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These are the largest (corporate-funded) groups fighting passage of HB 1105 in Georgia
Legislation for a Georgia-operated guest worker program now in place
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 .
Request for citation of line numbers as source of news report on HB 1105 sent to the Associated Press today
Update: Our effort to see a correction to the below linked AP story resulted in a correction the day after we contacted them.
The below email was sent to the AP Atlanta desk this morning
Georgia House passes bill requiring police to help arrest immigrants after student’s killing
AP,
Media Release from Jerry Gonzalez at corporate-funded GALEO on Laken Riley’s murder and immigration amnesty
The below press release went out from GALEO CEO Jerry Gonzalez today. We think it is “divisive rhetoric” from the former Democrat fundraiser and MALDEF staffer who has been a notorious an anti-enforcement lobbyist for two decades.
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Pro-enforcement activists in GOP GA need help for passage of anti-sanctuary legislation #HB1105
Much of GOP Georgia is a sanctuary state – Brian Kemp, Chief Executive
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR 404-656-1776
Pro-enforcement eyes around the nation should watch Republican-ruled Georgia to see if the House passes HB 1105, the ‘Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act” before the crossover deadline on Feb. 29. Two state laws barring sanctuary policies have been in place since the 2000’s but have no penalties and are widely ignored by nearly half of the 159 county sheriffs. The pending bill would put a compliance verification system and criminal penalties for violations into the laws.
The measure is stuck in the House Public Safety committee. Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp campaigned on ending “sanctuary cities” but has remained silent on the bill while the corporate-funded, anti-enforcement lobby opposes passage and the GA. Sheriff’s Association is openly working to gut the legislation. Dustin Inman Society activist D.A. King is leading the fight for passage. He says he needs help with public awareness and contact to Gov Kemp urging him to stand up for passage. King has recent poll numbers on his side. DHS estimates show that only six states host more illegal aliens than Georgia. GA media is as silent on the entire matter as Gov. Brian Kemp.
How to help: Twitter / X: @BrianKempGA (Capitol office 404-656-1776) @GaHouseGOP / @GASenateGOP @DAKDIS
Martha Zoller on “the border” and doing the right thing in Georgia
Georgia Gang TV talk show Fox 5, Atlanta – Feb 18, 2024
Georgia Gang moderator,Lori Geary:
“Gov. Kemp announced this week. He would send more Georgia National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border and Texas. Kemp held a press conference Tuesday afternoon as Republicans in both the House and the Senate pushed through resolutions condemning President Joe Biden’s border policy and saying they back any effort by Governor Kemp to allocate resources for the protection of the southern border. Martha.
Martha Zoller :
You know, I’m gonna say something good on both sides here, okay? I think that we did the right thing in Georgia, sending more resources down is good and we’re seeing in Texas a dramatic reduction because of the things they’re doing on the border. But on the Biden side, they did a couple of discussions with the Mexican government, which the Mexican government has stepped up their game and they are deporting people before they get across the border and this past month is gonna show a reduction in people crossing the border. So people are starting to listen on this issue on Democrat and Republican side, and, um, hopefully they will continue to do that.”
Blocked on Twitter/X by Martha Zoller (TMI)
Sanctuary Georgia: Kemp on illegal immigration at home
Shortly after taking office in 2021, Democrat Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens invited a mariachi band to celebrate his announcement to end the lifesaving 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities – and then he danced. The invited crowd of newly empowered, anti-enforcement activists funded by corporate Georgia went wild with gratitude.
At his swearing-in event in Gwinnett County, Keybo Taylor, the newly elected Democrat sheriff, stood before a large audience – including media – and boasted that he too had ended the jail’s 287 (g) agreement with ICE. He went further by announcing “what we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities.” To make his professional position on the inherent dangers of “criminal illegals” set free on our streets crystal clear, Taylor added “we will not keep anyone in jail under an ICE detainer.”
As Rep Jesse Petrea pointed out in his recent column announcing his pro-enforcement bill HB 1105 (“The Criminal Alien Track and Report Act”) the definition of “sanctuary” policies in state law OCGA 36-80-23. “…means any regulation, rule, policy, or practice adopted by a local governing body which prohibits or restricts local officials or employees from communicating or cooperating with federal officials or law enforcement officers with regard to reporting immigration status information while such local official or employee is acting within the scope of his or her official duties.”
Many thanks from here to Rep. Petrea for his tenacity and courage in filing his legislation. While illegal immigration is fittingly the number-one issue in the nation, the same is not true in Georgia’s “Number One for Business” politics. Broaching the issue with a Peach State focus under the Gold Dome does not result in long or welcomed conversations. Petrea is a genuine leader.
That Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor is in violation of state law he is sworn to enforce by declaring an illegal sanctuary policy is not in question for reasonable observers. But he is not alone among Georgia jailers in flouting the law designed to protect Georgians from the criminal illegals who are murdering, raping and molesting innocent Georgians – including our children.
This writer has spent considerable time over the last several years talking to law enforcement officials and collecting responses to open records requests that show many Georgia jailers do not obey the laws against sanctuary. Complaints filed with various officials and agencies in an effort to force compliance – or at least coverage in “the news” – went nowhere.
Taylor and the many other jailers who are ignoring Georgia’s two laws against sanctuary policies have escaped the media attention that naive and trusting voters would expect for sheriffs in open and public defiance of existing state law. The reason for the news suppression is not a mystery. Most of the media is not on the side of immigration enforcement. But imagine the howling headlines if a state agency were in violation of any law that benefits illegal aliens.
It is sadly accurate to say that much of Georgia is a sanctuary state.
This brings us to Gov. Brian Kemp. As noted by the liberal AJC at the time, Kemp’s first TV ad in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary cited Americans who had been killed by illegal aliens and portrayed him as “tough on illegal immigration.” The widespread belief then was that he meant tough on illegal immigration in Georgia.
“As governor, conservative businessman Brian Kemp will create a comprehensive database to track criminal aliens in Georgia. He will also update Georgia law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons” went the detailed promises Kemp made on his 2018 campaign website.
“Donald Trump was right. We must secure the border and end sanctuary cities” said candidate Kemp (video) in 2018. But Kemp has ignored illegal immigration in Georgia.
Sending National Guard to the border has not resulted in sheriffs like Keybo Taylor ending their illegal sanctuary policies. “Standing with” Texas Gov Abbott in an on-the-border Fox News camera shot will not help final passage of Rep. Petrea’s enforcement bill in Georgia.
If Kemp is ever going to finally speak up on enforcing Georgia’s laws on illegal immigration – especially laws prohibiting sanctuary policies – Petrea’s measure provides an ideal opportunity.
Section ll, Paragraph ll of the Georgia Constitution says: “The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.” If Brian Kemp continues to ignore illegal immigration and sanctuary jails in at home, we should ask exactly how he is better on the dangerous crisis in Georgia than Joe Biden is nationally.
- A version of this essay was posted in the subscription news and opinion outlet James Magazine Online, Feb. 15, 2024.
More from Martha Zoller: We need another amnesty, but “I am as strongly anti-illegal immigration as I ever was”
The below is from the Martha Zoller Show on WDUN radio Feb. 14, 2024
I hadn’t had time or inclination to listen to Martha for weeks but had to catch her today after Gov. Kemp made his big splash announcement about sending more GA National Guard troops to the Texas border. She didn’t disappoint – she’s still pushing amnesty for illegal aliens and still trying to convince people that illegal immigration has gotten so very bad that Kemp had no choice but to abandon his duty and oath of office to enforce the state laws aimed at illegal immigration here in Georgia.
That apparently includes the two laws against sanctuary policies. For our many new readers, see here to get an idea.
Transcript by Rev.com
My cost: $40.00 and about 2 hours.
Republican radio show host Martha Zoller:
It is the Martha Zoller Show. There are there seats currently, uh, unfilled, uh, in the United States Congress, that’s why sometimes when you look at the numbers, the total numbers, they don’t add up to 435. Um, one of those people were replaced by a Democrat last night, um, and, you know, Trump, President Trump comes out and says because, uh, Mazi Pilip would not endorse him, that’s why she lost and then there was a big old snow storm that came in. And it’s very easy to say after somebody lost, you know, that you’re the reason why they lost. It’s also easy to say that if somebody wins, you’re the reason why they won.
Um, I do think there’s some merit to, uh, Mr. Suozzi said related to running around for Trump instead of running the country. Now, look, I don’t, I’m not a Democrat, I don’t think like a Democrat, but I have had a number of elected officials who are Republicans in the last two weeks express concern about the fact that, uh, eh- I don’t wanna say, “About the fact,” about the reporting that President Trump is intervening in legislation that is being heard on the House. So I, I’m gonna ask the question, okay, and I’m gonna talk to Andrew Clyde later on in the program, they’ve gotta conference meeting, uh, this morning, began at 9:00, the House conference, and so we scheduled him for 10:45 because he thinks by then the meeting’ll be out ’cause he wanted to be on today.
