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Readers may remember that Gov. Kemp ran on a promise of being tough on illegal immigration. With respect, it would seem that it would be easier to solve a problem if it was officially measured. How many “undocumented workers” are in our prison system, and what is the cost to Georgia taxpayers for this “cheap labor?”

HB 202 as dead as Pancho Villa – Executive Order needed: Insider Advantage Georgia

March 12, 2019

D.A. King

This writer is grateful to IAG for the recent space here to alert readers to the peril of House Bill 202 in the House Rules Committee run by Rep. Jay Powell (R-Camilla). The simple bill would require the Georgia Department of Corrections to inform the public on the number of non-citizens, including illegal aliens, in our prison system along with their home countries, crimes committed, and the percentage of the entire inmate population that group represents.

Apparently HB 202 was deemed to have created too much needless information to be made public.

With Crossover Day behind us, Rules Committee Chairman Powell did not allow the bill to go to the House for a vote, where it had the support to easily pass. Unless it is attached to an already-passed House bill by the Republican senate, HB 202 is as dead as Pancho Villa and will not become law this year.

Including the discredited SPLC, GALEO and CAIR, the leftist, corporate-funded illegal alien lobby that worked against passage has claimed yet another win here in the Peach State with the defeat of HB 202. They are warily crowing about their victory.

While the Capitol reports from the rest of Atlanta media have carefully ignored it, the legislation, Rep Powell’s thumbs-down decision and the fact that GOP-ruled Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders has captured the attention of small newspapers around the state and several national news outlets, including Breitbart News. We will see more on this story.

It should be noted that because our new Governor, Brian Kemp has the authority, he could easily issue an Executive Order to require the Dept. of Corrections to create and make public the quarterly reports that HB 202 would have mandated… Read the rest here.

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of the Immigration Politics Georgia news site.

“The new governor has not taken action on illegal immigration despite his campaign promises, said King. “This would be an ideal time for Governor [Brian] Kemp to speak up in favor of transparency about the cost of illegal immigration…” 

Breitbart News has taken notice of the fact that the Republican Rules Committee has so far not allowed HB202 to see a vote in the full House.

The below report was posted this yesterday. *The Dustin Inman Society has put out an action alert with contact info for the Republican Chairman of the Gold Dome committee where the bill is being held captive. HERE.

Breitbart News

Georgia Establishment Legislators Try to Hide Migrant Crime from Voters

By Neil Munro

March 1, 2019

Republican and Democratic legislators in Georgia are trying to block good-government legislation that would help Georgia voters learn the number of criminal illegal aliens in their state.

The draft legislation would require state officials to provide quarterly reports on the number of deportable illegal migrants and of non-citizens who are held in detention. But it must pass the Georgia House’s rules committee and the House floor before midnight March 7.

The bill, HB 202, was promoted in a February 28 hearing by GOP state Rep. Jesse Petrea. But the GOP chairman of the rules committee quickly signaled his opposition to the legislation. “Why do we need this?” chairman Jay Powell challenged Petrea.

In response, Petrea criticized “the inability by both parties in Congress to do anything to deal with this [illegal migration] problem,” adding:

What we can do is make the people we represent recognize the degree to which the issue impacts their lives daily … There are 1,505 violent and sex offenders in Georgia correctional facilities [on the list] who murdered, raped, killed, kidnapped, child-molested Georgia citizens … So the people can look at that list and have complete transparency and they can say “That is a big deal,” or they may say “That is not a big deal.” But right now, that data is not available to them … All I want is for that data to be transparent and posted on the web site. And the people can make up their own minds.

“1,505 inmates is a lot of money on our budget and it is a lot of human tragedy,” Petrea added.

Three Democrats joined in opposition to the bill.

Rep. Robert Trammell suggested the release of the statistics would “inflame public opinion against a group based on their citizenship or non-citizenship status.”  READ THE REST HERE.

Insider Advantage Georgia

January 30 2019

Will the General Assembly reverse the 2018 GDOT carve-out on E-Verify for contractor bids?

D.A. King

In last year’s legislative session Republican state Senator Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega) introduced legislation that gutted the process intended to ensure that the Georgia Department of Transportation hires contractors that are using a legal workforce. In the haste and bedlam of 2018’s Sine Die, Senate Bill 445 sailed through both the House and Senate.

It is notable that SB 445 went through the Senate Transportation Committee, as Senators Brandon Beach, Butch Miller, Frank Ginn and Mike Dugan were bill signers, in that order. All are transportation committee members — with Beach as chairman.

