Search Results for: politics georgia
These are the largest (corporate-funded) groups fighting passage of HB 1105 in Georgia
Legislation for a Georgia-operated guest worker program now in place
Video record of the presentation of HB 1432 to the House Industry and Labor subcommittee today – here.
From the “what could go wrong?” department: While we wait for the Republicans under the Gold Dome to pass Rep Jesse Petrea’s now celebrated pro-enforcement immigration legislation (HB 1105), we note the post-Crossover Day introduction of a bill from Matt Reeves (R – Duluth). Petrea’s effort can easily be described as a bill that says we will finally enforce some of the state illegal immigration-related laws passed nearly two decades ago.
Reeves is promising future enforcement of a long list of new state immigration laws he wants to put in place next year. He wants to create a Georgia guest worker program. I am not joking – neither is Reeves.
From HB 1432: “The state administered guest worker program shall be for the purpose of filling needed labor shortages in the State of Georgia through the hiring by employers within this state of willing citizens of other nations to perform work in this state for limited periods of time.”
Here it should be noted that there are at least eleven different visa categories in place today owned and operated by the federal government.
Reeves’ new work force expansion program would allow a Georgia-directed temporary foreign worker to bring a spouse and minor children, all of whom would be issued a Georgia “guest worker ID card.”
Some of the new enforcement requirements would entail collecting a fee from a participating Georgia employer to offset the costs of administering the guest worker program; to check that the employer provides health insurance for the guest worker – and to verify the guest worker has health insurance in place for his family that come with him to the Peach State.
The employer would also “agree to provide housing for such temporary and accompanying family members through housing provided by the employer or other rental or public housing.” The employer would “agree to provide each guest worker with three meals a day or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen facilities to the guest workers that will enable the guest workers to prepare their own meals.”
Reeves is tacitly promising that the proposed state-created guest workers will be treated better in Georgia than the federally supervised foreign workers. We doubt it.
We are duty bound to remind all concerned that when a state action aimed at sanctions for illegal employment or “undocumented workers” arises, either the business lobby or the corporate-funded, ethnic-hustlers invariably howl that “immigration and enforcement is a federal issue!”
According to the 2023 edition of the federal ‘Entry/Exit Overstay Report’ 853,955 temporary visa holders refused to go home when their temporary visas expired in 2022.
* Related reading: “There is nothing more permanent than a temporary worker.”
Reeves’ promises five years in prison and a large fine for guest workers who don’t return to their home countries upon termination of their state guest worker status. Apparently, the Georgia Department of Labor would get into the temporary foreign worker tracking business.
One can’t help but imagine the news coverage of a “temporary worker” brought here by the Georgia government who refuses to leave while screaming “my kid was born here and is an American citizen – we won’t leave! – gimme our taxpayer-funded private school, ‘school choice’ tuition!”
In case it is relevant, it should at least be mentioned that Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary said in a sharply worded statement that his country would refuse to take anyone back who is ordered to leave the U.S. under a state law and that it “categorically rejects” any state or local government enforcement of immigration laws according to a recent AP report.
In addition to Reeves, the signers on HB 1432 are Reps Reynaldo Martinez (R – Loganville), Derrick Jackson (D- Tyrone), Shelly Hutchinson (D- Snellville), Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur), Alan Powell (R- Hartwell), Saira Draper (D – Atlanta), Farooq Mughal (D- Dacula), Steve Tarvin (R- Chickamauga), Yasmin Neal (D- Jonesboro), Derrick McCollum (R-Chestnut Mountain) and Kasey Carpenter (R- Dalton).
What could go wrong?
D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com .
Joe Guzzardi: Georgia’s GOP Gov. Kemp and State Legislature Aiding, Abetting Illegal Immigration
March 13, 2024
By Joe Guzzardi
In Georgia, in recent memory solidly red, then gradually purple, and today increasingly blue, even the last vestiges of Republican leadership have embraced policies that reward illegal immigration. GOP Governor Brian Kemp and the GOP-led state legislature have given their blessing to the taxpayer funded Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP), couched as a workplace development initiative. Presented as a program that would “upskill” employees for employers who would depend on the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) for training, which could then pay the employer $50,000 upon completion of his employee’s instruction.
