Recent Posts Achrives

 The Supreme Court says schools may not ask about immigration status

Rep Wes Cantrell is telling a lot of people that he has solved the problem created in his state-funded K-12 private school scholarship legislation. He hasn’t. He has two bills pending on this, HB 60 & HB 999. While I have not seen the language in the committee substitutes he took through the House Education Committee yesterday, I did watch the hearings online. I am glad I did. It confirmed my opinions of Rep Cantrell from my previous experiences.

This is Cantrell’s last year in the General Assembly. Note to Republican voters in his district. Please try harder next time?

Cantrell originally dodged the fact that previous versions of his bills (HB 999 & HB 60) contained no mechanism to prevent tax dollars from going to fund a private school education for illegal aliens. He only came up with an unworkable ‘remedy’ after public pressure started.  We expect the same scenario in convincing him that the current “fix”… isn’t.

*Update, Feb. 3, 2022: Current version of HB 60.

We tried to wave Cantrell off of any method of verification of eligibility that involved asking the K-12 student (or parent) about immigration status. It’s amazing that Legislative Counsel in the Capitol didn’t do the same. To repeat: A landmark SCOTUS decision in 1982 (Plyler v Doe) requires states to offer K-12 education regardless of the student’s immigration status. It also prevents legally asking a K-12 student about immigration status – same for the student’s parents. You can read a summary or the syllabus.

As we have written before, Plyer v Doe does not address states paying for a private school education.

Cantrell has a lot of lobbying effort behind his push.

• Related: Cantrell’s legislation in a Breitbart news report: ‘Georgia Republicans draft legal giveaways to illegals’

While he kept it to himself when he presented his bills to committee members (I am told he did assure the GOP House caucus that he put new verification language in) yesterday, Cantrell says on Twitter that he has added language to insure that before the state of Georgia pays out the $6000 a school year scholarship, both the student and student’s parents (either one or both?) must meet the applicable verification requirements provided for in code section 50-36-1.

It so happens that I have been working on that code section since 2006. Cantrell’s solution idea will not work. I have an idea that might – but that is for later.

Georgia law in OCGA 50-36-1 sets the procedure for verifying eligibility of applicants for public benefits. In general, it requires applicants to swear they are eligible for a long list of public benefits because of either U.S. citizenship, a lawful permanent resident (“green card” holder) or “a qualified alien or non-immigrant under the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act with an alien number issued by the Department of Homeland Security or other federal immigration agency” on a notarized affidavit.

In addition, the applicant is supposed to provide at least one “secure and verifiable document” to prove status and or identity. Then the office administering the benefit is supposed to run the information gathered through a federal database called “SAVE.”

My point is that even if the process described above is not fulfilled, before a K-12 student or his parent (s) can meet the applicable verification requirements provided in the law Cantrell cites, they must be asked to reveal their immigration status.

But none of this applies to someone under age eighteen. So we all need for Rep Wes Cantrell to explain in detail how the verification system he hid from committee members and the public would work.

As you can see on video from yesterday’s committee meeting, Rep Cantrell wasn’t interested in hearing public comment on his (HB 60) substitute language either. He stopped the chairman in mid-sentence when it was time for public input.

Yes, I know how dry and boring all this is. The alternative to understanding it is tax dollars going to fund a private K-12 school education for illegal aliens. As I said, I don’t know if there is a way to exclude the huge illegal school population from Cantrell’s “Promise Scholarship” but I have an idea.

We repeat: Not one committee member asked Cantrell about illegal immigration in his bill.

I went to the House Clerk’s office yesterday. I go often. More on HB 932 here.

–> Update: January 31, 2022 Breitbart has pick up the story on the below bills and our work here in Georgia. We hope you read it!

Update: August 28, 2022 This will be an issue next session, say the corporate-funded lobbyists, here.

GEORGIA IMMIGRATION-RELATED LEGISLATION, 2022

* Added April 7, 2022: We stopped a committee hearing and a floor vote on this gem:

SR 376

Cause of death? It’s an election year and we know too much.

