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Updated 5:38 PM June 15: I think I repaired the typos. I inserted a few more links to educate the reader. dak

Immigration “reform” and a “path to citizenship” would be the largest single addition to Democrat voter roles in history.

When asked about his “…priority immigration legislation for the country” if elected to congress in the June 9, 2024 GA 03 candidate debate in Atlanta, Mike Dugan replied with an immediate reference to immigration “reform.”

Q: “Senator, while you were working in the State House, you worked on several Georgia-specific ways to regulate immigration. If elected into Congress, the picture gets much bigger in what you could do. What would be your priority immigration legislation for the country?

Mike Dugan: “I think I would… It’s a two-part deal. Uh, first, before we do any immigration reform, we have to shut down the border. The- the border situation right now, it’s a- it’s a local public safety issue, it’s a humanitarian issue, it’s a national security issue. Until we shut that down with federal government working in coordination with the states, not in opposition to, we can’t really discuss immigration reform. Once it… border is shut down, then we do need to take a long, hard look at immigration reform ’cause we need new people coming into the country. We need skill sets that we had… don’t have readily available up in the numbers that we need here in- in the U.S. So that there… It’s a two-part deal, and you can’t do both of ’em at the same time.”

Audio:

A heads-up from here for trusting Republican voters voters who only read the daily headlines and get their “facts” from “the news”: On immigration, “reform” is the establishment code for amnesty. Legalization – like 1986. Make ’em legal – like 1986. Give them a work permit. It’s the mo’ money answer to illegal immigration that has been tossed out by politicians for the twenty years I have been active on immigration. Dugan’s answer is that we will “shut down” the border then we will “reform” immigration so as to create more (legal) workers and then we will import more immigrants because we need “skill sets.”

It’s amnesty and increased immigration – and “we’ll tell you when the border is ‘shut down’. Trust us.”

• Related reading: “Immigration Reform” Equals Amnesty for Illegal Aliens and Their Employers

If voting Republicans were allowed even a shred of useful education and knowledge on the immigration reality and what happened in 1986, Dugan would likely only get votes from the business community.

This pro-enforcement advocate watched Dugan in the state Senate for the entire eleven years he was there. While not very illegal immigration vote he made was bad, many were horrible in that he went along with the “anything for a buck” agenda of the real bosses of much of Georgia state government – The Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Big Ag and the lobbyists for business interests.

Perhaps the most memorable is Dugan’s support for the 2023 Democrat bill, SB 264 as second signer. That beauty was pushed by a lobbyist for the refugee industry, Darlene Lynch (she/her). Lynch boasts of her partnership with the Georgia Chamber in something they call “Business and Immigration for Georgia (“BIG”)and uses that connect to sell bills to wayward Republicans who are directed to create a larger work force quicker at any cost. (Lynch once promoted the idea of reciprocity in occupational licenses not only with other states, but other nations.)

SB 264 with lead sponsor Democrat Kim Jackson was dropped in the state Senate in February of 2023. When it was presented in the GOP-run Senate Higher Education Committee, it was Lynch who did most of the talking. The entire purpose of the bill was to change long standing state law on the requirement that newly arrived Georgia residents live in the state for twelve months before they can be regarded as “residents” for purposes of instate tuition at our taxpayer funded colleges and tech schools. With Dugan as the number two sponsor, the language of the bill would have allowed foreign nationals who came to the U.S. as refugees, “Special Visa Immigrants” (mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan) and recipients of the biden administration’s seemingly endless “humanitarian parole” to skip the waiting twelve month period – they would have been eligible for the huge reduction in tuition of instate tuition the day they arrived here. Americans moving here from Michigan and the rest of the nation would still be required to wait for a year before qualifying for the lower tuition rate.

I referred to SB 264, Sen. Mike Dugan cosponsor, as (yet another) “Americans last” measure.

It gets worse. When I wrote about the legislation in my regular column in Dugan’s home town newspaper, The (Carroll County) Star News, the editor gave my copy to Dugan who was able to write a rebuttal in the same edition. Point by point Dugan misrepresents the bill and even told readers it had never even seen a hearing – and that it didn’t;t matter anyway because the bill was dead because the 2023 session had ended. The fact is that I watched the hearing, and that Georgia runs on a biennial system for the legislature- the bill was quite alive for the 2024 session. I think he had Lynch write his response to me and never even checked it.

• You can read about that bizarre response and my fact check here.

There is a lot more, but if voters liked Paul Ryan and John McCain on immigration, they should look forward to Mike Dugan going to Washington.