The TCSG grandiosely identifies RAP as a robust comprehensive training model that helps employers transform and develop entry-level employees into high-skilled talent. RAPs, the flattering narrative continues, “serve[s] as a strategy for building talent pipelines and retaining skilled employees.” RAP is part of and funded by the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) program, which doesn’t exclude illegal aliens, a fact that interested parties must dig deep to discover.
In November 2022, Kemp’s office distributed a media release that laid out HDCI’s origins: “During the 2022 legislative session, Governor Kemp and lawmakers partnered to pass SB 379, representing a historic investment in apprenticeships in Georgia through the HDCI Program. The HDCI Program awards up to $50,000 in funding to Georgia businesses to upskill workers through registered apprenticeships and increase skilled talent within Georgia’s high-demand industries.”
Curious about RAP, HDCI, and what the flowery language about the programs might be obscuring, the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society’s founder D.A. King sent off a volley of emails questioning whether illegal aliens and/or H-1B visa workers could be included in RAP.
King received these replies. In her response to King’s inquiry, Kimberly Burgess, Apprenticeship Coordinator at TCSG’s Coastal Pines Technical College wrote “Undocumented immigrants can participate in RAP. ” And from Danny Mitchell, HDCI program manager in TCSG’s Office of Workforce Development, “H1B workers [whose visas are classified as temporary] are participating in the RAP/HDCI program.”
In his ongoing effort to find clarification on illegal aliens eligibility, King also sent a request for comment to Gov. Kemp’s office: “…is there a provision in state law created by 2022’s SB 379 that prevents illegal alien employers and employees similar to the subjects of this press release by the U.S. Attorney in Georgia’s Southern District from accessing the taxpayer-funded apprenticeship program on any level?” After a “D.A., call us back…” voicemail from Kemp’s then-Executive Counsel, David Dove, King eventually received a non-answer from Garrison Douglas, Kemp’s Press Secretary, in the form of a Twitter/X message that included a link to a code section (OCGA 50-36-1) that he claimed “should answer” his question. However, Douglas’ answer did not address the query.
The irony is that, with Georgia’s state officials’ blessing, taxpayers fund programs that prepare illegal immigrants for good, white-collar jobs even though hiring, aiding and abetting illegal immigrants which the programs do is a federal crime.
Kemp will term out in 2026, and he aspires to higher… please read the rest here.
Criminal aliens in Georgia: Dalton Republican Kasey Carpenter voted with the Democrats against HB 1105
A pro-enforcement bill, HB 1105, the “Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024” creates criminal penalties for Georgia jailers who ignore 2006 state law that requires them to use reasonable effort to determine immigration status of foreign prisoners in their jails and to report the illegals to federal immigration authorities.
You may remember Carpenter’s name from his five-year quest to grant instate tuition privileges to illegal aliens with Obama’s DACA reward. See HB 131 for the latest effort.
Here is contact info for Georgia state Representative Kasey Carpenter.
Martha Zoller on “the border” and doing the right thing in Georgia
Georgia Gang TV talk show Fox 5, Atlanta – Feb 18, 2024
Georgia Gang moderator,Lori Geary:
“Gov. Kemp announced this week. He would send more Georgia National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border and Texas. Kemp held a press conference Tuesday afternoon as Republicans in both the House and the Senate pushed through resolutions condemning President Joe Biden’s border policy and saying they back any effort by Governor Kemp to allocate resources for the protection of the southern border. Martha.
Martha Zoller :
You know, I’m gonna say something good on both sides here, okay? I think that we did the right thing in Georgia, sending more resources down is good and we’re seeing in Texas a dramatic reduction because of the things they’re doing on the border. But on the Biden side, they did a couple of discussions with the Mexican government, which the Mexican government has stepped up their game and they are deporting people before they get across the border and this past month is gonna show a reduction in people crossing the border. So people are starting to listen on this issue on Democrat and Republican side, and, um, hopefully they will continue to do that.”
Sanctuary Georgia: Kemp on illegal immigration at home
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.
Somebody please tell the sponsors of HB 1102 that Georgia is a sanctuary state – and that Gov. Kemp promised to end that illegal practice?
Thirty second video: 2018 television campaign ad from Brian Kemp “I’ll enforce the ban on sanctuary cities…”
Legislators should clean up Georgia before citing other “sanctuary states.”
