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“The increasingly elitist Democratic Party has grown increasingly comfortable over the last decade or so [supporting policies that harm domestic U.S. private sector workers] on trade and especially immigration policy.”

From Alan Tonelson in ImPolitic

If you want to start a (hopefully verbal only) fight about American politics, one good way is to tell a Democrat that his or her party – and especially its powerful progressive wing – has been abandoning the country’s private sector working class in favor of what New York Times columnist Ross Douthat just called “the winners of globalization, from wealthy suburbanites to Wall Street and Silicon Valley elites….”  (Here’s some polling evidence for this proposition.)

So it’s more than a little interesting that if you take this position, you’ve recently gotten some devastating ammunition from no less than one of progressivism’s leading intellectual lights – economist Stephanie Kelton.

Kelton has achieved renown for her pioneering “Modern Monetary Theory” take on economic policy. As she has explained, it holds that “Governments in nations that maintain control of their own currencies — like Japan, Britain and the United States, and unlike Greece, Spain and Italy — can increase spending without needing to raise taxes or borrow currency from other countries or investors.”

Naturally, Democrats of most stripes have seized on this argument to varying extents to justify running much bigger federal budget deficits to deal much more ambitiously with a whole host of national problems – to engineering an adequate recovery from the CCP Virus-induced recession to remedying major social and economic ills that they believe dangerously plagued the economy before the pandemic.

One aspect of Kelton’s views, though, has been widely ignored, and it’s this stance that led her last week to support explicitly measures with proven records of harming domestic U.S. private sector workers but with which the increasingly elitist Democratic Party has grown increasingly comfortable over the last decade or so – on trade and especially immigration policy.

The ignored Kelton stance: on inflation. As she has specified (in the column linked above), “Politics aside, the only economic constraints currency-issuing states face are inflation and the availability of labor and other material resources in the real economy.” And in the author’s latest column, she argues that it’s precisely the appearance of these threats today that require the Biden administration to embrace unfettered trade and mass immigration policies.

Read more of this essay here.

The ‘Ramos Plan’: The U.S. should limit immigration to 2 million a year

A topic worthy of discussion

Posted 12:00 PM.

Finally! Jorge Ramos has come out for immigration restriction in a recent New York Times opinion piece (The Perpetual Crisis at the Border — and What We Can Do About It ). The Univision star has gone public on an annual, numerical limit to “authorized immigrants.”

“…the United States should start accepting between one and a half and two million authorized immigrants every year” wrote Ramos in his April 2, 2021 Times OPED.

The high end of the ‘Ramos Plan’ essentially doubles the current annual flow.

“Today, all along the U.S.-Mexico border, the aspirations of new immigrants are colliding with a country reluctant to revamp its way of welcoming and absorbing newcomers. The struggle is real, but we know how it has to end, with more legal immigration. As they say in Mexico, “No hay de otra” — There is no other way.”

Let’s save Ramos’ past demands for total amnesty for “the 11 million” victims of borders for later.

And for now let’s set aside his 2014 idea presented to Time magazine that we open the borders in North America to the free flow of people to match the flow of goods and services. But let’s not forget it.

“The taboo issue of an open border should be tackled. Not now. Politically it is impossible even to discuss that,” he said. “But I don’t see why we can’t have in North America the same immigration system that they have within the European Union” Ramos told Time then.

All concerned in the immigration debate should recognize that the latest ‘Ramos Plan’ of numerically restricting immigration to two million souls a year must come with an enforcement mechanism. It will need procedure that would create full control of our borders and enforced visa departures.  A system that would prevent “authorized immigrant” number two million from scratching his head wondering why unauthorized immigrant number one and his family are marching in the streets of America demanding amnesty ten years from implementation of the ‘Ramos Plan.’

We cannot honor the immigrants who obey the law unless we enforce that law – so, the ‘Ramos Plan’ should be considered.

I know and like Jorge Ramos. We have had on-air discussions on immigration and amnesty in the past. I enjoyed it very much. So did he. I am happy to see that Jorge has apparently come around to a more sensible outlook on the issue. I would enjoy the opportunity to discuss the ‘Ramos Plan’ further on his Univision show again.