I know very little about Dugan’s primary runoff opponent.

The below was transcribed by Rev.com from Gov. Kemp’s presentation to the Athens-Clarke County “Pancakes and Policy” event on  Feb 26, 2024.  Video here.

GA Gov Brian Kemp:

“…Michael and appreciate you taking a second tour of duty, um, as chamber president this year, and I certainly want to thank David as the rest of the team for having Marty and I this morning. Uh, I’m glad to be a member of the Athens Clark County Chamber of Commerce, appreciate what you guys are doing every day to plug for small businesses in this community and a lot of other great pieces of the fabric of the Athens, Georgia community.

Uh, like Michael said, our hearts are breaking this morning for the family of Laken Riley. I had the honor of speaking to her parents over the weekend and though they are bearing the pain that no parent should ever endure in having to plan for burying their child, they’re thankful for our prayers and our ongoing justice to see Lee- Laken’s killer brought to justice.

Marty and I will continue to keep their family, their friends and the university community in our thoughts and prayers. This community, all of Georgia, and the entire country have been rocked by this inexcusable and avoidable murder. Laken’s life should not have ended so soon and we need to demand justice for what happened to her. She deserves justice, her family deserves justice, and we need justice on a national level to prevent this type of thing from happening again.

Laken’s death is a direct result of failed policies on the federal level and an unwillingness by this White House to secure the southern border. We need to demand better from this administration, and that’s something that I’ve been doing since I’ve taken office, along with other governors across the country. And we’ve renewed that call multiple times, including again this weekend when I sent a letter to the president demanding more information on the illegal immigrants in our country, where they are and if they’ve broken any of our laws. Because of the president’s failures, we don’t know all that we should, but we do know this, more than eight and a half million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since President Biden took office.

In November of last year alone, over 1700 pounds of Fentanyl were seized at the southern border. Nearly 16,000 pounds of meth. 169 people on the terror watch list were encountered at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, setting an all-time record. Those drugs, weapons and dangerous criminals that aren’t stopped at the border head to other states, just like ours. In fact, there was a 55% increase in cases involving Fentanyl seizures here in Georgia by the GBI between 2022 and 2023. And that doesn’t even include all the seizures by local law enforcement.

It is an understatement to say that this is a major crisis, and because of the White House’s failures, every state, as I’ve said repeatedly, is now a border state, and Laken Riley’s murder’s just the latest proof of that. Just yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that her killer was in the country illegally, that he had been arrested in 2022 and was paroled and released back onto our streets. He was then arrested again last year in New York for trying to hurt a child, and other charges. That is a failure of our system on multiple levels and at multiple times, and it has res- resulted in a young woman’s death. That is inexcusable. And in the absence of any real effort by the Biden Administration to step up and address this crisis, as they continue to ignore the calls for meaningful policy change that governors like me have made for well over two years, I have committed further resources to help and secure the southern border and keeping our citizens safe.

We already have the longest continuous presence of state guardsmen stationed on the border of any state, going back to when I first took office. Earlier this month, following my fifth trip to the southern border, I announced that we would send more troops to Texas in building, to help in building a command center on the border of, with Mexico. And we’re already putting more and more resources into public safety, including to pay for state law enforcement to retain and attract talented men and women who will keep our streets safe.

I want to thank the General Assembly, I know, uh, a bunch of the local delegation is here this morning, for giving final passage to the Peace Officer Loan Repayment legislation we introduced last year. All of these measures and more are designed with the same goal, to keep Georgians like you safe, to keep Georgians’ neighborhoods safe, to keep our schools safe, and to keep our businesses safe, because everyone should feel secure in their local community. And as we further strengthen the places we call home, we will continue to build on great opportunities here in our state, and I know that’s what you all at the Chamber are doing every single day and we appreciate so much your partnership with us. Those efforts have brought 177 projects, over 20,300 new jobs and $13.4 billion in investment to just this region of Georgia since I first took office.

• Update: To none’s surprise, Gov. Kemp quietly signed SB 354 into law on May 2, 2024

     Pro-enforcement readers have a chance to take an active role in preventing the Republicans in the state Capitol from dismantling long-standing state law aimed at illegal immigration. I respectfully urge you to take advantage of the opportunity.