Uh, so we’re gonna ask him this question is that, is that I want the Congress of the United States, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, to govern between now and November 3rd or 5th or 7th or whatever, every day. I want them to govern. I do not want them to block things because the person who might be the nominee for the party, I don’t care if they’re Democrats or Republicans, doesn’t want them to do it. I, and I don’t want to believe that there were things that were blocked because of that. I think it was right to block the legislation that had only or had border or had some kind of border, I mean, it really wasn’t border security. It had this border package, let’s call it, in it, along with foreign aid and it wasn’t what Republicans wanted.
But what needs to happen is you pass a version in the Senate which will probably happen today, okay? Then when the House takes up that version, instead of saying, “Dead on arrival,” you add back in what you want in the version that you pass. Then it has to go back to the Senate and then eventually you gotta go to a conference committee. That’s what should happen because we, you know, border security, and this is something I’ve come, come to, is border security is no immigration policy, okay? Securing [inaudible 00:04:03] reforming immigration policy because the border should be secure regardless of what your immigration policy is. Okay? So it should be separate. So that’s one of the things that I’m looking at.
Also, ah- there’s this group of people out there that don’t like me very much and that’s okay, you know? And it’s ironic because it’s a group of people that I’ve helped raise a lotta money. I’ve done a lot of things for them over the years related to their issues. But they have decided that I have become a pro-immigration person. And look, I am pro-immigration from the stance of legal immigration, okay? But I am as strongly anti-immi- illegal immigration as I ever was, but I also do acknowledge there are different groups of people that have been here doff lengths of time. I acknowledge that the average American, when they moved here as a kid, who maybe now is 35 years old, but got brought to the United States by their parents when they were two to 10 years old and now they’ve lived here for 25 years and they have no path of citizenship, those are called the DACA kids.
This is why Donald Trump, in his first month, well, not first month, it was April of 2017, he offered to Nancy Pelosi amnesty for the DACA kids and for their parents, which was more than what she asked for, okay? Donald Trump did this and I said it was a good idea at the time. I still think it’s a good idea. Donald Trump offered the DACA kids and their parents, in exchange for $5 billion for the wall and she wouldn’t do it. It was a good deal. It was a very good deal. It was a better deal than she was ever gonna get because she was playing politics. Our answer to that should not be, “Then we’ll play politics harder than they will.” Our answer to that ought to be, “We are going to govern.” So what ought to happen is one side passes something, the other side passes something, to get together with a conference committee, then they come up with something they have to both pass or reject because that’s the way the system works. The system should not be everything’s dead on arrival. No to everything is not a policy. No to everything is not the way to do something. So we’ve got a lotta work to do.
So this particular group that’s not very happy with me had their big break with me came over the fact that I believe that the issue of immigration changed after Governor Kemp was elected and that he had to approach it differently, and that he has adjusted that approach up to and including National Guard on the border with Texas, supporting Texas and all the things that they do, and up until yes- you know, including yesterday, talking about how he’s going to help Texas and help immigration policy. The immigration issue changed, he had to change his approach. But we ought to all be on the same page as far as illegal immigration. It is Martha Zoller Show and we’re always here, always local.
a little later in the show:
Martha Zoller:
I’m gonna call them friends even though they’ve been pretty mean to me lately. Um, but I did. I will tell you, they are the only two people I’ve ever blocked on Twitter. Uh, unless if you use profanity, um, I will probably block you on Twitter also. I just… If, if you go as far as using the F word in a post, I generally avoid to block you. But and that’s… Those are people I don’t know, because why do I need to see you in my feed if I don’t know you? But, uh, there’s a couple of people that I have blocked, and it’s because they just keep attacking me and lying about me. And I don’t really care if they put it out there for other people to see, honestly, because I know what the truth is and anybody who knows me knows what the truth is. Uh, but, uh, I don’t have to see it in my feed. I’m being a lot more intentional in what I do on social media and what I- I’m a part of.
But, um, I just don’t understand the frustration with Governor Kemp related to immigration policy. Georgia still has some of the toughest immigration policy in the country. Uh, he has… I think the immigration problem and I think anybody who’s being objective and looking in a mirror will tell you that we had immigration pretty much under control in the… 2018, 2019, 2020. Uh, those are the first three years of the governor’s term… or 2019 and 2020 were. And then, we… everything went out of control related to Biden and the game had to change. And what I mean by that is what we did had to change. It couldn’t be a newly [inaudible 00:01:38]… Everybody talks about that ad he ran in the primary where he said, “I’ll round up illegal immigrants in my truck and I’ll deport them.”
