Carroll County officials ignored notice of violations from here for more than six months
Compliant and request for GBI action filed with Carroll Co. Sheriff
D.A. King
As readers may have heard, more than 2 million illegal aliens crossed the U.S. borders in the fiscal year (Oct. 1- Sept. 30); an estimated 3.5 million have crossed since President Biden took office. Because it is easy to get a job here illegally, Georgia is a very popular destination for illegal “migrants.” It cannot be said too many times: we host more illegals than Arizona.
The news from the southern border leads us to the below bit of local information you likely will not see on “the news.”
Despite more than six months of “heads up” notifications from here, as I write on September 29 and 30, Carroll County government is in violation of at least three longstanding state laws put in place to make Georgia a difficult place to live for illegal aliens – and for the employers who want to hire them. This is not a “maybe” – the responses to August open records requests sent to the county from my office clearly show that many Carroll County officials are in long term violation. 
It does not require a law degree to understand what is going on in Carroll County – and our state.
Anyone involved in an honest effort to deter the organized crime of illegal immigration knows that the main driver of this ongoing catastrophe is illegal employment and the hope of the illegals to take advantage of the long list of taxpayer-funded public benefits available in the U.S. – including in Georgia. Absent fulfillment of the constitutional duty of the Washington Democrats who are running the Biden Regime’s open border scheme to increase the future far-left voter base, it falls to the states to create a hostile environment for the hordes of illegals who are being bussed around the nation – including to Georgia.
I have been involved in creating and passing legislation aimed at illegal immigration under the Gold Dome since 2005.
A massive bill (“The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act” – SB 529) was passed in 2006 over the vocal objections of a long list of business interests and corporate-funded far-left anti-borders groups. The legislation began a process of making it more difficult for illegal aliens to access jobs, benefits, and services here.
The President of Mexico at the time opposed the bill too. “Implementation potentially effects human and civil rights of Mexicans who live in or visit Georgia” he said in a press release.
We note here that then State Senator Brian Kemp was the Chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee that passed out SB 529. Kemp also voted “YEA” on final passage. He told Atlanta media in 2011 that many Georgians are “fed up” with illegal immigration. It’s a “burning issue” he said then. He doesn’t talk about illegal immigration in Georgia now. Neither do most state legislators.
After a ferocious fight with the same opponents, in 2011 another piece of legislation (“The Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” – HB 87) went into law. It increased public safety while adding penalties for government officials who would refuse to comply with the laws aimed at preserving jobs, benefits and services for legal residents.
The goal was to make Georgia less hospitable to illegal immigration. Business licenses/ occupational tax licenses are public benefits under state law.
Georgia’s “Verification of Lawful Presence Within the United States” law requires that an applicant for public benefits swear on a notarized affidavit that he is either a U.S. citizen or a “lawfully present” and eligible foreign national. The applicant is required to present a “Secure and Verifiable” ID. The foreign national’s ‘lawful presence’ is then supposed to be verified using a federal database known as ‘SAVE.’ It is the responsibility of the government agency that issues these benefits to offer and collect these documents which have been standardized by law.
It is amazing how far outside the clearly written state statutes the Carrol County Board of Commissioners et al have been allowed to operate since the original effective date of July 1, 2012. The response to my open records request shows that department has likely illegally issued 4746 occupational tax licenses (business licenses) since then.
- Related: Complaint and evidence sent to Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley – Re: Carroll county government illegally administering public benefits
Like county officials, I have no idea how many of these mistakes served to welcome illegals to Carroll County. For readers with a curiosity for detail, the two laws in question here are OCGA 50-36-1 and OCGA 50-36-2.
Be warned up front that enforcement of these laws is not on the priority list of the people who run “the number one state for business.”
Related update: Additional information, Carroll County in violation of state public benefits laws
There are stiff penalties for violation
Government officials ignoring this law should know that offense is “a violation of the code of ethics for government service…and subject such agency head to…penalties…including removal from office and a fine not to exceed $10,000.00; and a…a high and aggravated misdemeanor offense where such agency head acts to willfully violate the provisions of this Code section…”
There is more:
Carrol County government is also in violation of the state law that requires private employers with ten or more employees to swear they are using the no-cost federal online work eligibility verification system called “E-Verify.” The goal of this law (OCGA 36-60-6) is to keep illegal aliens from working illegally in Georgia.
Another law, (OCGA 13-10-91) requires government agencies (“Public Employers) and most contractors paid with tax dollars to use the E-Verify system.
The state does not enforce these laws either. I challenge anyone, including Gov. Kemp, to present any example of prosecution in court of these hard-fought-for laws.
Solution: Fund the state enforcement tools already in the laws
These laws, hated by the people who profit from illegal immigration and intentionally ignored by state officials charged with enforcement, have wording that was put in place to make monitoring and prosecution seem certain in a then future version of Georgia. One that had money for investigation and enforcement.
- An example from 2011: “Subject to available funding, the state auditor shall conduct annual compliance audits on a minimum of at least one-half of the reporting agencies and publish the results of such audits annually on the department’s website on or before September 30.”
- And: “Subject to funding, the Department of Audits and Accounts shall annually conduct an audit of no fewer than 20 percent of such reporting agencies.”
- More: “Contingent upon appropriation or approval of necessary funding and in order to verify compliance with the provisions of this subsection, each year the Commissioner shall conduct no fewer than 100 random audits of public employers and contractors or may conduct such an audit upon reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of this subsection.”
None of the built-in audits or monitoring are being done. There has been no appropriation of funding. Not many legislators in today’s state Capitol are educated on any of this. Even fewer want to hear about it. That goes double for the “journalists” who decide what’s in “the news.” But the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a Sept. 24 headline that unintentionally tells us where to find funding for state level enforcement: “Georgia’s fiscal tax surplus hits $6.57 billion.”
Readers who have an interest in fewer illegal aliens migrating to Georgia should hound their state legislators and the governor on this until our illegal immigration laws are as enthusiastically enforced as seat belt, no smoking and touching cell phones-while-driving statutes.
I have filed a complaint with the Carroll County Sheriff against the county officials who ignored repeated warnings on this and are operating an illegal occupational license issuing system. You can read much more on ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com – put “Carroll County” into the search bar.
- Update: October 5, 2022. I had the above ready to post Sept. 30 but held it because of my space in the Carroll County Star News. I already had a Sept. 29 phone and email conversation with the County Attorney informing her that my patience was gone and that I was going to write this county caper up for her local paper (Star News) to see if we could finally create some interest. A little research today shows me that the Board of Commissioners canceled the scheduled Sept 29 work session and did not meet until the regularly scheduled time/date yesterday (Oct. 4). I see no mention of any of this in the agenda. I do see that some of the incorrect affidavits have been replaced on the county occupational tax page. But not all of them. They are still in violation. Sigh.
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