What about it, Jorge? Besides, I still want a rematch on the Univision ping-pong table. And some guidance on voter integrity using the Mexican system would be a great help for me to pass on to Georgia state legislators. They don’t seem to listen to me on that one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coca-Cola Co. not getting full recognition of its ‘wokeness’ – GALEO funding matters

The Coca-Cola Company has been under considerable attack from the far left lately. Until they folded like a lawn chair, there were even threats of boycotts. It seems Coke did not hit all the approved talking points from Stacy Abrams and her perpetual victim mob on the fake news surrounding voter legislation here in Georgia.

In its defense, we offer a quick look into reality to those who may not be entirely familiar with the extent of Coca-Cola’s ‘wokeness’ and support for the anti-voter ID left.

GALEO CEO Gerardo Eleazar Gonzalez, known around town as “Jerry”, regularly thanks Coca-Cola as a supporter of Atlanta’s innocuously named Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO).

Make no mistake, Jerry and GALEO are firm in their opposition to voter security. We think the folks at Coca-Cola are getting a bum rap.

 Before he was awarded with the leadership of GALEO, Jerry Gonzalez was a Democratic fundraiser and MALDEF lobbyist at the Georgia Capitol, where he is known for his vitriolic outbursts at Republican legislators. Gonzalez and his anti-borders corporation have actively fought every immigration enforcement bill under the Georgia’s Gold Domed Capitol, including HB 87, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011.  Gonzalez brought the leader of the Socialist Workers party into Georgia to fight for driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.

Western Union, Georgia Power, Coca-Cola and Cox Communications are just a few of the GALEO/Gonzalez financiers.

Gonzalez boasts on the GALEO website that All-American luminary Jane Fonda was a “founding friend.”

An abbreviated list of Gonzalez’s accomplishments on behalf of the anti-borders-borders, brown-supremacist goals include fearlessly marching in the streets of Atlanta demanding an end to enforcement of American immigration laws. And race-baiting 2007 attacks on Cobb County Police and then-Sheriff Neil Warren for supposedly creating “an environment of fear” through the use of the 287(g) program.

287(g) is the life-saving federal 287(g) program that expands the authority to locate and hold illegal aliens who had been captured for other crimes. “This has set us back tremendously” a seething Coca-Cola – supported Gonzalez said then.

Coca-Cola’s donations to GALEO help with its opposition to voter ID as being “anti-Hispanic” and Gonzalez makes it clear that making English our official language would be an “insult to our culture.”

I watched in person several years ago as Gonzalez marched in protest of then-CNN newsman Lou Dobbs with a large group of fellow travelers carrying signs calling Dobbs a “racist” and other placards reading “THIS IS OUR CONTINENT- GO BACK TO EUROPE!” I asked some of the group with Gonzalez to where my black friends who opposed illegal immigration should return.

“Africa” was the quick and defiant reply.

Somebody needs to stand up for Coca-Cola and the leftist work they fund. We are happy to help.

As a favor to Coca-Cola, We have more evidence of the work they help finance here.

‘Si Se Pwodway’ and Viva La Raza!

 

Fate of HB 228 could hang on “expert” testimony

 With a note on Shevondah Leslie and DDS

 

In his long testimony to a legislative committee chock full of senior House members, Georgia Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany passed on a remarkable amount of inaccurate and incomplete “facts” last Friday. From where this writer was sitting, it appeared the assignment was to kill the measure at hand, HB 228.

The bill is aimed at voter ID integrity.

The hearing in the Special Committee on Election Integrity admittedly involved “in the weeds” details on immigration law. But it also dealt with Motor Voter registration, Georgia driving credentials, ID Cards given to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals and the security measures involved in the issuing process. In addition to Germany’s, the general lack of knowledge of many of the legislators was quite extraordinary.

Example? In a state where legislators endlessly seek to increase foreign labor, who can obtain a Social Security number seems to be a deep and mysterious unknown.

From a transcript of the hearing on voter security and “proper identification” at the polls:

Committee member and Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones to Ryan: “So I guess follow up if you’re not a citizen, you wouldn’t have social security number?”

From the witness podium, Secretary of State General Counsel Germany: “Uh, I believe it’s possible to have a social if you’re not a citizen, but it’s, but it’s not, it’s not, um, a typical occurrence by any means.”

That’s not accurate Mr. Germany.

