that requires all applicants for occupational licenses to swear on an affidavit that they are not an illegal alien. False swearing is a felony. The law is OCGA 50-36-1 – “verification of lawful presence.” It’s part of the occupational licensing process – if the licensing process goes away, the immigration check goes too. Which, again, is exactly what SB 354 does for covered jobs.

Gov. Kemp’s Capitol office phone number is 404-656-1776

The legislation applies to low skilled personnel in the barbering/cosmetology industry and removes the requirement for accessing an occupational license for the covered workers. Next year’s edition will be aimed at more occupations because according to a Sen. Larry Walker-sponsored Resolution passed by the GOP-ruled Senate last year, occupational licensing in Georgia is “burdensome and onerous.”

Despite this writer’s frantic effort to stop the bill by explaining all this to key Republican lawmakers, the bill was sent to Gov. Kemp’s desk on March 26. Only two Republicans in the General Assembly voted against the measure – House Reps Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) and Kimberly New (R- Villa Rica). Yes, you read that correctly – zero Republican state senators voted “no” and only two Republicans in the House.

  • Related reading: Email to GA Rep Alan Powell on SB 354 as instructed by his assistant 

It should be noted that the immigration verification law under attack from the “anything-for-a-buck” crowd under the Gold Dome was put in place as part of SB 529, the ‘Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act of 2006.’ It was signed by Republican Governor Sonny Perdue that year. It began the committee process in the Senate Public Safety committee chaired by then state Senator Brian Kemp who told the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution at the time that many Georgians are “fed up” with illegal immigration. Indeed.

Will Kemp sign a bill that dismantles state illegal immigration laws that he helped put on the books? The smart money says “yes”, unless he knows a lot of GOP voters are watching.

The bottom line is this: Only a veto from Kemp can stop SB 354 from becoming law in Georgia. If that happens, we should all grasp that more bills with the same goals will pass next year and thereafter. Gov. Brian Kemp will not veto this bill without public pressure.

Honest.

Please call the Capitol office of Gov. Brian Kemp (404-656-1776) and leave a message with the staffer asking him to veto SB 354.

I’ll wash your car if you speak up.

 

The above column was published in the Coastal Georgia newspaper The Islander on April 8, 2024.

 

 

 

 

 

March 19, 2024 email to Rep. Alan Powell and his Capitol assistant sent as instructed – Re: SB 354

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From: D.A. King

Subject: The problem with SB 354 …(illegal immigration)

Date: March 19, 2024 at 10:08:33 AM EDT

To: “Brown, Jan” <jan.brown@house.ga.gov>

Cc: “Rep. Alan Powell” <Alanpowel***>

Jan/Rep Powell,

Be advised: SB 354 eliminates the requirement for the occupational licensing process for the covered jobs in barbering/hair styling. The verification of lawful (immigration) presence process we put in place in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2013 is baked into the occupational/professional licensing system.

House Regulated Industries Committee Chairman Rep. Alan Powell.

If you eliminate the licensing process you eliminate the verification of lawful presence. Shorter: A vote for SB 354 is a vote saying we will knowingly provide jobs to illegal aliens who beat the E-Verify system IF it is even used by the employer.  Trust me – the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby here in GA tracks things like this and passes on the information to the illegals.

There is no way to fix this. SB 354 cannot be amended as a fix because of the way the verification system is set up.

—> I have a long thread of emails from Sen. Walker on this. He is fully aware of what I am telling you. He seems reticent to mention it in committee.

FYI – I helped draft the 50-36-1 code in 2006 and have partially rewritten it twice since then (see HB 2, 2009). I can recite much of it from memory.

Thanks.

D.A. King

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Legislation for a Georgia-operated guest worker program now in place

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Rep Matt Reeves (on right) and wage and hour attorney Les A. Schneider explain HB 1432, House Industry and Labor subcommittee, March 19, 2024.

 

Video record of the presentation of HB 1432 to the House Industry and Labor subcommittee today – here.

From the “what could go wrong?” department: While we wait for the Republicans under the Gold Dome to pass Rep Jesse Petrea’s now celebrated pro-enforcement immigration legislation (HB 1105), we note the post-Crossover Day introduction of a bill from Matt Reeves (R – Duluth).  Petrea’s effort can easily be described as a bill that says we will finally enforce some of the state illegal immigration-related laws passed nearly two decades ago.

Reeves is promising future enforcement of a long list of new state immigration laws he wants to put in place next year. He wants to create a Georgia guest worker program. I am not joking – neither is Reeves.

From HB 1432: “The state administered guest worker program shall be for the purpose of filling needed labor shortages in the State of Georgia through the hiring by employers within this state of willing citizens of other nations to perform work in this state for limited periods of time.”

Here it should be noted that there are at least eleven different visa categories in place today owned and operated by the federal government.

Reeves’ new work force expansion program would allow a Georgia-directed temporary foreign worker to bring a spouse and minor children, all of whom would be issued a Georgia “guest worker ID card.”