On SB 445, Chairman Beach made it clear in his committee that “it’s a DOT bill” (professional transcription here. – two-minute archived committee video here).

Now that the cat is out of the bag on this caper- and we have a new governor — one “important issue” for the 2019 session should be to see if lawmakers will reinstate the bidding system for GDOT that all other public employers and their contractors are still supposed to follow.

We recognize many readers will view this as a dry topic – the only folks who may have a concern are those who don’t want their taxes used to pay illegal aliens on GDOT projects.

After mandates were put into place in the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act of 2006 (SB 529) to require all public employers and contractors to use E-Verify, adjustments were made in HB2 of 2009 to deal with the obvious problem that some public contractors were bidding on – and winning – contracts with bids that were based on the cost of black market labor before they swore on an affidavit that they were using E-Verify. This allowed contractors to hire a crew for a job that could not be verified as eligible to work using the E-Verify system, which can only be used for newly hired employees after receiving authorization from the feds to use the online system.

The 2009 solution to this chicanery was to change the law so that bids are not considered unless and until the E-Verify affidavit is presented.

In his quick presentation of the measure, Sen. Gooch told the committee the changes to the GDOT bid rules were being proposed to make life easier for contractors.

“Section 3… makes clear that the deadline for a bidder to supply their signed notarized e-verify affidavit is prior to contract award as opposed to the bid submission. This has caused a problem with some of the contractors that submitted their e-verify affidavits but they didn’t reach to the department either by mail or by other means of delivery in time for the bid, um, deadlines and therefore they were disqualified from bidding on the work. Now essentially requires ’em to submit those E-Verifies prior to the contracts being awarded” said Gooch (emphasis mine).

It is hard to accept that this is a constructive or plausible reason to make changes to the GDOT bidding system, as the existing law is clear that bids and E-Verify affidavits may be submitted electronically. If a contract bidder is indeed an E-Verify user, he can easily send that documentation along with his bid from his computer.

This writer asked GDOT for comment on this curious scenario.  One of the questions asked for verification that SB 445 was in fact a GDOT bill, as Chairman Beach told the committee. That question went unanswered.

This is not the first adventure in state law on E-Verify, bids, and contractors for GDOT.

CBS Atlanta 46 TV News did a series of stories on GDOT’s violations of the bidding/E-Verify law in 2010 that illustrated the lack of concern for the hard-fought mandate designed to make Georgia unwelcoming to illegal employers and illegal labor – and to safeguard taxpayer dollars. We have archived some of those reports:

* “Activist: GDOT Is Breaking State’s Immigration Law – Violation May Make It Easier For Contractors To Hire Illegal Immigrants. Here.

* “CBS Atlanta Asks If GDOT Contractor Is Hiring Illegal Workers.” CBS Atlanta 46 news video here.

* “GDOT Didn’t Know About The Illegal Immigrant Labor Law.” Here.

* “Federal Document Shows GDOT Contractor Lied On Affidavit – Company Swore To Check Employee’s Legal Status in Federal Database.” Here.

* “GDOT: Worker May Have Been Illegal. The Georgia Department of Transportation said Wednesday that one of its subcontractors may have been in the country illegally. The admission came after a CBS Atlanta investigation…” (No link)

* “GDOT Admits Mistake For Breaking Immigration Law: GDOT Commissioner Dodges Tough Questions About Hiring Illegal Worker.” Here.

IAG will follow up on this later in the legislative session, there is more.

You read it here first.

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com. He has worked on the law featured above since 2006.

Editors determined to sway public opinion at the liberal AJC may have learned their lesson on mentioning illegal immigration. Apparently too many people are still paying attention to that crisis. Despite a January Harvard CAPS/Harris poll showing that a plurality of U.S. voters point to immigration as the most important issue facing the country, the AJC did not include any question on immigration in their own recent poll of issues and voter opinion.

The AJC poll of 702 registered voters was conducted Jan. 7-17 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Voter ballots, gun rights, our new governor, health care/Obamacare and a possible new internet tax were all included as questions, but illegal immigration was absent from the AJC poll. According to DHS Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than is border-state Arizona. According to the left leaning Migration Policy Institute in Washington DC and the corporate funded anti-enforcement Georgia Budget and Policy Institute more illegal aliens than green card holders call Georgia home. Free car wash for readers who and a news item in the AJC on these facts.

A June, 2017 AJC poll of voters in Georgia’s 6th District showed metro Atlanta’s infamous traffic congestion, abortion, government spending, and “climate change” all attracted fewer reactions from voters as being very or somewhat important than illegal immigration. Nevertheless, the AJC went with the headline: “Most Georgia 6th voters very concerned about climate change.”