SR 376 was designed to create a special senate “study committee” to begin the process of creating legislation for next year to “relax” current state laws on verifying legal immigration status before issuing occupational and professional licenses. It came from the same people and had the same agenda as this Dog and Pony show in the House from last year.

SB 601

Update: Noon, March 16, 2022: SB 601 failed to see final passage on the senate floor yesterday by a vote of 20-29. It’s dead. More here.

Essentially a rerun of HB 999/HB 60. This one has incomplete and unworkable language intended to present the idea that it excludes illegal aliens. This legislation was dropped on Thursday, March 3 assigned a committee on Friday March 4 and scheduled to be heard in committee Monday, March 7 at 8:00 AM.

Breitbart story here.

The bill was not heard on Monday, but was passed out in a one-hour, 9:00 AM meeting on Tuesday, March 8, 2022 with a 6-4 vote. No public comment was allowed. Much more here.

The Dustin Inman Society opposes SB 601

HB 60   FEB 23, 2020 – Happy dance! HB 60 is as dead as Pancho Villa.  Very close to HB 999 below, also from Rep. Wes Cantrell. 

HB 999  FEB 23, 2020 – Happy dance! HB 999 is as dead as Pancho Villa. 

HB 999 would create a state funded alternative K-12 school system for all student who have spent six weeks in a public school and have a parent, guardian or custodian living in Georgia. A new “Promise Scholarship” payment of $6000 per school year would be sent from state coffers directly to an account set up for the student. Parents/guardians/custodians would be in charge of distributing the funds. A committee made up of parents would be appointed to oversee compliance with the state’s scholarship laws. The bill is being sold as “school choice” and is gaining support. Radio personality Erick Erickson is pitching it on his national radio show. Nothing in the language of the legislation as presented mentions or deals with the fact that Georgia’s public schools are packed with illegal aliens who also have illegal alien parents. The scenario if passed as introduced would be that the state of Georgia sends money directly to the account of an illegal aliens child, an illegal alien parent has authority to disburse those funds and could easily be appointed to be a member of the oversight committee.Read more here.

K-12 private school scholarship should be limited to U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents HB 999 HB 60.    Here is the fix 

The Dustin Inman Society opposes HB 999.

 * HB 120 Update: March 16, 2022: HB 120 is deceased. – would give illegal alien college students living in Georgia with a deferral on deportation in Obama’s DACA program the much lower instate tuition rate in the state’s university system. Americans and legal immigrants from other states who attend the same schools are not eligible for that lower rate.

• Related: For academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com.

Last year a federal judge ruled the DACA program to be unlawful. The 11^th circuit appellate court ruled in 2019 that illegal aliens with DACA are still illegal aliens. They do not have legal status and are removable at any time. The Georgia Attorney General’s office takes a similar position. There are about 20K DACA recipients in GA.

Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter introduced HB 120 in 2021. It puts DACA illegal aliens in front of Americans and legal immigrants. We regard that as un-American. The instate tuition for illegals concept is publicly pushed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce because it would lower wages for Americans and raise corporate profits.

The Dustin Inman Society opposes HB120.

* HB 932  Update: HB 932 was denied a vote in the House Higher Ed committee and is dead for the year. It is possible for a Kamikaze legislator to try to attach it to a live bill. We hope so. That would be fun…

would allow refugees, foreigners here on Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) and Afghans on “humanitarian parole” to be excluded from the current state law and BOR policy that says newly arrived college students must be GA residents for 12 months before they can access the much lower instate tuition rate in Georgia’s public colleges and tech schools. (The Special Immigrant Visa grants permanent residence to foreign nationals who claim to have helped the U.S. government abroad).

HB 932 does not cover Americans and immigrants outside the above description who move to Georgia from other states– they would still be required to pay the higher tuition rate for public colleges/tech schools for the first year of their residence. HB 932 is sponsored by Republican Rep Wes Cantrell and has Democrat cosponsors. We regard HB 932 as un-American.

The Dustin Inman Society opposes HB 932.

