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Newspaper continues to push rejected illegal alien-friendly legislation

The liberal AJC is still trying to sell the now all-but-dead HB 120 scam. The morning after Rep Kasey Carpenter’s “instate tuition” bill formally expired due to an absence of Rules Committee attention, AJC reporter Greg Bluestein lamented the GOP had lost a chance to win over more immigrants and Latino voters. A real mensch, Bluestein is always very concerned about the Republican’s well being.

In today’s ‘Capitol Recap’. AJC Premium Editor Jim Denery did a rerun of the Bluestein goop. Update: The AJC also printed the same “news” in the Sunday edition.

Neither of them seem to understand or care that Kasey Carpenter is a shameless huckster. Neither of them seem to understand simple immigration law and neither seem to be able to process news of federal court decisions reported in their own newspaper.

We have lost count of the number of news outlets that falsely reported that “DACA recipients” were the target of Carpenter’s first two versions of HB 120 on instate tuition and that “DACA” was part of the bill language. Triple dog dare: Show us the numbers of the lines that contain “DACA.”

The reality, easily verified by actually reading those bills, is that DACA was never mentioned in the language. We think the various reporters swallowed Carpenter’s carnival barker, verbal presentation of the bill without reading the legislation. Either that or as often happens with the agenda-driven Atlanta Journal Constitution, staff and management were in on the hustle.

This writer pointed this “DACA” discrepancy out to House legislators in committee.

So did a retired federal immigration agent in a letter to legislators.

I also pointed out that the liberal AJC has reported the 11^th circuit appellate court has ruled that illegal aliens with DACA are illegal aliens. How much “lawful presence” do they have? Zero.

 

Carpenter finally did actually insert “DACA” language into his Orwellian, ‘Hail Mary’ latest version. In addition to the existing instate and out-of-state tuition fees, he also invented a new proposed tier of tuition rates: “Opportunity Tuition” – for illegal aliens who would be known as “Opportunity Students.”

It wasn’t “instate tuition” at all. Carpenter should feel cheated. He concocted this goofy Newspeak wording but the AJC ignored his work.

Americans and legal immigrants from most other states would not be allowed to pay the lower “Opportunity Tuition” rates. Only illegal aliens who landed in Georgia before 2013 (*or who move in with parents who say they were here in 2013) could get that special deal. At least until the next time these liberals couldn’t bear the “unfairness” of borders and immigration laws. Then it would be back to the Gold Dome to change that 2013 date to 2021 or whatever year they decided represented “justice.”

Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders according to the anti-enforcement Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

The danger to pro-enforcement Georgians of the AJC’s constant hard sell is that most Georgia legislators know more about Martian trigonometry than they do about immigration. In large part we blame this on reading and believing the AJC.

I left a voicemail for Denery late Friday afternoon. I don’t expect a return call and I don’t expect the AJC correction I asked his editors to run.

We created factual info (but with verification) on HB 120 here and here and here and here .

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Updated 11:42 March 13 – corrected title on editor Jim Denery.

Updated 10:15 AM March 14 – addition of info on GBPI.

*Updated 6:04 PM March 14 – added detail of illegal aliens moving in with parents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image: A.F. Branco – In 2016 three Georgia residents, all illegal aliens who had graduated from Georgia high schools, went to court with the contention that their deferred action on deportation status as DACA recipients somehow provided “lawful presence” in the U.S. Further, they said DACA should allow them to attend the universities the Board of Regents has placed off limits to illegal aliens.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them in 2019. On page 26 of the March 2019 11th Circuit opinion the court wrote: “As explained above, appellants are not lawfully present in the United States.”

The court noted the obvious (even the liberal AJC reported it): illegal alien students are still subject to deportation proceedings. “As DACA recipients, they simply were given  a reprieve from potential removal; that does not mean they are in any way ‘lawfully present under the (INA) act.”

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Updated: Typos corrected 5:32 PM 28 January, 2021.  **Updated 9:15 AM 29 January, 2021 with note on lack of criminal restrictions for eligibility.

UPDATE FEB 19, 8:47 PM – THERE IS NOW A SUBSTITUTE BILL (LC 49 0393S) WITH A SLIGHT CHANGE IN LANGUAGE DESIGNED TO CREATE FAKE NEWS. IT IS WORKING. MORE SUNDAY.

