Including the corporate-funded Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), a collection of leftist groups has filed suit in federal court “demanding that Gwinnett County provide bilingual absentee ballot applications to Spanish speaking voters.”

“Sending English-only absentee ballot applications in a diverse county covered under Section 203 is yet another attempt at voter suppression, which is a direct violation of the constitutional rights,” said Kristen Clarke, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee. “With Georgia’s primary election looming, it is imperative that Gwinnett County and other Georgia counties comply with their obligations under the Voting Rights Act and permit Spanish-speaking voters an equal opportunity to cast their ballot and have their voice heard.”

The emergency lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia which is the court for which a then-GALEO board member, Dax Lopez, was nominated to serve a lifetime appointment by then President Barack Obama in 2015. Lopez currently serves as a state court judge in metro-Atlanta’s DeKalb County and was active on the GALEO board as a sitting judge. The road to the federal court seat was blocked in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee by Georgia Senator David Perdue after he was educated on the GALEO agenda and it’s anti-enforcement and anti-official English advocacy. Senator Perdue declined to return the traditional “blue slip” which would have signaled his approval of the nominee.

The Dustin Inman Society (this writer is president of the Dustin Inman Society) is proud to have organized and led the fight to expose GALEO and Lopez’ association with the group.  GALEO, led by former Democrat fundraiser and MALDEF lobbyist Jerry Gonzalez is  known for marching in the streets of Atlanta in opposition of enforcement of immigration law. GALEO is widely supported by corporate Georgia, including well-known companies such as Coca-Cola, Georgia Power, State Farm Ins. Co., Telemundo, Western Union, Univision and a range of immigration lawyers. Gonzalez was recently quoted in an Atlanta area newspaper as opposing employment record verification as a “white nationalist agenda.”

Several Georgia Republicans who then held state level elected office including now Governor Brian Kemp, former state Rep and now U.S. Attorney for the Northern District Court, ‘BJay’ Pak, and then Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens have also helped GALEO with fundraising with attendance at at least one 2015 funder.

The Dustin Inman Society will follow up on the foreign language voting lawsuit as information becomes available.

BONUS: Beginner’s guide to GALEO here.

Updated 9:18 PM

Updated to glaring correct typos (sorry), 8:08 AM April 15.

dak

*UPDATED: 12:55PM – We are already getting emails from now extremely angry conservative voters who are calling the 404-656-1776 phone number at the governor’s office and being told to ix-nay on the phone calls. “Use the contact form.”

Here is one of many: “Thanks, D.A. I just called and got the same line (“In order for your comment to be documented, . . . go to the web site.”). I pointed out that he is distancing himself from the voter and got the same reply. With this, on top of everything else he either has or hasn’t done, he has lost my vote.” DH – Atlanta.

**Updated January 27 – My mistake: There is no voice mail on the governor’s 404-656-1776 phone line at the Georgia Capitol as of yesterday (Sunday). 

Having been a reluctant and active denizen of Georgia’s state Capitol since 2004, I can assure those who aren’t that the number one activity that gets the immediate and full attention of the elected officials there is an organized group of voters who actually drive to Atlanta and go into the Gold-Domed beehive during legislative session.

The number two most effective way to get their attention is to ring their telephones – this includes phones in the governor’s office, where the phone number is and has been 404-656-1776.

 Constantly ringing phones with voters on the other end is a signal that something has become “an issue” that must be managed, if not actually dealt with.

We are hearing from multiple Georgians that staffers in Governor Kemp’s administration are attempting to discourage citizen telephone calls to his office. I have been checking the official contact page for a couple months and noted that the phone number (404-656-1776) into Kemp’s office had been removed sometime after he was sworn in. It had been posted there since 2003 that I am aware of, likely long before that.

Almost identical versions of “the receptionist told me we have to mail outside letter or fill out online form.  They are not taking messages nor tallying calls” is what I was being told by miffed constituents.

The Governor is apparently being blasted with calls concerning the refugee decision to be made by Friday (tomorrow).

(Related: Here is an Action Alert received here from the discredited hate-mongers at the SPLC urging phone calls to Gov. Kemp in favor of more refugees “because it makes our communities stronger.” They already knew the phone number. So should Georgians paying attention)

Two days ago I called the 404-656-1776 number and asked the nice young lady who answered to check the contact page to see if I had overlooked the phone number. She agreed with me that it wasn’t there, took my name and phone number and went out of her way to assure me that she would double check with her superiors and have somebody call me back.