It was bad news for the liberals when the AJC had to report in 2010 that a statewide poll they participated in showed that two-thirds of Georgians wanted to bar “the undocumented” from attending taxpayer-funded state universities — at any tuition rate.

In the pre-Trump, state-wide poll, two-thirds of Georgians wanted to bar “the undocumented” from attending taxpayer-funded state universities — even if they pay out of state tuition. Sixty-seven percent of people polled in September 2010 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Georgia Newspaper Partnership, which included the AJC,  favored a law requiring proof of legal residency to even attend a Georgia college or university.

It couldn’t have made the editors at the AJC happy to report that polling showed most Georgia voters wanted an “Arizona style immigration law in Georgia” in 2010 either. It should be noted that such a law was passed under the Gold Dome, but it is not enforced by the Republicans who rule the state government. That fact is also not “news” at the liberal AJC.

Often, it is an indicator of what real issues are when those topics are ignored by the AJC.

On the crime of illegal immigration, it is much more difficult to achieve the liberal goals – including another amnesty – when the pesky voters are allowed access to too much information. Thus the “no immigration polls for you” attitude at the “credible, compelling, complete” AJC.

Immigration Enforcement Review Board (IERB) established in OCGA 50-36-3 (2011, HB87)

The seven original IERB members were appointed between July and Sept. 2, 2011.

State law is clear that members are limited to two terms of two years per term.

OCGA 50-36-3 (b) The Immigration Enforcement Review Board is established and shall consist of seven members. Three members shall be appointed by the Governor, two members shall be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, and two members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. A chairperson shall be selected by a majority vote of the members. All matters before the board shall be determined by a majority vote of qualified board members. Members shall be appointed for terms of two years and shall continue to hold such position until their successors are duly appointed and qualified. A member may be reappointed to an additional term. If a vacancy occurs in the membership of the board, the appropriate appointing party shall appoint a successor for the remainder of the unexpired term and until a successor is appointed and qualified.

Appointed by Gov. Deal: Phil Kent, Shawn Hanley and Ben Vinson
Appointed by Lt. Gov Cagle: Boyd Austin, Mike Yeager
Appointed by Speaker Ralston: Robert Mumford, Terry Clark.

With the end of the first term, original members still on the IERB should have been reappointed in July and Sept. 2013 – with the end of that term being July/Sept. 2015. With the exception of the Speaker’s office on the reappointment of Terry Clark, it appears that none of the three offices that made the original appointments can produce any paperwork reflecting any reappointments. After a request for public records, Cagle’s office claimed exclusion from open records laws due to being part of the legislature.

Lt. Governor is an executive branch office under the state constitution.

Without being legally reappointed and without authority, members Kent, Hanley, Vinson, Yeager and Clark served well beyond the end of the four year limitation. As of December 29, 2018 Clark is still serving.

Ben Vinson resigned IERB sometime in June of July, 2017 after being appointed to the State Board of worker’s Compensation by Gov. Deal. In violation of state law, Vinson was active as IERB Chair from Sept. 2015 to the date of his resignation.

Shawn Hanley and Phil Kent both resigned in August 2018 when the term limit violation was made public.

In the same report linked above, it looks like the AG is staying far away from the entire matter.

IERB member John Kennedy was appointed in January 2013 after Robert Mumford resigned to become a judge. Kennedy won election to the state senate and James Balli was appointed to replace him by Speaker Ralston in Feb. 2014. The appointment letter specifically states Balli’s appointment would end in July 2015 or “until a successor is duly appointed.”

That would mean Balli’s two term limit would end in July 2017 – if he was duly reappointed. Public records of any such reappointment have not been produced.

* It could be that Balli will claim he was appointed to finish Kennedy’s term and could lawfully serve two terms of his own. I assert that argument is contrary to the language and intent of OCGA 50-36-3.

With this line of thinking: Mumford’s first term ended in Sept. 2013, Kennedy would have finished that term in 2015, but was replaced by Balli who was appointed in Feb 2014. Again, the Balli appointment letter states his term ends in 2015 or until a lawful reappointment or a successor appointment.

Reappointment of Balli would expire in 2017 – if he was duly reappointed.

Regardless of the question on Balli’s reappointment or his merely finishing another member’s term, because of the fact that that members Kent, Vinson, Hanley and Clark served and voted without authority after Sept. 2015, it is my position that any actions taken after Sept. 2015, including sanctions, complaint dismissals and board votes were done in violation of state law and are thereby null and void.