Maybe the illegal aliens most members of the General Assembly have invited to Georgia won’t murder another college co-ed. You never know, right? For all but two Republican legislators under the Gold Dome, that possibility is merely the cost of “workforce development,” Georgia being “number one for business!” and obedience of directives from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Senate Bill 354 is an anti-enforcement bill concocted by the Georgia Chamber and sponsored by Senators Larry Walker (R- Perry), Brian Strickland (R-McDonough), Jason Anavitarte (R- Dallas), Kay Kirkpatrick (R-Marietta), Kim Jackson (D-Atlanta), Steve Gooch (R- Dahlonega), John F. Kennedy (R-Macon), and Randy Robertson (R- Cataula). The stated goal is to make it easier to go to work in Georgia.

What does SB 354 do? It dismantles state law put in place in 2006 that requires all applicants for occupational licenses to swear on an affidavit that they are not an illegal alien. False swearing is a felony. The law is OCGA 50-36-1 – “verification of lawful presence.” It’s part of the occupational licensing process – if the licensing process goes away, the immigration check goes too. Which, again, is exactly what SB 354 does for covered jobs.

The legislation applies to low skilled personnel in the barbering/cosmetology industry and removes the requirement for accessing an occupational license for the covered workers. Next year’s edition will be aimed at more occupations because according to a Sen. Larry Walker-sponsored Resolution passed by the GOP-ruled Senate last year, occupational licensing in Georgia is “burdensome and onerous.”

Despite this writer’s frantic effort to stop the bill by explaining all this to key Republican lawmakers, the bill was sent to Gov. Kemp’s desk on March 26. Only two Republicans in the General Assembly voted against the measure – House Reps Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) and Kimberly New (R- Villa Rica). Yes, you read that correctly – zero Republican state senators voted “no” and only two Republicans in the House.

• Related reading: Email to GA Rep Alan Powell on SB 354 as instructed by his assistant 

It should be noted that the immigration verification law under attack from the “anything-for-a-buck” crowd under the Gold Dome was put in place as part of SB 529, the ‘Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act of 2006.’ It was signed by Republican Governor Sonny Perdue that year. It began the committee process in the Senate Public Safety committee chaired by then state Senator Brian Kemp who told the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution at the time that many Georgians are “fed up” with illegal immigration. Indeed.

Will Kemp sign a bill that dismantles state illegal immigration laws that he helped put on the books? The smart money says “yes”, unless he knows a lot of GOP voters are watching.

The bottom line is this: Only a veto from Kemp can stop SB 354 from becoming law in Georgia. If that happens, we should all grasp that more bills with the same goals will pass next year and thereafter. Gov. Brian Kemp will not veto this bill without public pressure.

Honest.

Please call the Capitol office of Gov. Brian Kemp (404-656-1776) and leave a message with the staffer asking him to veto SB 354.

I’ll wash your car if you speak up.

The above column was published in the Coastal Georgia newspaper The Islander on April 8, 2024.

Cue the race-baiting and accusations of “anti-immigrant hate” from the corporate-funded leftists and breathless, inaccurate “news” from the usual suspects in the media. My apologies for the repetition. (Note: the AP news report linked above is the corrected version of the story that was done after our inquiry and complaint to AP writer Jeff Amy).

Call it a proposal for a law that essentially says we should enforce the law. In Rep Jesse Petrea’s HB 1105, for the first time in far too many years – thirteen, by my count – there is legislation pending under the Gold Dome that will serve to reduce the American casualties inflicted by the criminal aliens swarming over Georgia.

Petrea’s bill will create criminal penalties for jailers who have been allowed to defy state law on “sanctuary” policies. Pro-enforcement conservatives hope to see the bill significantly improved, sharpened, and expanded.

Note to Rep Petrea and Republican legislators: The newfound press attention to criminal aliens and the baseless Alinsky-inspired smears coming your way is all a normal, rehearsed, boiler plate drill by the illegal alien lobby. This writer has considerable experience with the non-profit orgs that can be counted on to oppose anyimmigration enforcement. The recommendation from here?: Press on to final passage.

 Legislators and sane Georgia voters should consider the source of the unhinged effort to derail the ‘Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act.’

As one example, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials Inc. was one of the many Marxist concerns that sent lobbyists to the Capitol in a failed attempt to stop the bill in the House committee process. In a recent media release, GALEO’s CEO, the notorious opponent of immigration enforcement, Jerry Gonzalez, used Laken Riley’s brutal murder to advance his solution for what Gov. Kemp referred to in 2018 as “criminal illegals.”

