Search Results for: OCGA 42-4-14

A version of this column is published in the January 2, 2023 edition of the Glynn County, GA. newspaper The Islander. 

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“The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.” Section ll, Paragraph ll of the Georgia Constitution.

Gov. Kemp’s Georgia can easily and accurately be described as a “sanctuary state” for the “criminal illegals” he promised to go after when he ran for office in 2018 and pledged to end already illegal sanctuary policies.

With constant reminders that Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and more illegals than green card holders, this space will often be used to offer continuing education on multiple laws that were put in place to deter illegal immigration into our state but are now ignored.

• Related: Cobb County Republican Party’s Resolution censuring Governor Kemp for his betrayal on Georgia’s illegal immigration crisis

This week we’ll start with OCGA 42-4-14: “Illegal alien” defined; determination of nationality and verification of lawful admission of person confined in a jail facility.” It was put into law in 2006 in the “Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act” (SB 529) which was a long, multi-section bill that passed out of the state Senate committee process by the Public Safety Committee – Sen. Brian Kemp, Chairman.

Intended to detect illegal aliens who end up in any of Georgia’s jails and report them to the feds, the law is short and simple.

In part: “As used in this Code section, the term “illegal alien” means a person who is verified by the federal government to be present in the United States in violation of federal immigration law. When any person is confined, for any period, in the jail of a county or municipality or a jail operated by a regional jail authority … a reasonable effort shall be made to determine the nationality of the person so confined… a reasonable effort shall be made to verify that such foreign national has been lawfully admitted to the United States and if lawfully admitted, that such lawful status has not expired.

If the foreign national is determined to be an illegal alien, the keeper of the jail or other officer shall notify the United States Department of Homeland Security…”

Who runs most of the jails in Georgia? – county sheriffs.

*  Related: 2018 candidate for GA governor Brian Kemp’s first TV campaign ad 

The statute reads “The Georgia Sheriffs Association shall prepare and issue guidelines and procedures used to comply with the provisions of this Code section.” Those instructions are in place.

As a state senator at the time, Gov. Kemp also voted “YEA” for final passage on this public safety measure.

This writer has spent considerable time over the last several years talking to law enforcement officials and collecting responses to open records requests that tell me many – if not most – jailers in Georgia do not obey this law. I have spoken to sheriffs who have no recollection of ever even hearing about it.

We’ll revisit this topic next time, but until then I leave you with the defiant and unpunished public pledge from metro-Atlanta’s Democrat Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor, made as one of his first remarks at his January 1, 2021 swearing-in event: “what we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in our jail or any of our facilities.”

Sheriff Taylor has been allowed to keep his promise.

I don’t know how many innocent Georgians have been killed, raped, molested, or otherwise harmed by Gov. Kemp’s “criminal illegals” in the last four years – neither does he.

Please re-read the top paragraph of this column and consider calling the governor’s office in Atlanta. The phone number is 404-656-1776. Leave a polite message with the young staffer who answers. Nothing will change if you don’t.

The lack of enforcement of this law is not an oversight – but we are “number one for business.”

• Related: Sanctuary Georgia: Another law that is ignored on “criminal illegals”

The below complaint letter was emailed to the OIG on November 11, 2022 and a hard copy sent via USPS November 12, 2022.

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November 11, 2022

The Honorable Mr. Scott McAfee

Inspector General, Georgia

2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SW,

1102 West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334

Re: Addition to my September 6, 2022 complaint against Governor Brian Kemp – Complaint confirmation # F345217D89

Mr. McAfee,

Thank you for your response on the two complaints filed against Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor and Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens. I want to expand my complaint against Gov. Kemp filed in September. I agree with the statement on your office’s webpage that reads “key to public trust is the expectation that the OIG will hold state officials accountable for efficient, cost effective government operations and to prevent, detect, identify, expose and eliminate fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.