Instate tuition for illegal aliens in Georgia – House Bill 120 sponsored by Republican Rep Kasey Carpenter of Dalton

 Carpenter has three Republican co-signers and five Democrat co-signers. Without ever using “DACA,” the hoped-for contention is that DACA provides “lawful presence.” It doesn’t.

See bottom for a list and contact info of cosponsors.

Rep Kasey Carpenter’s legislation, HB 120, would change Georgia law to allow illegal aliens to access instate tuition rates in Georgia’s public university and technical college systems. Three schools would be exempt because they do not admit illegal aliens at any tuition rate.

These instate rates are much lower than out-of state tuition (what non-residents pay). For academic year 2019-2020, the average tuition & fees for Colleges in Georgia is $4,721 for in-state and $16,879 for out-of-state.

This would mean illegal aliens would pay a lower rate than Americans and legal immigrants from Michigan or Nebraska (for example).

The bill is being promoted in the liberal AJC in a way that makes it sound like it would only apply to illegal aliens with Obama’s illegal DACA action. Here is a quote from an AJC article before the bill officially dropped:

“ (Rep Kasey) Carpenter said his bill would apply to participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.”

The reality is that “DACA” is not mentioned anywhere in Carpenter’s state tuition amnesty bill. Carpenter, along with his far-left, Atlanta-area Democrat co-sponsors has structured the measure so that nearly any ‘youngish’ illegal alien living in Georgia, DACA or not, can pay much less tuition in Georgia taxpayer-funded post-secondary schools than Americans and legal immigrants from most other states *if they meet the bill’s guidelines. *(updated 3:19 PM, January 28, 2021)

Note: Read a well written explanation of what may happen to DACA in the near future from Regulatory Review.

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Requirements for instate tuition for illegal aliens in Carpenter’s bill:

* Student must have graduated from a Georgia High School or obtained a Georgia GED.

* Claim domicile in Georgia since January 1, 2013 or be a dependent “child” of a parent (including illegal alien parents) who claims Georgia domicile since January 1, 2013.

*  Be younger than 30 at time of initial application to a Georgia post-secondary school. This appears to mean the illegal alien who is older than 30 now could have applied in the past and been rejected but can use the date of that original application. (We have not done the math).

* Has not been issued a temporary (non-immigrant) visa to enter the U.S.A. by the federal government.

*The bill says student must be “lawfully present in this state” and present evidence of that status – and that the regents may not allow instate tuition to non-citizens who are not “lawfully present.”

All italics mine.

**UPDATE: January 29, 2021 – DACA has guidelines for eligibility regarding criminal records and convictions. In HB 120 we see no such limiting language. This bill is a separate, state level illegal alien tuition amnesty that should be rejected out of hand by responsible lawmakers.

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The term “lawful presence” (different from “legal status”) seems to be the rock Carpenter, his Democrat co-sponsors and his foreign labor backers are tying themselves to. Congress, and only congress, makes the determination of immigration status. According to a 2019 appellate court decision discussed further down, “lawful presence” is not defined anywhere in the Immigration and Nationality Act that regulates immigration. Illegal aliens with DACA for example, do not have “lawful presence.”

Carpenter says he is trying to educate more workers. In a pandemic. With high unemployment. A move that will lower wages for Americans if successful.

Carpenter and his Democrat co-sponsors seem to be trying hard to allow the state of Georgia to create its own amnesty for tuition rates. By using the “DACA” label in talking points, but leaving it out of the bill language, they could allow perhaps thousands more illegal aliens to obtain this immigration amnesty for special treatment on tuition than the 21,000 or so illegal aliens that actually currently have DACA status.

We expect the argument to be that illegal aliens with a Georgia drivers license can use it to demonstrate “lawful presence” in Georgia to pay less tuition than legal immigrants.

See bill here

FACTS:

 Associated Press: “Some illegal immigrants get licenses in Georgia.”

llegal aliens with deferred action on deportation (DACA or no DACA) can and do qualify for a Georgia drivers license because of federal law (REAL ID Act) – this special treatment applies to obtaining drivers licenses and official ID cards only.

The Georgia state senate passed a bill to end this insanity in 2017. All but one Republican voted in favor. The liberal AJC reported on it with “Georgia Senate passes measure aimed at immigrants without legal status.”

The House never allowed the bill to see a hearing and the bill died. We are forever grateful to former state Senator Josh McKoon for his courage and determination.