The fact that Ryan Germany was put in a position to influence the outcome of pending legislation and apparently does not know his statement to the House Speaker Pro Tem is wildly wrong should be alarming to all concerned.*

The reality is that foreign nationals or “non-citizens” can easily obtain a Social Security number. It is a very “typical occurrence.”

Virtually every legal immigrant (green card holder) in the U.S. – and we take in about a million every year – is given a Social Security number and they are under no obligation to ever become American citizens. As is mentioned further down, tens of thousands of illegal aliens are also issued Social Security numbers.

*In his testimony and a response to another question from Speaker Pro Tem Jones, SoS General Counsel Germany told her “So, um, that means that when, when they’re checking their status at DDS, when you’re checking either citizen or, you know, legal resident, um, because it’s non-legal residents cannot get driver’s licenses or IDs in Georgia.”

That’s not accurate, Mr. Germany.

For brevity here, let’s consider the more than twenty thousand illegal aliens who are beneficiaries of Barack Obama’s ‘Deferred Action on Deportation for Childhood Arrivals’ (DACA recipients) who have Georgia drivers licenses and/or official ID Cards – and Social Security numbers.

This is due to the fact that the REAL ID Act contains a section (MINIMUM DOCUMENT REQUIREMENT AND ISSUANCE STANDARDS… (Sec. 202, (2) (B) ) which says illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation (and other categories of administrative status) have “legal status” for purposes of drivers licenses and ID cards only. The status does not transfer out of that narrow regulation.

For example, these illegal aliens with DACA have Georgia drivers licenses and ID Cards but are not allowed instate tuition rates at USG/TCSG schools. While he is stone silent on the entire issue as governor, in 2018 even then-candidate Brian Kemp recognized that “illegal immigrants” with DACA do not qualify for the Hope scholarship. No Obamacare either. Why? Because they are, using the words of Ryan Germany, “non-legal residents.”

In a March, 2019 opinion the 11^th circuit appellate court noted the obvious: “As DACA recipients, they simply were given a reprieve from potential removal; that does not mean they are in any way ‘lawfully present under the (INA) act.” Even the liberal AJC reported it.

We noted that decision in 2019 with observations on how public benefits are administered in Georgia.

Text of HB 228 as introduced here.

Bonus for General Counsel Ryan Germany and the Georgia legislature:

• Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr makes it clear that DACA recipients do not have legal status.
• From the Associated Press: “Some illegal immigrants can get Georgia driver’s licenses.”

It is very possible Mr. Germany lacks this knowledge. The committee considering HB 228 should not have similar gaps of information.

On the topic of REAL ID compliant credentials, Germany informed the committee considering DDS-issued credentials used as voter ID that “…since 2012, I believe (DDS) has only issued Real IDs for driver’s license or state ID.”

Not exactly, Mr. Germany.

As I type, I am looking at my own Georgia drivers license issued in January 2016. It is not REAL ID compliant. It has no gold star. What Germany omitted in his expert education to legislators in the HB228 hearing is the fact that if anyone obtains both an ID card and a DL DDS will only make one document REAL ID Act compliant – which is noted with the gold star in upper right corner.

It should be made clear – again – that the illegal aliens with Georgia-issued drivers licenses and ID Cards are given the same credentials as U.S. citizens with the exception of the words “LIMITED TERM” on top.

Here, we insert an April, 2019 news item from the liberal AJC: Georgia leads nation in motor voter registrations

“Amid heated battles over voting rights, Georgia has emerged as an unlikely national leader in automatic voter registration, according to a study this month by the Brennan Center for Justice. The study estimated that 94% more voters registered in Georgia than if the state hadn’t implemented automatic voter registration in September 2016.”

House Bill 228 is designed to make human and/or systemic error resulting in illegal voting much less possible. The bill closes a loophole in current law that does not prohibit foreign national’s drivers licenses and/or ID Cards from acceptance as “proper identification” at the Georgia’s polls. It clearly marks these documents with “BEARER NOT A U.S. CITIZEN – NOT VALID VOTER ID.”

The committee hearing HB 228 seemed to reject the multiple liberal media stories presented documenting foreign nationals being registered to vote through the Motor Voter system. But it was clear they hung on every word from General Counsel Ryan Germany.

That is accurate, Mr. Germany

It is not apparent that the committee realized one of Germany’s most important statements came in his answer to another question from Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones. She asked “is it possible though for a non citizen, um, to accidentally be registered to vote, say at the county level, if they go to their county board registration to register that?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s impossible” was the reply.

