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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.

The below is from the Martha Zoller radio show on WDUN radio, about 10:40-ish on Feb. 15, 2024 and starts just after it is clear that Martha is again about to hit her points on illegal alien eligibility for her proposed repeat of the Reagan amnesty of 1986.

Audio below here. Transcript by Rev.com

My cost $24.00 and about one hour of my time.

Martha Zoller:

It is exactly, exactly what you think. You got to stop the bleeding first, then you can fix everything else. Very simple.

Logan:

Just take it one step at a time.

Martha Zoller:

One, one step at a time. One day at a time, sweet Jesus, that’s for sure. Okay, so, and I’m with you about legal versus illegal. We immigrate. Y’all get tired of me saying this, but I’m gonna keep saying it until people start listening. We immigrate legally to this country more than the rest of the world combined. So, so a whole lot of other countries that have a lot fewer people immigrating every year and a lot of them wouldn’t want to, okay? We’re about the only country in the world that people wanna break into.

But 3 million, which is three times what the legal immigration rate is, is not sustainable in illegal immigrants every single year. And that’s what we know of, okay? Now, what I will say is there is a shut down the border, stop the flow, okay, of illegal immigrants. That’s one and two. Then three is legal immigration and DACA, okay? I would say three parts. Legal immigration, DACA, and people that have been here a long time, okay?

You have legal immigration that we need to fix and we need to make it merit-based. We then need to lower the number of green cards by about 400,000 and, and use that 400,000 to clear the backlog of visas that people have been waiting for green cards. Clear the backlog, get caught up, people shouldn’t have to wait 15 years if they come here legally to become, uh, permanent citizens, okay, or permanent residents, then you can apply for citizenship.

Two, is the DACA kids, all right. I do not think DACA kids are all the way up to 16 years old, okay? But if you came to this country with your parents and you were 2 to 10 years old, and Donald Trump even agreed with me on this, you should be able to stay with your parents and because you don’t know anything else. Your home is not Mexico or wherever it is that you came from. And even Donald Trump in April of 2017 said to Nancy Pelosi, not Nikki Haley, Nancy Pelosi, that he didn’t interpose them. He knew who he was talking to. He said to her, “I will give you the DACA kids and their parents, 2.2 million, if you will give me 5 billion for the wall.” Even Donald Trump thought that was a good deal, okay.

• Related reading: Trump supporters burn their MAGA hats over president’s possible DREAMer deal

So I know there’s people out there, DA, you know who you are, that you say that’s me being amnesty. No, that’s me doing what Trump did, okay? And I don’t think he was for amnesty. Then there’s a third group of people, which you’re gonna laugh about, but there’s roughly a million and a half illegal immigrants that have gone to the trouble to get tax ID numbers from the IRS and they file taxes on time every year. Those people ought to be legalized, okay? If they go to the trouble, you wouldn’t do that if you didn’t think you were… you had some sort of legal claim.

Because you have a whole group of people, and granted, I know, you don’t wanna hear what, what Newt Gingrich said where sometimes you got to take it family by family. Okay, I know you don’t wanna hear that, but, but sometimes you’re gonna have to take it family by family. Because there are people that paid somebody 3 or 4 or $5,000 in their country, got documents, they thought they were coming here legally, they didn’t know they were coming here illegally, they didn’t find out until they got here. And then there’s no way to kind of fix that.

I don’t know what the answer to that question is, except for the fact if you actually got a tax ID number and you’re paying taxes, you probably ought to get into some kind of line where you can get to legal status, where you can get to at least vi- a visa where you can stay. If you’re… If you’ve gone to the trouble to get a tax ID number and file taxes, okay? Maybe that’s crazy and maybe that makes me an amnesty… You know what? I- I- you know, I’m, I’m getting so close, Logan, to saying words that I shouldn’t say. But I’m so angry about this but I’m gonna catch myself. Don’t worry. Okay? You don’t have to worry.

But it’s like I’m so tired of people saying that if you’re willing to talk about solutions that you want amnesty and you just wanna be overrun. I think it’s two different things.

Logan:

No, I mean, that’s not a, a crazy idea at all. A- and like you said, sometimes you just kind of bite your tongue, sometimes, (laughs) [inaudible 00:04:52]-

Martha Zoller:

I do. Sometimes I bite right through it. I do.

Logan:

Yeah.

Martha Zoller:

Okay, so then we got another text message and it doesn’t have a name on it, but it said, “Trump’s saying that he intentionally interposed names is a lame attempt to cover his gaff. Haley is correct that the US can never align with Putin.” Never. We can ne-

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.

“The total net cost of illegal immigration on states and residents exceeds $100 billion.”