Carpenter and his Dem pals may be trying to use the drivers license as a way to get illegal aliens instate tuition. The effort seems to be to use the DACA amnesty as a way to confuse lawmakers and voters on Carpenter’s tuition amnesty bill, it should be noted that illegal aliens with DACA have already lost their case in federal court – twice – when they tried to claim “lawful presence.”

“Illegal aliens who have been awarded deferred action on deportation proceedings through the DACA amnesty by both the Obama and Trump administrations are illegal aliens and do not have “lawful presence” says the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision was handed down March 6, 2019.

The ruling was in response to a suit brought by several illegal aliens in Georgia who were challenging the Board of Regents policy that requires lawful presence for instate tuition purposes and admittance to some USG universities.

The Eleventh Circuit rejected all of the students’ claims. The court noted that  ““lawfully present” is not a stand alone immigration classification, and it is not defined anywhere in the (Immigration and Nationality) Act  *(opinion here).

We wrote it up here, with a link to the court’s opinion.

Georgia Attorney General, Chris Carr:

“We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status…” from the liberal WABE news.

The bill seems to depend largely on lawmaker’s ignorance of the issue and the slanted promotional and inaccurate headline coverage in the media.

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HB120

Sponsor: Rep Kasey Carpenter (R) Dalton

*Cosponsors

Rep Dale Washburn (R) Macon

Rep Mathew Gambrill (R) Cartersville

Rep Bee Nguyen (D) Atlanta

Rep Zulma Lopez (D) Atlanta

Rep Wes Cantrell (R) Woodstock

Rep Shea Roberts (D) Atlanta

Rep Angelika Kausche (D) Johns Creek

Rep Mathew Wilson (D) Brookhaven

Rep Sam Park (D) Lawrenceville (Added here Jan 11, 2022 after an update with House Clerk’s office. Thank you, Judy!)

*As per Clerk’s office 10:00 AM Jan 27, 2021 & Jan 11, 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 **UPDATED WITH AJC CORRECTION

Note, this piece was originally posted on the Dustin Inman Society blog.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution strikes again. Twice. In less than forty-eight hours.

After constantly correcting them – for sixteen years – on the fact that being pro-enforcement on immigration doesn’t qualify anyone, including me, as “anti-immigrant” or “anti-immigration” – and that I am neither – they have again labeled me as “anti-immigrant” And “anti-immigration.” Did I mention it was twice in less than forty-eight hours?

Oh, and BTW: They seem to not approve of the concept of nationalism. 

The morning after my late-night phone call/voice mail to an AJC reporter twenty minutes after his story on a Gwinnett County 287(g) panel discussion in which I participated hit the internet, the AJC changed their “anti-immigrant” description of me in the online version of the story to “anti-undocumented immigrant…” Then, in the same story for the next day’s print version ran a photo of me with the caption describing me as “a controversial anti-immigration activist.”

Without exaggeration, by phone, email and letters, I have told these people about fifty times that I fight for enforcement of immigration and employment laws and for sanity in immigration levels. That my adopted sister is an immigrant.  As are many donors and some members of the board of the Dustin Inman Society, which I founded in 2005.

The most recent example is a letter to the editor that was sent – and published – last June in response to another inaccurate and libelous depiction of yours truly as “anti-immigration” that was also changed after I complained:

“A recent column by the AJC’s Bill Torpy on the front of the Metro section falsely referred to me as an “anti-immigration activist.” The widely known truth is that for the last 15 years I have proudly fought for sanity in immigration and enforcement of American immigration laws. That effort is easily and succinctly described as “pro-enforcement.”

For the record – yet again – I am not “anti-immigration” any more than the folks at Mothers Against Drunk Driving are “anti-driving.” Neither is my adopted sister, who is an immigrant.

The reporters and leadership of the Georgia’s largest newspaper should be regarded as an organ of, and for, the illegal alien lobby from here on. I have asked for another correction and retraction.

The editor of the AJC is Kevin Riley. Despite the fact that the shrinking AJC has no public editor, neither he or most of his editors respond to my emails or phone calls. *Notable exception: Editorial Editor Andre Jackson, who I believe to be an honorable journalist in every sense of the word. Andre Jackson is the only employee I know at the AJC that I trust.

The story is too long to tell at one time here, so only a little expansion for now.