Later in the day another staffer called to tell me that the page was being updated  and that an 800 number would be added. I made him tell me I was correct, the 404-656-1776 number was indeed absent.

No phone number version

Thanks to the magic of the WayBackMachine internet archive , here is a link from the recent past – Dec 5, 2019 – that illustrates the chief executive’s online contact page without the phone number. Here is a link to the contact page from March 31, 2019 – no phone number.

It’s back!

Today I checked the Governor’s website, went to the contact page and was happy to see that something had caused the 404-656-1776 number to reappear. But I see no 800 number…

Funny how things work.

We also note that there was a period of time last year when there was no voice mail on the 404-656-1776 lines. If you didn’t call during business hours, you were unable to leave a message to the governor’s office.Updated January 27 – My mistake: There is no voice mail on the governor’s 404-656-1776 phone line at the Georgia Capitol as of yesterday (Sunday). 

We suggest that Georgians not only call the governor, but, if you are able, also send an email behind your call. And rest assured, they do track the quantity of calls they get on every issue. But, without the push of the mostly liberal media, it’s only “an issue” if voters make it an issue.

Example? When is the last time you heard Governor “Big Truck” Brian Kemp mention illegal immigration or his campaign promises on that topic? Right now, it’s not an issue.

*Added 12:10 PM Apparently not an issue, even in the State of the State Address today.

The phone number to Georgia’s governor is 404-656-1776.

Marietta Daily Journal

OPINION

Letters to the editor

Kemp’s broken campaign promise

There is a reason we quit the Georgia Republican Party — and it is centered around the fact that in a state with more illegal aliens than green card holders, illegal immigration has become a forbidden topic in an effort to court the fabled “suburban moderates” and Hispanics. This insulting and dangerous treachery is not going to drive conservative independent voters to the polls in November. Including us.

January 7, 2020

DEAR EDITOR:

In November a male foreign national with an ICE detainer was arrested in Marietta for sexually molesting two teenage boys for years starting when the boys were ages 8 and 9. Just after Christmas another alien with an ICE hold, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, was arrested by Cobb police and booked into the county jail facing six felonies including murder, aggravated assault, fleeing police and possessing a gun during the commission of a crime. We know this because the MDJ reported it. Thank you.

While Gov. Kemp is endlessly boasting of his business-first approach to governing Georgia and the “No. 1 for business” ranking from some magazine, what the MDJ and the rest of the state media are not reporting is that these two examples of vicious crimes by illegal aliens illustrate part of a broken campaign promise from Kemp.

Readers who can remember back to 2018 may recall “Brian Kemp’s Track and Deport Plan” which was a particularly detailed campaign pledge to voters aimed at illegal aliens who commit additional crimes. It went like this: “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.”

We have no hope of Kemp going after the employers who draw the “undocumented” cheap labor into our state. That would upset the business donors. But at our house we have been waiting to see Kemp follow through on his tough talk on illegal alien crime. Including the two examples above, we challenge anyone to find any mention from Kemp — or the Georgia media — of the campaign promise, new laws, tracking criminal aliens or illegal alien databases.

There is a reason we quit the Georgia Republican Party — and it is centered around the fact that in a state with more illegal aliens than green card holders, illegal immigration has become a forbidden topicin an effort to court the fabled “suburban moderates” and Hispanics. This insulting and dangerous treachery is not going to drive conservative independent voters to the polls in November. Including us.

Bill Buckler

Kennesaw

Here.

Despite campaign promises, Kemp is mostly mum

 In a twenty-minute press conference in his office Wednesday morning, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp formally announced his pick to replace retiring Senator Johnny Isakson. It is notable that in his introduction speech for businesswoman and political trainee Kelly Loeffler, Kemp broached the topic of border security and illegal immigration.

As far as we can tell, this is Kemp’s first public remark related to illegal immigration since the 2018 election. We offer a no-cost, hand car wash to anyone who can accurately cite a quote or remark from Kemp on the issue since then.

“Senator Loeffler will fight to strengthen our immigration laws and finish the Border Wall so we can stop Mexican drug cartels from flooding our streets – here in Georgia – with drugs, weapons, violence, and fear” said Kemp.

According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ranks the Peach State ahead of Arizona in its population of “undocumented workers.”