That is accurate, Mr. Germany.

A parting note on DDS testimony at the same hearing

“A Georgia DL/ID is not proof of lawful status in the U.S. so it is important to note that an expired LIMITED-TERM card does not mean the person is in the country illegally.” – statement on the DDS website as of 2:25 PM March 2, 2021..

We are focused on testimony in committee from “experts” to legislators with apparent wide gaps in knowledge of immigration law and how secure credentials are issued in Georgia. It’s a good place for a quick note on the video testimony of Ms. Shevondah Leslie who is Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS) Director of Governmental Affairs and Communications.

Space here does not allow extensive coverage, but Leslie effectively told committee members multiple times that everyone who is issued a Georgia drivers license and/or ID Card is “lawfully present.”

To repeat information offered above, the federal government – the source of immigration laws that decide status – tells us something quite different. So does a former federal immigration judge.

It is long past time that responsible lawmakers pay attention.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) puts it a different way:

“Current law does not grant any legal status for the class of individuals who are current recipients of DACA. Recipients of DACA are currently unlawfully present in the U.S. with their removal deferred” – here.

 

Again, more than twenty thousand DACA recipients alone have Georgia drivers licenses and/or ID Cards. There are other categories of illegal aliens with state ID credentials.

In response to inquiries from past state legislators, DDS has revealed that the SAVE system does not confirm “lawful presence” for DACA recipients – but rather temporary employment authorization. That phrase notes that Obama gave these illegal aliens a work permit and an SSN. It does not in any way contradict the laws from congress as noted in the 11^th circuit appellate court decision.

_____

The problem with SAVE.

_____

In response to questions on the non-citizen drivers licenses a DDS spox once told a news outlet

“DDS has not changed the policy regarding driver’s license and/or identification card issuance to non-citizens. Those non-citizens in Deferred Action Status are eligible for GA licenses and IDs per the Federal Dream Act (assuming that they meet all other GA licensing criteria).

We hope that it does not come as news to readers here that the DREAM Act failed to pass in congress multiple times. There is no “federal DREAM Act.” You can read that one here.

A DDS liaison once assured a state legislator, in writing, “we don’t issue cards to illegal aliens.”

There is much more information available for lawmakers who want to make educated decisions on all matters immigration and “non-citizens.” That issue is crucial to HB 228 which is focused on clarifying and ease of recognition the ID we give to foreigners in Georgia.

For Georgians curious as to why there is a thunderclap of instant and powerful opposition to adding clarifying wording on credentials issued to foreign nationals, it should be noted that a very important goal of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce is more, not fewer foreign workers in “the number one state for business.” Any change in marking these documents is counter to the already announced goal from the business lobby at the leftist Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.– drivers licenses for all “immigrants” legal or not. Election integrity comes behind that ambition for far too many obedient people in power in Georgia.

Like in California.

—

Note: A link to the official video record and transcript of the February 26, 2021 hearing can be accessed on the ImmigrationPoliticsGA website.

*Updated Much 6, 11:13 PM. Corrected (deleted) a repeated paragraph typo concerning Ryan Germany response to Speaker Pro Team Jones on “…non-legal residents cannot get driver’s licenses or IDs in Georgia.” I regret the error. dak

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Because of the greater number of prisoners received into USMS custody … total detention housing costs increased by approximately 1.9 percent … from $159 million to $162 million,” the DOJ report states.

Breitbart News:

Broken down, more than 53 percent of foreign nationals in federal prison last year were ordered deported before they were locked up for crimes. Another 36 percent of foreign nationals in prison were under investigation by federal immigration officials, and more than seven percent are being adjudicated as illegal aliens.

About 3.5 percent of foreign nationals in federal prison were legal immigrants being either adjudicated or shielded from deportation.

The average cost to American taxpayers to house foreign national convicts in just USMS facilities, not including BOP facilities, last year was $88.19 per prisoner every day.

“Because of the greater number of prisoners received into USMS custody … total detention housing costs increased by approximately 1.9 percent … from $159 million to $162 million,” the DOJ report states.

The DOJ report also detailed various cases such as one involving 30-year-old Colombian national Fredis Valencia Palacios. In 2016, he and c0-conspirators organized a human trafficking scheme where they arranged to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S.