Some of the new enforcement requirements would entail collecting a fee from a participating Georgia employer to offset the costs of administering the guest worker program; to check that the employer provides health insurance for the guest worker – and to verify the guest worker has health insurance in place for his family that come with him to the Peach State.

The employer would also “agree to provide housing for such temporary and accompanying family members through housing provided by the employer or other rental or public housing.”  The employer would “agree to provide each guest worker with three meals a day or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities to the guest workers that will enable the guest workers to prepare their own meals.”

Reeves is tacitly promising that the proposed state-created guest workers will be treated better in Georgia than the federally supervised foreign workers. We doubt it.

We are duty bound to remind all concerned that when a state action aimed at sanctions for illegal employment or “undocumented workers” arises, either the business lobby or the corporate-funded, ethnic-hustlers invariably howl that “immigration and enforcement is a federal issue!”

According to the 2023 edition of the federal ‘Entry/Exit Overstay Report’ 853,955 temporary visa holders refused to go home when their temporary visas expired in 2022.

*  Related reading: “There is nothing more permanent than a temporary worker.”

Reeves’ promises five years in prison and a large fine for guest workers who don’t return to their home countries upon termination of their state guest worker status. Apparently, the Georgia Department of Labor would get into the temporary foreign worker tracking business.

One can’t help but imagine the news coverage of a “temporary worker” brought here by the Georgia government who refuses to leave while screaming “my kid was born here and is an American citizen – we won’t leave! – gimme our taxpayer-funded private school, ‘school choice’ tuition!”

In case it is relevant, it should at least be mentioned that Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary said in a sharply worded statement that his country would refuse to take anyone back who is ordered to leave the U.S. under a state law and that it “categorically rejects” any state or local government enforcement of immigration laws according to a recent AP report.

In addition to Reeves, the signers on HB 1432 are Reps Reynaldo Martinez (R – Loganville), Derrick Jackson (D- Tyrone), Shelly Hutchinson (D- Snellville), Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur), Alan Powell (R- Hartwell), Saira Draper (D – Atlanta), Farooq Mughal (D- Dacula), Steve Tarvin (R- Chickamauga), Yasmin Neal (D- Jonesboro), Derrick McCollum (R-Chestnut Mountain) and Kasey Carpenter (R- Dalton).

What could go wrong?

 

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com .

Joe Guzzardi: Georgia’s GOP Gov. Kemp and State Legislature Aiding, Abetting Illegal Immigration

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March 13, 2024

By Joe Guzzardi

In Georgia, in recent memory solidly red, then gradually purple, and today increasingly blue, even the last vestiges of Republican leadership have embraced policies that reward illegal immigration. GOP Governor Brian Kemp and the GOP-led state legislature have given their blessing to the taxpayer funded Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP), couched as a workplace development initiative. Presented as a program that would “upskill” employees for employers who would depend on the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) for training, which could then pay the employer $50,000 upon completion of his employee’s instruction.

Image: The Dustin Inman Society
Joe Guzzardi – IPG files.

The TCSG grandiosely identifies RAP as a robust comprehensive training model that helps employers transform and develop entry-level employees into high-skilled talent. RAPs, the flattering narrative continues, “serve[s] as a strategy for building talent pipelines and retaining skilled employees.” RAP is part of and funded by the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) program, which doesn’t exclude illegal aliens, a fact that interested parties must dig deep to discover.

In November 2022, Kemp’s office distributed a media release that laid out HDCI’s origins: “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.”

Curious about RAP, HDCI, and what the flowery language about the programs might be obscuring, the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society’s founder D.A. King sent off a volley of emails questioning whether illegal aliens and/or H-1B visa workers could be included in RAP.

King received these replies. In her response to King’s inquiry, Kimberly Burgess, Apprenticeship Coordinator at TCSG’s Coastal Pines Technical College wrote “Undocumented immigrants can participate in RAP. ” And from Danny Mitchell, HDCI program manager in TCSG’s Office of Workforce Development, “H1B workers [whose visas are classified as temporary] are participating in the RAP/HDCI program.”

In his ongoing effort to find clarification on illegal aliens eligibility, King also sent a request for comment to Gov. Kemp’s office: “…is there a provision in state law created by 2022’s SB 379 that prevents illegal alien employers and employees similar to the subjects of this press release by the U.S. Attorney in Georgia’s Southern District from accessing the taxpayer-funded apprenticeship program on any level?” After a “D.A., call us back…” voicemail from Kemp’s then-Executive Counsel, David Dove, King eventually received a non-answer from Garrison Douglas, Kemp’s Press Secretary, in the form of a Twitter/X message that included a link to a code section (OCGA 50-36-1) that he claimed “should answer” his question. However, Douglas’ answer did not address the query.

The irony is that, with Georgia’s state officials’ blessing, taxpayers fund programs that prepare illegal immigrants for good, white-collar jobs even though hiring, aiding and abetting illegal immigrants which the programs do is a federal crime.

Kemp will term out in 2026, and he aspires to higher… please read the rest here.

Where does ICE’s authority to issue a detainer stem from?

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Q: Where does ICE’s authority to issue a detainer stem from?