My original complaint involves Gov. Kemp’s refusal to enforce OCGA 42-4-14 which reads in part: “When any foreign national is confined, for any period, in a county or municipal jail, a reasonable effort shall be made to verify that such foreign national has been lawfully admitted to the United States and if lawfully admitted, that such lawful status has not expired. If verification of lawful status cannot be made from documents in the possession of the foreign national, verification shall be made within 48 hours through a query to the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) of the United States Department of Homeland Security or other office or agency designated by the federal government. If the foreign national is determined to be an illegal alien, the keeper of the jail or other officer shall notify the United States Department of Homeland Security, or other office or agency designated for notification by the federal government.”

As I advised you in September, the above sheriffs are on record as defiantly and publicly refusing to comply with this state statute. This insolence has created a serious threat to public safety and the rule of law in Georgia.

I have done my best to appeal to Gov. Kemp’s sense of duty and honor in urging him to investigate and prosecute the openly admitted violations of this important public safety law dating back to January 2021. To my knowledge, there is no record of him taking an official action. While I understand your message that these sheriffs are not within your office’s jurisdiction, it is clear the governor is in the Executive branch of state government.

I would be grateful for an update on any action or progress your office has made in this matter since September. I note that as a state senator Gov. Kemp presided over the Senate Public Safety Committee that held hearings on the legislation that created this law. Then Senator Kemp voted in favor of final passage.

After spending many of hours of my own time on research in my own investigation using open records requests, I hereby add more Georgia laws that Gov. Kemp is allowing to be openly ignored. Please add OCGA 50-36-1, OCGA 50-36-2, OCGA 36-60-6 and OCGA 13-10-91 to my pending complaint against Gov. Kemp on OCGA 42-4-14.

While I can direct your office to multiple examples of local governments and state agencies that are not in compliance, to offer your investigators a place to begin on the additional allegations, I cite the numerous documented and admitted violations of these laws by the government of Carroll County.

To save time and paper, I respectfully direct you to the narrative of the literally thousands of defiant violations by Carroll County officials that I have posted here and here.

I have saved all the email exchanges with Carrol County that serve to illustrate and document proof of violation and staff admission of those violations. I can produce many more examples in other public agencies.

As Gov. Kemp has posted on the official website of his office, “the governor is the chief executive of the state and oversees the executive branch. He or she is the chief law enforcement officer.”

The state constitution tells us that the governor shall “take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace” in the state. This power to enforce laws is almost identical to that of the president of the United States.”

All of the laws here were designed to deter and punish the organized crime of illegal immigration while protecting jobs and taxpayer-funded benefits and services from illegal aliens. Like most Georgians, we consider them to be as important as street racing laws. Safeguarding the security and safety of innocent and trusting Georgians is part of the governor’s job.

It seems obvious to us that Gov. Kemp’s refusal to honor his oath of office on enforcement points to the corruption and abuse in the Chief Executive’s office on this matter.

Please add these latest accusations to my pending complaint and your investigation.

Please contact me with any questions.

Very respectfully submitted,

D.A. King

Marietta, GA. 30066

 Gwinnett County Sheriff’s public defiance of state law on checking immigration status of foreign-born prisoners should be “an issue”

• Watch tonight’s debate here.

With time running out before the Republican Primary, ending the pretense on Governor Kemp and the ludicrous premise that he has fulfilled all his 2018 campaign promises is long past due. He hasn’t. We point to Kemp’s detailed but narrow 2018 campaign promises on illegal immigration in Georgia.

Likewise, since primary challenger and former U.S. Senator Perdue has finally brought up Kemp’s “Big Truck Trick” as related to removing illegal aliens in last Sunday’s debate, it is past time for Perdue to let voters know if he would do anything as governor regarding the organized crime that is illegal immigration – in Georgia. If so, what, exactly?

This writer is one of many pro-enforcement Independents whose vote in 2022 does not depend on what yarn we hear from either side about what happened in the 2020 election debacle. We are laser-focused on illegal immigration in Georgia and the needless dangers and miseries it imposes on Georgians.