Okay, first of all, I never liked that ad, I was on that campaign, because the governor cannot depot people, okay? It’s only the federal government that can depot people, and there are 1.5 million people that have been adjudicated by the system and are supposed to be deported that the Biden administration is not supporting, okay? So it is the federal government. We should not be angry at our governors, we should be angry at the federal government about this. We got to be mad at the right people if we’re gonna accomplish things. And I know that goes against what I’ve said related to not being mad at everybody. But I mean, using mad in the generic term, opposing, you know, making sure that you’re, you’re aligning with people who are on your side in order to get better policy from the other side. That makes sense.
Anyway, so my friend, Libby, who’s been friends with me since high school, uh, sent me this message saying, “You have a lot of support on your approach to legislation. I had to laugh at the newly-elected congressman’s comments about Republicans shouldn’t fall in line behind Trump. Didn’t the Democrats perfect that? And this guy will fall in line with Biden as well when he gets there.” At that, you know what, you are absolutely right, Libby. And I’ve been perfecting this thing that I’m gonna say on the George Gang, um, [inaudible 00:03:16] because I know I’m gonna be asked to denounce something that Trump did. Okay, every week I get, I get asked… Every week I’m on I get asked to denounce something that Trump did. And my answer to them a couple of weeks ago was, “Look, I’m not… you know, I’m… Nobody’s my candidate. I- I’m supporting someone else in the primary, so I don’t really care.” But I get tired of being told, “Are you gonna be on the, quote, ‘right side of history’ and stand up against Donald Trump?”
Are you gonna be on the right side of history and stand up against the guy that can’t put his sentence together and Joe Biden? The fact that any Democrat is asking any Republican, any Democrat that is still supporting Joe Biden and then is criticizing a person for supporting Donald Trump, there’s a word for that, and that’s disingenuous. Okay, there’s a word for that, and that is hypocritical. Okay, there is a word for that, and that is lunacy. All right, if you’re sitting there saying, “Oh, people, the economy’s really good and the people are really good and the things are really good,” what your lying eyes are seeing is just not true. But conversely, we have to do the same thing, okay? If we don’t want our candidate, meaning Republicans, to get involved in local politics, which, let’s look, I tell you what, Brian Kemp just gets better every day. Because he’s never said a bad word about Donald Trump. He has never said… He has, He has threaded that needle along with Glenn Youngkin properly better than anybody to be able to do what’s right.
Because there’s a guy named Larry Hogan, who was the governor of Maryland… Republican governor of Maryland. Very conservative guy. He’s gonna run for Senate. The people… The Democrats are really worried about that, uh, because, um, he’s very popular, and he’s very popular in a blue Maryland state because, wait for it, he did the right thing. He communicated well with people. He did the right thing. That is singly what I like the most about Na-, about… Um, I almost called her Nancy Pelosi like Trump did, so I guess I’ve got problems too. Anyway, Nikki Hayley. Here’s what I like about her. Go back and look at her debate performances, okay? She lays out what her positions are, whether it’s about spending or about national security or about abortion, and then she says what the numbers are of the situation we’re in right now. Because it’s all well and good to have a, a firm position on the things that you stand for, okay? But then you also have to understand, in a republic, for we have a representative democracy, that you have to then convince a majority of your colleagues to vote for something. Which means you’re not going to get everything you want, okay?
Now, if you want to change that, then elect more Republicans to the House and elect more Democrat Senate. The Democrats actually have the worst Senate math that they’ve had in 40 years. Now, we can screw it up, okay, but we should pick up a bunch of seats in the United States’ Senate this time, and they’re worried about that. That’s why they’re trying to get us off our game. But I understand this argument conversely that time and time again we have given Republicans the majority and they haven’t acted like Republicans. And I’m not talking about this two-seat majority they got right now, okay? I’m talking about 30 seats or five or six in the Senate. I’m talking about a real majority, okay? I understand that we’ve given Republicans that a couple of times in the last 25 years and they didn’t really do anything with it, okay? So… And we also have to understand that within the Republican caucus there are very conservative Republicans, which are about 30%, there are more moderate Republicans, or… I don’t wanna call them moderate. I’m gonna call them by anybody else’s definition conservative, because there are some real conservative people in the caucus that would call these people conservative. But anybody from the outside looking in would be… would, okay?
And then there are the people that are the, the left-leaning Republicans that are in districts that Joe Biden wants, okay, so they’re concerned about certain things. You’ve got to wrangle all those people and get them on the same page if you’re gonna pass anything. You can have one or two defections. If you do… If you have more than that right now, that’s like a darn… I almost said bad word, Logan. That’s like a darn tightrope you got to walk on. One wrong step and you fall through the net. So we’ve got to start telling the truth about how to get things done, and we’re gonna keep talking about it right here.