A: By issuing a detainer, ICE requests that a law enforcement agency notify ICE before releasing an alien and maintain custody of the subject for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, to allow ICE to assume custody. This request flows from federal regulations at 8 C.F.R. § 287.7, which arises from the Secretary’s power under the Immigration and Nationality Act § 103(a)(3), 8 U.S.C. 1103(a)(3), to issue “regulations … necessary to carry out [her] authority” under the INA, and from ICE’s general authority to detain individuals who are subject to removal or removal proceedings.

Here from ICE.gov .

HB 1105 brings leftist smears and newfound press attention to “criminal illegals” 

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Cue the race-baiting and accusations of “anti-immigrant hate” from the corporate-funded leftists and breathless, inaccurate “news” from the usual suspects in the media. My apologies for the repetition. (Note: the AP news report linked above is the corrected version of the story that was done after our inquiry and complaint to AP writer Jeff Amy).

Call it a proposal for a law that essentially says we should enforce the law. In Rep Jesse Petrea’s HB 1105, for the first time in far too many years – thirteen, by my count – there is legislation pending under the Gold Dome that will serve to reduce the American casualties inflicted by the criminal aliens swarming over Georgia.

Petrea’s bill will create criminal penalties for jailers who have been allowed to defy state law on “sanctuary” policies. Pro-enforcement conservatives hope to see the bill significantly improved, sharpened, and expanded.

Note to Rep Petrea and Republican legislators: The newfound press attention to criminal aliens and the baseless Alinsky-inspired smears coming your way is all a normal, rehearsed, boiler plate drill by the illegal alien lobby. This writer has considerable experience with the non-profit orgs that can be counted on to oppose anyimmigration enforcement. The recommendation from here?: Press on to final passage.

 Legislators and sane Georgia voters should consider the source of the unhinged effort to derail the ‘Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act.’

As one example, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials Inc. was one of the many Marxist concerns that sent lobbyists to the Capitol in a failed attempt to stop the bill in the House committee process. In a recent media release, GALEO’s CEO, the notorious opponent of immigration enforcement, Jerry Gonzalez, used Laken Riley’s brutal murder to advance his solution for what Gov. Kemp referred to in 2018 as “criminal illegals.”

Jerry Gonzalez

If you wade through the accusations of “anti-immigrant rhetoric,” “white nationalist agenda” and warnings of coming “hate crimes,” Gonzalez uses the tragedy in Athens to promote his group and as a vehicle to push for illegal alien amnesty. Apparently aware that the first two hundred thirty six names in the Hahira phone book likely have about as much knowledge on immigration as many Georgia legislators, Gonzalez tries to convince them that HB 1105 should be abandoned because “…a U.S Court of Appeals struck Georgia’s HB 87, also known as the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act,” over a decade ago” – which is an intentional lie. The truth is that the court enjoined one of the law’s twenty-three sections. Because GALEO joined with the SPLC, the ACLU,  and various other anti-enforcement corporations in a federal lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the law, Gonzalez knows the truth.

The hateful Gonzalez/GALEO media release titled “Rejecting divisive rhetoric…” is a must read for the uninitiated.

In addition to funding from Georgia Power and a list of other Georgia corporations, it should not go unnoted that GALEO Inc. has also been a recipient of a recent grant from the disgraced and discredited champions of smear – the SPLC.

Space does not allow more than a linked beginners guide to some of the other non-profit groups that are lobbying in the state Capitol against HB 1105, but here is a partial education: Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (“Divest from the Deportation State!”). Georgia Familias Unidas led by Maria Del Rosario Palacios, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, aka “GLAHR”, the (restricted) Latino Community Fund, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, and the Georgia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. – yes, that CAIR.

  • Related reading: Abolish ICE! Marxist Georgia group (GLAHR) led by a Mexican citizen screams at passing traffic

GOP lawmakers who may have a difficult time maintaining an aggressive,  pro-enforcement approach to HB 1105 in the current storm of abuse by these Biden supporters should take a look at our February poll of Republican Primary voters on illegal immigration in Georgia.

Republican lawmakers must end the “ya’ll come!” practice of creating reward magnets for illegal aliens

It should always be noted that only six states host more illegal aliens than we do here in Georgia. And that there would be far fewer if the Republican-controlled legislature would end the practice of creating a magnet for more to come by passing bills that offer benefits as rewards for moving in.  Examples? The Registered Apprenticeship Program, the Dual Enrollment program, and endless Georgia Chamber of Commerce-ordered bills directed at ending the verification of lawful presence for issuing occupational licenses to name a few.

We will examine those anti-enforcement gems and the vote records here soon.

A closing question: Has anybody in the media asked Dalton Republican Rep Kasey Carpenter about his reasoning for voting with the Democrats against HB 1105 last week?

 D.A. King is the president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com .

The column above was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion outlet James Magazine Online,  March 7, 2024.

 

We told you so https://jamesmagazinega.com/2020/12/08/metro-atlanta-more-dangerous-after-election-of-progressive-sheriffs/