“A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 13 of Title 17 of the O.C.G.A., relating to criminal extradition, so as to provide for a determination by the Department of Public Safety of whether persons with a terminated or completed sentence or term of sentence near completion for a conviction are present in the United States illegally; to provide for reporting of such persons to the Attorney General; to require the Attorney General to petition for a writ to transfer such persons to a sanctuary state; to provide for conditions, procedures, and limitations upon issuance of such writs; to provide for consent to a transfer by such persons; to require transfer of such persons after issuance of a writ of transfer to a sanctuary state; to provide for definitions; to provide for construction; to provide for related matters; to provide for a short title; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.”
The essence of HB 1102 is that illegal aliens who have completed or are within 60 days of completing their sentence for violating laws in Georgia would be relocated to a “sanctuary state” which is defined in the bill (line 14) as:
Sanctuary state’ means any state that has adopted a policy or practice which prohibits or restricts state officers or employees from communicating or cooperating with other state or federal officials or state or federal law enforcement officers with regard to reporting immigration status information while such state officer or employee is acting within the scope of his or her official duties.”
Our opinion is that the sponsors should re-examine current reality here in Georgia and understand that the above definition of “sanctuary state” also perfectly fits the ongoing defiance by many Georgia law enforcement agencies.
Shorter: much of Georgia is a sanctuary state.” We urge HB 1102 sponsors to understand the need for passage of a more well thought out measure, HB 1105, “The Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024.”
We advise all concerned read and digest the message in the image above and the information below.
At his January 1, 2021, swearing in ceremony, Keybo Taylor, the sheriff of Gwinnett County here in Metro Atlanta, told the world “What we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities.” Keybo’s public declaration of his policy in direct and defiant violation of state law (OCGA 42-4-14) that requires all jailers to use reasonable effort to determine immigration status of foreign-born prisoners and report the illegal aliens to the feds.
This brings up another state law that we need to share here. It’s OCGA 36-80-23 with a title that goes: “Prohibition on immigration sanctuary policies by local governmental entities; certification of compliance.”
The short version of this is that it is illegal for counties, cities, and agencies, including law enforcement agencies, to put in place “sanctuary policies.” The definition of sanctuary policies may sound familiar to the sponsors of HB 1102:
“Sanctuary” in Georgia law
According to the above existing state law, “sanctuary policy” 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.”
Nobody should misunderstand our intent here. We have no problem at all with anyone, especially pro-enforcement state legislators helping us share the knowledge that Gov Brain Kemp not only abandoned his campaign promises on criminal illegals” and ending sanctuary city” policies in Georgia but refuses to enforce the laws against sanctuary policies already in place. But we think HB 1102 would make more sense if we work to enforce our own laws against sanctuary policies before moving criminal aliens to other “sanctuary states.”
Pass HB 1105 before any consideration of HB 1102.
Illegal immigration: Georgia’s Registered Apprenticeship Program requires immediate reform
“This writer will rely on more sophisticated minds to enlighten us on how taxpayer dollars used to train illegal aliens who are ineligible for employment and foreigners here temporarily somehow represents “a historic investment” in Georgia’s future workforce.”
What would you call a taxpayer-funded state program that covers the costs to “upskill” employees for employers who can depend on the Technical College System of Georgia for training – and can then pay the employer $50,000 upon completion of his employee’s instruction?
What would you call this initiative if there were no process in place to exclude either illegal alien employees or illegal alien employers from benefitting?
Governor Kemp and the GOP-ruled state legislature call it the ‘Registered Apprenticeship Program.’ It’s yet another “workforce development” scheme.
- Related reading: “Despite state and federal laws, illegal aliens run businesses in Georgia and they hire illegal alien employees.”
“A Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) is a robust & comprehensive training model that helps employers transform and develop entry-level employees into high-skilled talent” explains the TCSG website.
The RAP is part of and funded by the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) program.
The HDCI is best explained by Gov. Brain Kemp: “During the 2022 legislative session, Governor Kemp and lawmakers partnered to pass SB 379, representing a historic investment in apprenticeships in Georgia through the HDCI Program. The HDCI Program awards up to $50,000 in funding to Georgia businesses to upskill workers through registered apprenticeships and increase skilled talent within Georgia’s high-demand industries,” went a November 2022, Kemp office media release.