Three Cuban illegal aliens paid Palacios and his co-conspirators for the smuggling scheme, but when the illegal aliens were put on a boat headed for Miami, Palacios’ co-conspirators raped and murdered a female passenger and murdered a male passenger. The DOJ report states:

One of the co-defendants threw the male passengers overboard, anchoring them with rope to the inside of the boat. The surviving male victim reported that he heard the co-defendants sexually assault the female victim before cutting her throat and murdering her. The surviving victim also heard the co-defendants cut the other male victim’s throat, killing him. The survivor managed to escape by swimming and was subsequently rescued by the Colombian Navy.

Palacios was convicted in December 2018 and sentenced to 180 months in federal prison for his role in the smuggling scheme.

Read the rest here.

 

New monthly report from ICE with a sample of criminal aliens busted by 287(g) partnerships.

Report is informative reading, and demonstrates public safety value of immigration enforcement and cooperation between feds & locals.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) Program enhances the safety and security of communities by creating partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove aliens who are amenable to removal from the United States.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added Section 287(g), to the Immigration and Nationality Act. This section of law authorizes the Director of ICE to enter into agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, that permit designated officers to perform limited immigration law enforcement functions. Agreements under section 287(g) require the local law enforcement officers to receive appropriate training and to function under the supervision of ICE officers.

Read the entire report here.

Hat tip, Jessica Vaughan, CIS.

 

 

 

 

 

“As Attorney General, I take seriously my duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia. We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status,” Carr said. “It is important to remember that it is properly the role of Congress to address immigration issues from a legislative perspective. I am aware that this is a complex and emotional issue, and I would prefer to give the new Administration — which has been vocal about this issue — appropriate time to consider any additional actions that should be taken.”

 

Georgians React To Uncertain Future Of DACA Program
ELLY YU • JUL 17, 2017

 

The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is uncertain.
CREDIT ELLY YU / WABE

The future of a program that protects young immigrants from deportation is uncertain. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a group of lawmakers that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, will likely not stand up in the courts.

That has Jessica Colotl concerned about what’s next.

Earlier this year, Coltol, 29, briefly lost her deportation protection status. She later won in court and got her DACA reinstated, but the program itself is up in the air.

The program was created by President Barack Obama through executive action in 2012. If DACA ends, she worries she and others could face deportation.

“It’s scary,” she said. “It would basically paralyze the lives of Americans at heart. We’re talking about people who came to the United States as young as 2 or 3 months old.”

Jaime Rangel, 26, was brought to the U.S. when he was an infant. He agreed the uncertain future of DACA scared him, but he said he’s also hopeful of a more permanent solution for the nearly 800,000 immigrants in the United States protected by DACA. About 23,000 DACA recipients are in Georgia.

“We’ve got to see this as somewhat of an opportunity to try to pass bipartisan immigration reform because, at the end of the day, I think every DACA recipient in this country knew that sooner or later DACA would cease to exist,” he said.

The Trump administration has so far left the DACA program intact, and President Donald Trump has said he’d treat DACA “with heart.”

Meanwhile, attorneys general in 10 states, led by Texas’s attorney general, have sent a letter to the Trump administration saying they would sue the administration if it doesn’t end DACA. Georgia isn’t part of that letter.

In a statement, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said he’d prefer to give the administration time.

“As Attorney General, I take seriously my duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia. We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status,” Carr said. “It is important to remember that it is properly the role of Congress to address immigration issues from a legislative perspective. I am aware that this is a complex and emotional issue, and I would prefer to give the new Administration — which has been vocal about this issue — appropriate time to consider any additional actions that should be taken.”

Georgia was one of 26 states that sued the Obama administration over the expansion of DACA and DAPA – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. The Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue, leaving a lower court decision to block the program from being implemented.

Polly Price, a professor of law at Emory University, said while the Supreme Court now has nine justices, it’s hard to predict how they would rule.

“It’s not clear yet how they would have ruled if they’d been presented with DACA itself,” Price said.

Republican State Sen. Josh McKoon said he’d like to see Georgia join the letter led by Texas asking the administration to end DACA.

“I think state governments need to act,” he said. “Texas and other states have said, ‘We’ve been living with the program now for years, and now is an appropriate time to seek judicial relief, and I think that could trigger action by the administration.’”    *There is more. Read the rest here.