While vying for the 2018 GOP candidacy, Kemp did not promise to send Georgia’s National Guard to the border. As Mark Krikorian at the Center for Immigration Studies noted on NRO at the time, neither did he mention addressing the root cause of illegal immigration (spoiler: it’s  illegal employment).

But candidate Kemp did repeatedly pledge to go after “criminal illegals.” He promised to create a public registry of criminal illegal aliens. He put out a detailed outline of legislation he promised to send to the General Assembly entitled “Brian Kemp’s Track and Deport Plan.”

“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” went the detailed assurance Kemp made on his 2018 campaign website.

None of it ever happened.

Related: Illegal immigration issue absent in eight-page, January 2022 Kemp campaign mailer

As this writer lamented last June (‘Kemp risks defeat by ignoring promises on illegal immigration action’), Kemp has alienated a significant number of voters by ignoring illegal immigration in Georgia. More so when he emphatically boasts that he has kept all his promises but responds to questions about his lack of action on criminal aliens in Georgia with “but the border…” as if all conservative voters are too dim to recognize the obfuscation.

Perhaps the most glaring example of executive abuse is Kemp’s refusal to direct his Attorney General to investigate and prosecute Georgia jailers who are in proud and public violation of a hard-fought public safety law regarding…criminal illegals.

The 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB 529) created a state mandate that jailers check immigration status of foreigners in their jails and report illegal aliens to the feds. We invite all concerned to read the very short OCGA 42-4-14.

Then a state legislator, Kemp was Chairman of the Senate Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee that passed out the measure creating this regulation. “Many Georgians are “fed up” with illegal immigration,” he told the liberal AJC at the time. He voted in favor of final passage.

Compare the above-mentioned state law with the defiant public pledge made by Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor– a jailer – at his swearing-in event on January 1, 2021: “What we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or in any of our facilities.”

The Cobb Sheriff has taken a similar stance that was noted here last year – ‘Ga. Law: Jailers must report incarcerated illegal aliens to feds.’

Media silence

Over the course of 2021 this writer sent a “news tip” to virtually every news outlet in Atlanta on this matter. To our knowledge, the only news story on the topic came from the liberal AJC in the form of a celebratory item noting the one-year anniversary of the end of 287(g) in Cobb and Gwinnett counties.

“With 287(g) no longer in force, local jail officials have stopped systemically checking the immigration status of individuals arrested for a variety of crimes – including minor traffic violations – and sharing that information with immigration officials to initiate deportation proceedings” is how the editors at the “watchdog” AJC described the obvious defiance by Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor and others who ignore this law. The AJC headline was ‘There’s less fear’: Metro Atlanta immigrants feel safer with new sheriffs.’

Kemp’s first TV campaign ad in 2018 was all about ending “sanctuary” polices.

Perdue late to the obvious issue

Candidate Perdue has only very recently resorted to pointing to candidate Kemp’s failure to honor 2018 illegal immigration promises – and has not scratched the surface of this key issue. He’s late but it’s not too late. We say again: Many pro-enforcement voters are straining to hear some educated, detailed, and workable solutions to illegal immigration in Georgia from Perdue.

There is plenty of evidence that offended voters leave some choices blank on the ballot – or stay home.

Perdue can always resort to promising to enforce the many laws already on the books in Georgia aimed at making us less attractive to illegal immigration.

Let’s start with the Gwinnett County sheriff.

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A version of this essay originally ran on the subscription outlet Insider Advantage on April 27, 2020

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com He has assisted state lawmakers with legislation since 2005.

We post here because it seems the liberal AJC has ended consideration of publishing my letters.

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January 6, 2020

Dear editor,

A recent AJC report (‘New Gwinnett sheriff ends controversial immigration program’) on newly elected Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor included his first-day statement that his office “will no longer notify ICE of a person’s immigration status in the jail…”

For complete coverage, we hope to see AJC explain to readers the fact that state law requires jailers to use reasonable effort to determine immigration status of incoming prisoners and to report illegal aliens to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

This is a 2006 law (OCGA 42-4-14) that is apparently on Republican Attorney General Chris Carr’s list of “do not enforce” items. Gov. Kemp’s silence on the defiance matches that of the media.