On a panel discussion in Gwinnett County focused on 287(g) an AJC reporter filed this story late on the same night as the event ( again, they don’t seem to like the self-description of “proud American nationalist” at all). The 1996 federal tool, 287(g) is designed to locate illegal aliens who land in local jails. Note that the anti-287(g) participants (some who dropped out) are referred to as “immigrant advocate groups.”

In the first try, I am described in this paragraph with

“King spoke first and audience members opposed to 287(g) greeted him with signs filled with his previous anti-immigrant rhetoric. His opening statement riled them further.”

After my phone call complaint, it was changed to:

“King spoke first and audience members opposed to 287(g) greeted him with signs filled with his past comments regarding undocumented immigrants. His opening statement riled them further.”

In the print version (that is also sent out electronically) of the same story that ran on August 2, the AJC editors reversed the reporter’s previous correction and inserted a photo of me with the caption:

“D.A. King, a controversial anti-immigration activist, represented the sheriff’s office on a panel discussion of the 287(g) program.” —  All italic emphasis mine.

Image: AJC

Not only is the “anti-immigration” activist description wrong. but the AJC has invented out of thin air the notion that I was somehow representing the sheriff’s office. I would have been very proud to do that, but I was asked to speak on 287(g) as president of the Dustin Inman Society.

So, questions for the AJC team – if I was supposedly representing the sheriff, who were the three anti-enforcement characters representing? How did it happen that only D.A. King was supposedly representing somebody else in your story?

–>*Update: Too funny: On Wednesday, August 7 on page 2. the AJC corrected the whole cloth fabrication that I was somehow on the panel as a representative of the Sheriff, here. But the “credible”, “compelling”, “complete” coverage AJC editor Kevin Riley constantly tries to sell on radio ads never corrected the fake news that I am an “anti-immigration activist” – while they portrayed the anti-enforcement mob as “immigrant advocates.”

Note to the propagandists at the AJC: Even the New York Times has made that correction on my motivation.

 

Image: AJC

The young AJC reporter asked me one or two questions – and that was clearly an after-thought formality on his way out the door. His lead query to me?

“Do you think you inflamed this event? …by being here, I mean.”

Contact info for the AJC leadership here. The columns the AJC editorial page team has published from me listed here. Did they inflame anyone by printing them?

I have sent them a letter to the editor about the fact they use the disgraced SPLC as an arbiter of “hate…” I will post it tomorrow if they don’t run it.

*Update: An edited and shortened version of my letter finally ran. Many thanks to Mr. Andre Jackson.

Pee-uuuu.

 

 

 

There is a difference between immigrants and illegal aliens. Opposition to illegal immigration is not “anti-immigrant” (for the 10000th time).

Many anti-enforcement race-hustlers, including the SPLC, George Chidi and GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez are again spreading various versions of the lie that in 2007 I went to Covington, Ga. and told a room full of curious people that immigrants are here to “blow up your buildings and kill your children, and you, and me.”

This is an intentional lie and uses the common practice of the left of redefining the English language, and taking a few words out of context to wield as a smear weapon to silence pro-enforcement advocates.  

At a 2007 GOP meeting where I was invited to speak on illegal immigration I was in a segment of my presentation that mentioned what the MSM or the illegal alien lobby will never allow the public to know: Individuals from countries with known ties to terrorism are coming over our borders illegally. It was true then and it is true now. Here is a quick link from 2016.

Here is one from 2021.

To be clear for the slow: I am/was saying that some illegal aliens – both illegal border crossers and visa violation or overstays – come from terrorist countries and they are not all here to work on the cheap. I am/was not talking about legal immigrants (although some could be terrorists). The leftist media and the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby constantly try to blur the line between illegal aliens and immigrants. 

I had recently returned from one of my many trips to the Arizona/Mexico border where Border Patrol Agents confirmed that fact for us.

A reporter from the local newspaper was present for my speech and wrote the meeting up. Here is a part of his story in which he quotes me:

“The porous border with Mexico is especially dangerous, he added, saying that it has been an entrance point for people from countries with known ties to terrorism.

“They’re not here to mow your lawn — they’re here to blow up your buildings and kill your children, and you, and me,” he said.

To prove his point, he flaunted two authentic Mexican government-issued photo ID cards — called matriculas consulares — that he said he was able to get using fake Mexican birth certificates. One of them lists his name; the other is under the name “Al Qada Gonzalez.” ( Note from D.A. – no, mine, like many, are fake)Current enforcement is so lax, he said, that the cards can be used in some states to obtain valid drivers licenses and board airplanes.