 * HB 228  HB 228 is dead for the year. The GOP Establishment killed it. (Republican Rep Charlice Byrd) addresses the fact that Georgia issues drivers licenses and ID Cards to foreigners but has no law that excludes these credentials from acceptance as “proper identification” for voting purposes. The bill fixes that loophole and adds the wording “BEARER NOT U.S. CITIZEN-NOT VOTER ID” to the front of the non-citizen drivers licenses and ID Cards. It also requires DDS to change the first two characters of the serial number of these credentials to “NC” to reflect non-U.S. citizen status for mail-in vote security. We regard this bill to be a commonsense fix to a needless gap in election integrity.

The Dustin Inman supports HB 228.

 More information is easily accessed at ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com and NewDustinInmanSociety.org.        

Rep Kasey Carpenter (R–Dalton) is determined enough to pass his legislation granting special, reduced public college tuition rates to illegal aliens with DACA living in Georgia that he attacked his own county Republican party from the floor of the House Chamber last year (video).

Conservative voters should share his level of interest – and remember the DACA scheme is illegal.

We offer a review of Carpenter’s bill (HB 120) and another immigration related Gold Dome measure that may escape coverage in “the news.”

HB 120 – “Equity” in public college tuition rates for illegal aliens 

As we explained in November, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has joined the Mark Zuckerburg-founded, pro-amnesty (Build Back Better!) FWD.us lobbying enterprise in advocating for illegal alien Georgia residents with a DACA deferral on deportation to receive lower tuition rates than Americans and legal immigrants from other states. Carpenter’s bill would change state law so that could happen.

Another active backer is Jaime Rangel, an illegal alien with DACA who lobbies for FWD.us in the state Capitol.

Georgia Senate president Pro Tem and candidate for Lt. Governor, Sen. Butch Miller (R- Gainesville), also supports the tuition amnesty concept according to a January 7, 2022 news report in the Gainesville Times.

As Carpenter’s experience with his county GOP illustrates, the idea is wildly unpopular with Republican voters.

With more Democrat cosponsors than Republicans, HB 120 advanced out of the GOP-controlled House Higher Education Committee last March. The vote record is quite interesting – Rep Calvin Smyre (D, Columbus), “Dean of the General Assembly” voted “present.”

The bill must start the committee process over again this year to make it to a vote in the full House.

• Related: Republican state Rep Wes Cantrell to introduce bill to remove one-year wait for refugees (but not for Americans) to access instate tuition 

It helps to know that for academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com. In Carpenter’s bill an American from Michigan (for example) would pay the higher rate while a covered illegal alien living in Georgia would pay no more than an additional 10% of the instate rate. This is apparently the new “equity.”

It’s not too early to ask every candidate for governor if they would sign such a bill into law.

HB 228 – Closing a needless loophole on non-citizen ID in election law 

 The drivers licenses and official ID Cards that Georgia issues to foreign nationals are almost exactly like the ones commonly given to U.S. citizens. The difference between the ID credentials for citizens and non-citizens – like guest workers, green card holders, foreign students, DACA recipients (yes, DACA recipients ) – is that the non-citizens get a card with the words “LIMITED – TERM,” printed across the top.

As state Rep Charlice Byrd wrote for Insider Advantage GA in October (Secure Non-Citizens ID Now – Before New Elections), she has sponsored a “no brainer” bill (HB 228) to change the fact that there is nothing in state law that specifically excludes the non-U.S. citizen ID credentials from consideration as “proper identification” for voter ID purposes.

Last year the most strident Capitol opponent of Rep. Byrd’s legislation was Republican Rep. Bonnie Rich (Suwanee).  As a sub-committee Chair in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity she refused to grant Byrd a hearing on the bill. The Chairman of the full committee, Rep. Barry Fleming, was a hero to voter security advocates when he decided to preside over an abbreviated hearing for HB 228 himself.

That hearing illustrated a remarkable lack of knowledge on the part of committee members and the General Counsel at the Secretary of State’s office. There was no vote.