Kemp’s silence and blatant disregard for the issue is in defiance of his detailed campaign outline for a state “track and deport plan” in which he pledged to “create a comprehensive database to track criminal aliens in Georgia.” “He will also update Georgia law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons” and to create a criminal alien database” went the promise.

Still shocked by his inaction on illegal immigration in his first year, pro-enforcement political insiders paying attention to legislation in the Georgia Capitol are carefully watching to see if Kemp will put the power of his office – and begin to honor his campaign promises – by pushing for a simple bill that was held up in the Republican-ruled House in the 2019 session. HB 202 from Rep Jesse Petrea would require the state Department of Corrections to post a quarterly, public report citing the number of foreigners in the prison system, their immigration status, home nation and crimes for which they are serving time.

The measure was stopped in the House Rules Committee and must now begin the hearing process from the beginning, according to the House Clerk’s office.

While it does not begin to approach the tough-talk promises of action on criminal aliens from candidate Kemp, the end result of the Petrea’s HB 202 becoming law would be that Georgia taxpayers would have access to hard, official, indisputable data on at least one part of the cost of illegal immigration – which is one reason the bill was smothered last year by business-first Republican leadership.

A simple one-pager, HB 202 is still alive and has the votes to pass. As this writer noted elsewhere, Kemp could have ordered the DOC to begin the data sharing last year. But he didn’t.

 Illegal immigration is still an issue for Georgians

• A likely illegal alien was arrested in Marietta last month and charged with molesting at least two boys.
• Pro-enforcement Americans are fighting against the marxist radicals in Gwinnett and Cobb Counties who are waging a very carefully staged war on ICE, immigration enforcement and the lifesaving 287 (g) operations in those jurisdictions.
• Despite a state law requiring participation, the Georgia Department of Public Safety is not in the 287(g) program.
• Jerry Gonzalez, leader of the corporate-funded and anti-enforcement GALEO told a metro-Atlanta newspaper that verifying ID and hiring records with use of the no-cost IMAGE certification is a “white nationalist agenda.”
• Readers not familiar with the folks at GALEO or Gov. Kemp’s relationship with them may want to see the angry letter from a retired immigration agent to the governor here.
• It could be worse. Election runner-up Stacey Abrams’ “New Georgia Project” is in open opposition to ICE even operating in Georgia.

We make the same no-cost car wash offer to anyone who can cite any comment from Governor Kemp on any of the above examples.

“I got a big truck”

Perhaps most obvious to voters who can remember back to last year is candidate Kemp’s “yep, I just said that…” campaign ad shtick that involved his “I got a big truck” (video) and the possibility of his personally rounding up “criminal illegals.”

Asking about the current whereabouts of the truck seems a fair question for Governor Kemp from the faithful GOP voters.

From here, we will begin to produce regular updates on Governor Kemp’s campaign promises, his silence – or any actions – on the illegal immigration crisis in Georgia

Stay tuned.

*Note: Here is a link to Gov. Brian Kemp’s contact page, but unless my vision is worse than usual, it seems he has removed the phone number from the page. If so, here it is: 404-656-1776

Readers may remember last week when then Acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan was shouted down at Georgetown University after being invited to be keynote speaker for Georgetown’s 16th annual Immigration, Law, and Policy Conference.  MacAleenan left the stage without being allowed to offer his thoughts on immigration because some students have been taught that the right of free speech only applies to confirmation of the anti-American dogma they have been fed by the haters who run our educational system. CampusReform.org has a write-up and video here.

According to Azadeh Shahshahani, Iranian-born Communist sympathizer who is the Legal and Advocacy Advisor at Atlanta’s Project South Institute to Eliminate Poverty and Genocide, preventing McAleenan from his sharing wrong-thought on immigration and borders “is what solidarity looks like.”

It should be noted that Shahshahani was one of the anti-enforcement panelists selected by Gwinnett County Commissioner Marlene Fosque for a July 31st discussion of the decade-old 287 (g) program in the Gwinnett jail. Along with Adelina Nichols of GLAHR she dropped out at the last minute in an effort to prevent this writer from sharing facts on 287(g). Dropping out of the event did not prevent these radicals from sending in their own hate-trained youth to try to prevent me from speaking with screams and signs inside the auditorium. Photo here. More from the growing file on Shahshahani & Co. here and here.