Georgia, which has seen a large influx of illegal immigration in recent years, should also be prepared to become a new front for problems with employment and crime that have been seen in border states, he said.”

The entire report can seen here – I pasted it into my blog.

I also have had a congressional report on the terrorost/border angle plainly posted on the DIS homepage since it was issued in 2006.

“Members of Hezbollah have already entered the United States across the Southwest border”. “A Line In the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border” U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security report, 2006.

This is not the first time this fabrication has come up. Several months after the Covington speech, GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez began his campaign to convince people I made the statement about “immigrants.” That lie was passed on by the AJC’s Jim Galloway in his Political Insider blog – using the term “reportedly.” When I saw it, I called Galloway and explained GALEO’s intent to create fake news, sent him the Covington news report reflecting what I actually said and asked him to run a correction and explanation of the out-of-context smear he had helped perpetuate.

I never heard another word about it from Jim Galloway and it was never corrected to my knowledge.

This is just one example of how the media helps pass on lies about honest Americans who fight for immigration enforcement and secure borders. I have to spend time correcting lies and defending my reputation because the “watchdog media” is anything but. *UPDATE, July, 2021: Happily, Galloway has retired from the liberal AJC. Sadly, his replacements are worse on this.

Below, a notorious Democrat politician explains the “wrap up smear.” Youtube

 

A suggestion for voters who actually go to the polls and cast a vote in person: When the poll worker asks you for I.D and you pull out your drivers license, ask them if they would have accepted your license if it read “LIMITED TERM” across the top.

Spoiler: The answer will be “yes, we accept all Georgia drivers licenses.”

Because that’s the law.

“Section 21-2-417 – Presentation of proper identification to poll workers; “…each elector shall present proper identification to a poll worker at or prior to completion of a voter’s certificate at any polling place and prior to such person’s admission to the enclosed space at such polling place. Proper identification shall consist of any one of the following: (1) A Georgia driver’s license which was properly issued by the appropriate state agency…”

There is nothing in Georgia law that excludes the “LIMITED TERM” drivers license or state ID card from being regarded as “proper identification’ at the polls.

What are the LIMITED TERM drivers licenses and official state ID Cards?

They are the driving/ID credentials issued to non-U.S. citizens by Georgia’s Dept. of Drivers Services (DDS). This includes students here on temporary visas, Mercedes Benz executives on visas – and illegal aliens who are still benefitting from the protections of deferred deportation proceedings illegally conferred by Barack Obama in 2012 as part of his pandering re-election campaign.

There have been several attempts under the Gold Dome to rectify this needless lapse in common sense and security. None of them were allowed to pass.

 

The most recent try was in 2021 with HB 228 sponsored by Cherokee County Republican Rep. Charlice Byrd and an impressive list of powerful cosponsors. The bill was well-written and simple. It would have added wording to the law that excluded drivers licenses and ID Cards issued to foreigners. The bill would have added words across the top of the credentials that read: ‘BEARER NOT A U.S. CITIZEN — NOT VOTER ID’.” For mail in voting protections the legislation would have required DDS to create a document numbering system in which all non-citizen’s document numbers began with “NC” alerting all concerned to the non-citizens status of the bearer.

Readers may remember the climate of the nation, state and legislative session in 2021 after the 2020 election results. The short end of this story is that HB 228 was not allowed so much as a vote in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity. We had to fight to even get an abbreviated, Friday PM hearing. Taking a goofy talking point from the far-left, Republican opponents told us the change would be branding non-citizens with a “Scarlett Letter.”

The bill died after much push back by Ryan Germany, then General Counsel at the Georgia Secretary of State office.

• Related reading: That’s not accurate, Mr. Germany: Fact checking Ryan Germany, General Counsel to Georgia’s SoS on his testimony on HB 228  

Voters may want to ask their Republican legislators to reintroduce the bill and easily solve a needless – and mindless – lapse in security.

I end by suggesting readers check out the star in the righthand corner of the current LIMITED TERM drivers license issued in Georgia. That denotes it is REAL ID Act compliant. It’s not only U.S. citizens who are given that status on their licenses.

REAL ID Act approval allows the bearer to enter nuclear power facilities, federal buildings and to board airliners in the post- 9/11 America. Google it.