–> 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.
Senate Resolution 376
By: Senators Thompson of the 14th, Brass of the 28th, Kirkpatrick of the 32nd, Cowsert of the 46th, Summers of the 13th and others
A RESOLUTION
Creating the Senate Occupational Licensing Study Committee; and for other purposes.
WHEREAS, the Georgia General Assembly strives to foster a robust workforce and thriving business environment in this state; and
WHEREAS, onerous occupational licensing requirements can inhibit economic mobility, limit job prospects, and hinder small businesses; and WHEREAS, research has shown that Georgia has some of the country’s most burdensome occupational licensing laws; and
WHEREAS, it is in the state’s best interests to examine its current occupational licensing laws and requirements to determine if they should be modified or restructured so as to encourage, promote, and foster employment and healthy business growth in this state; an
WHEREAS, it is important to review how other states have responsibly reformed occupational licensing to streamline processes, reduce barriers to work, and eliminate unnecessary rules and regulations to determine if Georgia could benefit from similar reforms.
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 11th 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.