The heated objections to Byrd’s bill from Rich were that it was unnecessary because “non-citizens cannot register to vote” – so there is no need to add wording to state law making foreigner’s drivers license or ID Card ID ineligible as voter ID. Rich’s belief is contradicted by NPR, the Associated Press and reports from Michigan on the Motor Voter registration process also used in Georgia.

We doubt it will change Rep Rich’s mind or attitude, but voters need to know that last year a woman who is not a U.S. citizen was fined for voting illegally in Georgia in 2012 and 2016 according to the liberal AJC last week.

Byrd’s bill requires the warning “BEARER NOT U.S. CITIZEN – NOT VOTER ID” to be added to the front of the LIMITED TERM credentials. Also, as mail-in vote security, the Department of Driver Services would begin a system in which the first two characters of the drivers license/ID Card numbers be “NC” on the cards issued to non-citizens. We would catch up with Alabama on that one.

Taking a cue from the illegal alien lobby, Rep. Rich has informed curious constituents that the added wording to the ID credentials given to foreigners in Georgia is unreasonable and would be a modern day “scarlet letter.”

Recent developments

* Rep Byrd has been advised to meet with the Speaker David Ralston and Gov. Brian Kemp before she could expect a committee vote on her election ID safeguard legislation.

* Companion language to HB 228 is reportedly coming up in the Senate.

* HB 228 – current version here.

An independent voter, D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com

A version of this column was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion outlet Insider Advantage Georgia, Jan. 14, 2022.

State Senator quoted in hometown newspaper as supporting special (instate) tuition for DACA recipients

Candidate for Lt. Governor and current President Pro Tem of the state senate, Sen. Butch Miller Miller, has come out in support of giving the illegal aliens with DACA a lower tuition rate in public colleges than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants from other states.

Thanks to a Twitter post from an elated  former GALEO staffer and illegal alien DACA recipient, Jaime Rangel, who lobbies for FWD.us under the Gold Dome (yes, really) we see a January 7 report from the liberal Gainesville Times with that policy nugget.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is also pushing hard for that action.

Boiled down for those new to the issue, there are about twenty thousand illegal aliens living in Georgia with a deferral on deportation proceedings because they came to the U.S. as “children.” That number could soon zoom up because of Biden’s “ya’ll come!” policy on our southern border.

Currently the University System of Georgia (and the Technical College System of Georgia – TCSG) offers essentially two levels of tuition rates – instate and out of state. For academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com. It’s pretty simple: Georgia residents pay less to attend Georgia’s public universities and Tech colleges than a student from Michigan or Arizona, for example.

The news of Miller’s support comes in the Gainesville Times report “5 issues to watch to watch from Hall County legislators in 2022 session.”

Education:

State and local educators say they are pushing for traditional issues, such as fully funding schools and more transparency in voucher funding.

“We’re optimistic going into this legislative session that — both in the mid-term adjustment they give us but also the budgeting for next school year — that the austerity will be reduced, if not completely removed,” said Jeremy Williams, Gainesville City Schools superintendent.

In past tight budget years, austerity cuts from education have been used to help balance budgets.

Also, Williams supports bipartisan legislation proposed last session that would offer in-state tuition to those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status.

“They graduated from Gainesville High school, they’ve been here X number of years and what we’re doing is we’re basically losing a potential workforce,” he said.

Miller is also is a proponent of easing that restriction.”If we want these young people to be productive members of our society and contribute, then we’re going to have to educate them and not put them at a disadvantage,” he said.”

We should note that DACA is temporary scam and an illegal Obama administrative reelection end run around congress that a federal judge has found to be unlawful – and DACA recipients already have work permits. DACA status does not provide any legal status or lawful presence. We’ll have much more soon.

The entire Gainesville Times news piece is here.

Contact information for Sen. Miller here.

Related: HB 120 from Republican Kasey Carpenter (Dalton) is pending under the Gold Dome and is the legislative vehicle the corporate-funded anti-enforcement lobby (including the Georgia Chamber of Commerce) is pushing to get special tuition rates for the illegal aliens discussed above. You can read more on that here.

___