RAP includes “the undocumented”
And then there’s this: “Undocumented immigrants can participate in the Registered Apprenticeship Program” says Kimberly Burgess, Apprenticeship Coordinator at TCSG’s Coastal Pines Technical College in a response to our inquiry.
And H1B workers are participating in the RAP/HDCI program according to Danny Mitchell, HDCI program manager in TCSG’s Office of Workforce Development. For the uninitiated, “the H-1B visa is a nonimmigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers with specialized skills to work in the United States for a specific period of time” (boundless.com).
This writer will rely on more sophisticated minds to enlighten us on how taxpayer dollars used to train illegal aliens who are ineligible for employment and foreigners here temporarily somehow represents “a historic investment” in Georgia’s future workforce.
- We are grateful to the staff at the Technical College System of Georgia for the professional and timely responses to our many open records requests and questions on this matter. No agency has been quicker to reply or easier to work with in our twenty years of fighting illegal immigration.
In 2022, when no exclusion for black market labor or illegal alien employers could be found in the then-pending SB 379, I emailed my concerns to lead sponsor Sen. Brian Strickland and various key legislators including Rep. Chuck Martin, the House sponsor. Martin is Chairman of the House Higher Education Committee where the measure was heard after it breezed through the Senate.
Strickland did not reply. After the measure passed out of his committee, Martin sent me an email: “taking a look at all aspects prior to Rules.” (Full House vote record here).
As prep for this column and now nearly two years later, I asked Strickland and Martin again to cite language in SB 379 or a verification system in the RAP that would address excluding illegal aliens as participants. In his reply Martin suggested that illegal aliens would somehow be disqualified because state apprentices must have registered with the U.S. Dept. of Labor Office of Apprenticeship. But the U.S. DOL Apprenticeship Program registration/agreement application does not even require a Social Security Number.
He also cited a January 2023 USDOL bulletin (SB 379 passed in March 2022) that clarifies the apprenticeship program is open to non-U.S. citizens and that RAP sponsors should ensure that “all individuals who are eligible to work in the U.S. are afforded an opportunity to participate and complete a RAP.” Martin said he relied on statements from Sen. Strickland.
Illegal aliens ‘not specifically addressed’ in bill
In his response, Strickland was less inventive. “Illegal immigration was not specifically addressed in this bill but if any legislator believes that illegal aliens are taking the funds set forth in this program, then I am sure we will see a bill to address this” he wrote.
I also sent a request for comment to Gov. Kemp’s office: “…is there a provision in state law created by 2022’s SB 379 that prevents illegal alien employers and employees similar to the subjects of this press release by the U.S. Attorney in Georgia’s Southern District from accessing the tax-payer-funded apprenticeship program on any level?” After a “D.A., call us back…” voicemail from Kemp’s then-Executive Counsel, David Dove, I eventually received an answer from Garrison Douglas, Gov Kemp’s Press Secretary – in a Twitter/X message. It was a link to a code section (OCGA 50-36-1) that “should answer” my question. It doesn’t.
I have been working with the law Georgia’s governor cited back to me since I helped create it in 2006. As part of in that year’s SB 529, it went through the Senate Public Safety committee Kemp chaired as a state senator. I can recite much of the text. Responses to my open records requests from TCSG clearly show that it is not being used to verify the lawful presence of anybody involved in the HDCI/RAP program. The Kemp response is well worth a look.
I am confident that my own investigation of 2022’s SB 379 and the resulting taxpayer-funded “workforce development” scheme has gone far beyond any done by Kemp or the two-hundred eight state legislators who voted to create this “illegals are welcome in Georgia” gem.
Georgia’s HCDI/Registered Apprenticeship Program requires immediate reform. If you agree, please do not remain silent. Gov Kemp’s Capitol office phone line is 404-656-1776. We assume you know how to contact your state legislators.
- A version of this column ran on the subscription news & opinion outlet James Magazine Online on January 24, 2024.
Despite state laws, illegal aliens run businesses in Georgia and they hire illegal aliens
Two examples:
Illegal alien faces 50-year prison term after admitting multi-million-dollar conspiracy to harbor other illegals for labor
March 28, 2022
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U.S. Attorney press release here.
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Georgia business owner, illegal alien charged with exploiting illegal workers
May 9, 2019
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ICE press release here.