If you wade through the accusations of “anti-immigrant rhetoric,” “white nationalist agenda” and warnings of coming “hate crimes,” Gonzalez uses the tragedy in Athens to promote his group and as a vehicle to push for illegal alien amnesty. Apparently aware that the first two hundred thirty six names in the Hahira phone book likely have about as much knowledge on immigration as many Georgia legislators, Gonzalez tries to convince them that HB 1105 should be abandoned because “…a U.S Court of Appeals struck Georgia’s HB 87, also known as the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act,” over a decade ago” – which is an intentional lie. The truth is that the court enjoined one of the law’s twenty-three sections. Because GALEO joined with the SPLC, the ACLU,  and various other anti-enforcement corporations in a federal lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the law, Gonzalez knows the truth.

The hateful Gonzalez/GALEO media release titled “Rejecting divisive rhetoric…” is a must read for the uninitiated.

In addition to funding from Georgia Power and a list of other Georgia corporations, it should not go unnoted that GALEO Inc. has also been a recipient of a recent grant from the disgraced and discredited champions of smear – the SPLC.

Space does not allow more than a linked beginners guide to some of the other non-profit groups that are lobbying in the state Capitol against HB 1105, but here is a partial education: Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (“Divest from the Deportation State!”). Georgia Familias Unidas led by Maria Del Rosario Palacios, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, aka “GLAHR”, the (restricted) Latino Community Fund, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, and the Georgia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. – yes, that CAIR.

• Related reading: Abolish ICE! Marxist Georgia group (GLAHR) led by a Mexican citizen screams at passing traffic

GOP lawmakers who may have a difficult time maintaining an aggressive,  pro-enforcement approach to HB 1105 in the current storm of abuse by these Biden supporters should take a look at our February poll of Republican Primary voters on illegal immigration in Georgia.

Republican lawmakers must end the “ya’ll come!” practice of creating reward magnets for illegal aliens

It should always be noted that only six states host more illegal aliens than we do here in Georgia. And that there would be far fewer if the Republican-controlled legislature would end the practice of creating a magnet for more to come by passing bills that offer benefits as rewards for moving in.  Examples? The Registered Apprenticeship Program, the Dual Enrollment program, and endless Georgia Chamber of Commerce-ordered bills directed at ending the verification of lawful presence for issuing occupational licenses to name a few.

We will examine those anti-enforcement gems and the vote records here soon.

A closing question: Has anybody in the media asked Dalton Republican Rep Kasey Carpenter about his reasoning for voting with the Democrats against HB 1105 last week?

 D.A. King is the president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com .

The column above was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion outlet James Magazine Online,  March 7, 2024.

We told you so https://jamesmagazinega.com/2020/12/08/metro-atlanta-more-dangerous-after-election-of-progressive-sheriffs/

We take an educated “Never Chris Carr” view.

GEORGIA POLITICAL HISTORY SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

Updates on this page began on August 14, 2024 and will continue while I round up the earlier posts from three websites starting in 2007.

• 2023 – Nine Republican states have filed in federal court to shut down the illegal DACA program – GA not participating (Here).

• 2023 – Twenty GOP states are challenging Biden’s illegal border parole hustle in a Texas federal court – GA is not one of them (Here).

• 2023 – 25 GOP-Led States Ask SCOTUS to Restore Prohibition on Encouraging Illegal Immigration – GA Stands Back, Again (Here) Update: Note SCOTUS reversed the lower court decision. The suit was successful.

• 2024 – 15 states sue to block Biden’s effort to make illegal aliens with the illegal DACA status get ObamaCare – GA absent from the list. (Here).

• 2013 – Pro-enforcement immigration expert blacklisted by U.S. Senator’s Cheif of Staff (Here)

• 2016 –  “Chris Carr was appointed by Governor Deal in 2013 to as Commissioner of the Department of Economic Development (GDEcD), the state agency charged with helping to create jobs and generate investment in Georgia” (ACCG) “I am also uncomfortable with the concept that any foreign consul or Georgia Commissioner of Economic Development would be given authority to appoint an official to be the arbiter of the validity of a foreign driver’s license, as SB 320 seems to read.” Then Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway opposing SB 320 in a Feb. 2016 letter to the GA Senate Public Safety committee.

• SB 320 was one of the most outrageous bills of the 2016 sessio0n under the Gold Dome. It was the result of Commissioner Chris Carr’s obedience to the special business interests led by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. I urge readers to see the SB 320 file HERE. The measure died a well deserved death after we sounded the alarm and got law enforcement officials involved, including retired Border Patrol Agents – but not before passing out of the Senate Public Safety Committee, Then Senator Tyler Harper, Chairman.

This page is a project in progress.