It seems newsworthy.

D.A. KING

MARIETTA

PRESIDENT, THE DUSTIN INMAN SOCIETY

Shortly after taking office in 2021, Democrat Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens invited a mariachi band to celebrate his announcement to end the lifesaving 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities – and then he danced. The invited crowd of newly empowered, anti-enforcement activists funded by corporate Georgia went wild with gratitude.

At his swearing-in event in Gwinnett County, Keybo Taylor, the newly elected Democrat sheriff, stood before a large audience – including media – and boasted that he too had ended the jail’s 287 (g) agreement with ICE. He went further by announcing “what we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities.” To make his professional position on the inherent dangers of “criminal illegals” set free on our streets crystal clear, Taylor added “we will not keep anyone in jail under an ICE detainer.”

As Rep Jesse Petrea pointed out in his recent column announcing his pro-enforcement bill HB 1105 (“The Criminal Alien Track and Report Act”) the definition of “sanctuary” policies in state law OCGA 36-80-23. “…means any regulation, rule, policy, or practice adopted by a local governing body which prohibits or restricts local officials or employees from communicating or cooperating with federal officials or law enforcement officers with regard to reporting immigration status information while such local official or employee is acting within the scope of his or her official duties.”

Many thanks from here to Rep. Petrea for his tenacity and courage in filing his legislation. While illegal immigration is fittingly the number-one issue in the nation, the same is not true in Georgia’s “Number One for Business” politics. Broaching the issue with a Peach State focus under the Gold Dome does not result in long or welcomed conversations. Petrea is a genuine leader.

That Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor is in violation of state law he is sworn to enforce by declaring an illegal sanctuary policy is not in question for reasonable observers. But he is not alone among Georgia jailers in flouting the law designed to protect Georgians from the criminal illegals who are murdering, raping and molesting innocent Georgians – including our children.

This writer has spent considerable time over the last several years talking to law enforcement officials and collecting responses to open records requests that show many Georgia jailers do not obey the laws against sanctuary. Complaints filed with various officials and agencies in an effort to force compliance – or at least coverage in “the news” – went nowhere.

Taylor and the many other jailers who are ignoring Georgia’s two laws against sanctuary policies have escaped the media attention that naive and trusting voters would expect for sheriffs in open and public defiance of existing state law. The reason for the news suppression is not a mystery. Most of the media is not on the side of immigration enforcement. But imagine the howling headlines if a state agency were in violation of any law that benefits illegal aliens.

It is sadly accurate to say that much of Georgia is a sanctuary state.

This brings us to Gov. Brian Kemp. As noted by the liberal AJC at the time, Kemp’s first TV ad in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary cited Americans who had been killed by illegal aliens and portrayed him as “tough on illegal immigration.” The widespread belief then was that he meant tough on illegal immigration in Georgia.

“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” went the detailed promises Kemp made on his 2018 campaign website.

“Donald Trump was right. We must secure the border and end sanctuary cities” said candidate Kemp (video) in 2018. But Kemp has ignored illegal immigration in Georgia.

Sending National Guard to the border has not resulted in sheriffs like Keybo Taylor ending their illegal sanctuary policies. “Standing with” Texas Gov Abbott in an on-the-border Fox News camera shot will not help final passage of Rep. Petrea’s enforcement bill in Georgia.

If Kemp is ever going to finally speak up on enforcing Georgia’s laws on illegal immigration – especially laws prohibiting sanctuary policies – Petrea’s measure provides an ideal opportunity.

Section ll, Paragraph ll of the Georgia Constitution says: “The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.” If Brian Kemp continues to ignore illegal immigration and sanctuary jails in at home, we should ask exactly how he is better on the dangerous crisis in Georgia than Joe Biden is nationally.

• A version of this essay was posted in the subscription news and opinion outlet James Magazine Online, Feb. 15, 2024.