• GA $2,254,644,675

Map Shows How Much Undocumented Immigrants Cost in Each State (Annually).

Published Feb 09, 2024

Record numbers in illegal immigration have resulted in United States taxpayers bearing the burden of tens of billions of dollars going toward paying for migrants and their families.

See here to read the entire Newsweek report and access the live map.

(per year)

Republicans should watch Lt. Governor Burt Jones

• Update: March 31, 2024: Despite my “heads up” warnings to various key Republican House members (including two written explanations to House Regulated Industries committee Chairman Alan Powell) SB 354 from Sen. Larry Walker passed the House on March 26 with a minor change. Only two Republicans voted “no” – congrats and many thanks to Rep Kimberly New and Rep Sharon Cooper for resisting the pressure from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Sen. Walker’s bill then breezed through the Senate again with an “agree” vote on the last day of the 2024 session. Note: That happened despite my early AM “…you have a second chance to stop a bad bill…” text exchange with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones before the legislative day began. All vote records here.
• Update: January 30, 2024: SB 354 passed in the Georgia Senate the morning of January 29, while we were calling and emailing to stop it. Number of Republican members who voted against it: zero.

Georgia should “…move to universal recognition (reciprocity) of out-of-state licenses.” That is the recommendation of the Senate Study Committee on Occupational Licensing chaired by Senator Larry Walker (R- Perry) after finishing several months of hearing pleas from special interest lobbyists for a reduction in the time it takes to process new occupational licenses. The recommendation says “where reasonable.”

Walker’s study committee was created by the Walker-sponsored Senate Resolution 85 which passed in the Senate Chamber last session with only a single “no” vote. Interestingly, that vote against passage of the resolution came from Sen. Blake Tillery (R- Vidalia) who was also one of  the many Republican cosponsors of the measure.

Walker’s resolution described Georgia’s current occupational licensing requirements as “onerous” and “burdensome.” Including this one, Capitol insiders who have watched the growing power of the partnership between the business lobby and the refugee, illegal alien industry see the obvious input from Darlene Lynch (she/her), her fellow leftist associates at the “BIG Partnership” and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in Walker’s effort.

• Related reading: The Georgia Chamber and DEI.

Readers can see the recommendation in the committee’s final report (item 9). We warned Senate legislators about exactly this after the Walker/Lynch resolution dropped last March. 

Backed by the dollar-first business lobby, the aforementioned Lynch has pushed for allowing foreigners to be certified law enforcement officers in Georgia and for dismantling the state’s system of verifying “lawful presence” of applicants for occupational and professional licenses for years under the Gold Dome.

• Darlene Lynch – related reading from 2021: Study Committee on Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent (including foreign cops) excludes pro-American worker voices  

Senate Bill 354 dismantles existing law on verification of lawful presence for covered workers

Walker is also the sponsor of SB 354 which passed out of the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities committee on January 24th – a super-speedy two-days after first reading in the Senate chamber. Walker and his cosponsors are moving ahead with changing state law so that various workers related to cosmetology and barbers would no longer go through the occupational licensing process – which means they would no longer go through the verification of lawful presence procedure in OCGA 50-36-1. This bill should be viewed as a test case from Walker and the special interest lobby before moving on to electricians and carpenter trades etc.

Not many Georgians are going to notice a rushed-up, quiet change in state law that only applies to entry level workers who shampoo hair. But many of the millions of illegal aliens being waved through at our southern border will get wind of this new attitude and policy before the end of the 2024 legislative session. It’s a perfect example of “if you build it, they will come.”

One has only to imagine the condition of a “New Georgia” of only a few years in the future if we allow Democrats in California, New York and Illinois to decide who can go to work in Georgia.

• Related reading from James Magazine Online: Illegal immigration & Jones’ Red Tape Roll Back Initiative

Lt. Governor Burt Jones and the “MAGA” crowd

Republicans watching to see which GOP candidates for the 2026 gubernatorial race are on the pro-enforcement side of the contest between Joe Biden and the constitution on the invasion at the southern border should keep an eye on Lt. Governor Burt Jones. Will he allow Walker & Co.’s SB 354 and anti-enforcement bills like it to see final passage in the Senate? Update, March 31, 2024: The answer is “yes.”

No matter who Jones supports in the presidential race, dismantling the verification of lawful presence system for any workers in Georgia would be a memorable campaign detail for primary opposition two years from now.

Nobody paying attention at the Capitol doesn’t understand that Gov. Kemp would run, not walk, to sign a bill like Walker’s occupational license reciprocity legislation.

#SB354, #BurtJones, #DarleneLynch, #LarryWalker