“Let’s hope that the next at-large criminal alien operation also includes arrests of drug dealers, drunk drivers, fraudsters, burglars, car thieves, illegal aliens in possession of dangerous weapons, illegal aliens who live or work with criminal aliens, unlucky non-criminal illegal aliens — and employers of illegal aliens.”
By Jessica Vaughn, Center for Immigration Studies
Jessica Vaughn. Photo: Twitter
ICE announced this week the results of a summer surge operation to arrest criminal aliens who were at large in communities around the country. ICE officers arrested more than 2,000 aliens with convictions or pending charges for “crimes involving victims”. Such operations are routine for ICE, but it is also routinely startling to see the litany of victimizations that occurred, and routinely infuriating that sanctuary jurisdictions continue to protect these offenders, making it necessary for ICE to take to the streets to arrest them, hopefully before there are new victims.
Interested readers can see the (scant) information on the operation here. ICE provides a breakdown of the crimes, but not of the cities or states of the arrests. The targets included a variety of types of cases, including criminal aliens released by sanctuaries, suspects wanted in their home countries, and aliens who skipped out on their proceedings. Some likely will be removed promptly, others will be detained for immigration court proceedings, and others might be released pending proceedings.
Reportedly, the operation initially was conceived to focus on domestic violence offenders in response to concerns in many communities of rising incidents of domestic violence due to the pandemic lockdowns. More than 500 of those arrested in this surge had convictions or charges for domestic violence, which was the second most common offense of those arrested, after assault.
The quarterly reports of ICE’s VOICE office, which provides services to victims of criminal aliens, are a reminder of the importance of this mission. In the first quarter of 2019 (the most recent available), the VOICE office fielded more than 250 calls for help and referred more than 230 callers to ICE field offices to receive services in their communities. For example:
A parent and their minor child, victims of domestic violence by an alien, requested case information and wanted to provide a victim impact statement. The parent feared for their family’s lives because the alien continued to evade a no-contact order while in state custody awaiting criminal proceedings. The VOICE Office referred the victims for victim assistance services and facilitated their request to provide a victim impact statement. The VOICE Office informed the victim the alien was ordered removed by an immigration judge and subsequently deported from the United States.
In another:
A victim of domestic violence by an alien requested case information. The VOICE Office informed the victim that the alien was in ICE custody and helped the victim register for DHS-VINE [VINE is ICE’s automated victim notification service that enables victims to receive updates on the custody status of the offender]. The alien was eventually ordered removed by an immigration judge and deported from the United States. However, following the alien’s removal, the alien attempted to re-enter the United States, but was convicted of illegal re-entry and once again deported from the United States.
In another:
A first responder, who was a victim of assault by an alien, requested case information after receiving a state program notice of the alien’s release from state custody, where they were serving time for an assault conviction. The victim feared for their safety because the alien had made several death threats to them. The VOICE Office confirmed that an ICE detainer was placed on the alien that resulted in their transfer into ICE custody. The alien was removed from the United States.
ICE provided individual examples of criminal aliens arrested in the operation to news organizations. In the Washington, D.C., area, the targets included Edwin Nahun Mendoza-Santos, a 38-year-old Honduran man arrested in Alexandria, Va., who was wanted by Stafford County on a warrant for sexual battery of a child under 13; and Manuel De Jesus Rodriguez-Esperanza, 27, who was arrested in Hyattsville, Md., and wanted in his home country of El Salvador for aggravated homicide charges. The latter was ordered deported in 2016, and apparently is one of the approximately one million aliens living in the country ordered removed, but remaining here in defiance of those orders.
Fourteen aliens convicted of homicide were arrested in the operation, and 12 with homicide charges. I requested information on the locations where these aliens were arrested, but have not yet received a response.
This operation was a welcome reminder of the public safety value of immigration enforcement, and that there is a real human cost when ICE is not able to do its job, either because of lack of resources or lack of cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions. But while it must be tempting to ICE leaders to focus only on the most obvious human interest cases, the front office must be careful not to foster the notion that “criminals with victims” are the only illegal aliens worthy of ICE attention. Read the rest here.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) approved a resolution repudiating the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the purported “anti-hate” organization that has become a vehicle for smearing conservatives and critics of radical leftism.
The resolution commits the RNC to officially “Refuting the legitimacy of the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify hate groups.”
The SPLC bills itself as an expert on “hate groups,” maintaining a “hate map” that tracks them around the country. However, the SPLC has repeatedly added mainstream conservative organizations to its list, smearing their reputation and allowing violent far-left criminals to locate and target them.
The RNC resolution notes that the SPLC’s smears “puts conservative groups or voices at risk of attack.”
Conservatives and critics of progressivism that have been smeared by the SPLC include the Family Research Council (which is currently part of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom), the Alliance Defending Freedom, White House speechwriter Stephen Miller, One America News reporter Jack Posobiec, moderate Muslim Maajid Nawaz, and Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
In 2012, far-left radical Floyd Corkins used the SPLC’s “hate map” to locate the offices of the Family Research Council.
He proceeded to the FRC’s offices with a loaded pistol, and opened fire on the office’s security staff before being stopped by an armed guard.
He later told authorities that he planned to kill “as many people as he could” at the FRC, and explained that his crime was politically motivated — he had seen the FRC on the SPLC’s list of “anti-gay” organizations.
Court records submitted by the FBI confirmed that Corkins, a former far-left activist, had indeed checked the SPLC website prior to his attack:
Corkins left and returned the next day, Friday, August 10th, to pick up the pistol. The selection and surveillance of the FRC and other targets. Consistent with his statement to the FBI, a subsequent search of Corkins’s family computer revealed that on the afternoon of Sunday, August 12th, Corkins used the computer to visit the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Website, as well as the Websites for the FRC and the second organization on his handwritten list.
Despite the fact that the SPLC has lost defamation lawsuits and has served as an inspiration for acts of domestic terror, major corporations continue to rely on it to identify “hate groups” and “hate speech.” In 2018, the Daily Caller revealed that Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Twitter all work with the discredited far-left organization.
Lt. Governor’s PAC reportedly kicks in $250,000 for narrow victory
Jason Anavitarte, controversial candidate for the Republican ballot in Georgia’s state senate District 31 primary contest has apparently squeaked past opponent Boyd Austin, a former mayor.
Austin has criticized Anavitarte as representing “outside interests” rather than the district; “…a breakdown of Anavitarte’s contributions from both his April 30th report as well as his latest one bear this out. In the April document 94 percent of Anavitarte’s contributions come from outside the district (with many from lobbyists). In the latest report, outside-the-district donations make up 97 percent of Anavitarte’s total. Only six individuals in the district gave a monetary contribution” according to a July note at Insider Advantage Georgia.
As of August 22, the Secretary of State website still shows results of the August 11TH primary contest as “Unofficial Results – Totals may not include all Absentee or Provisional Ballots” but watchers agree that Anavitarte will likely prevail in the final vote tally.
UPDATE: Final and official results show that Anavitarte won 10,574 to 10,348, a margin of 226 votes.
Anavitarte has drawn considerable attention since it was revealed that from 2006 -2009 he served on the board of the radical GALEO Inc. GALEO is well known as a corporate-funded force against immigration enforcement, ICE holds, 287(g), voter ID and official English. In 2006, the same year Anavitarte joined the board of directors, GALEO teamed with the ACLU, MALDEF, and the ADL in a protest rally against state immigration enforcement.
GALEO Director Jerry Gonzalez has illustrated the group’s mission with antics such as escorting admitted illegal aliens into the Georgia senate Chamber in an effort to stop passage of a 2006 bill, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB529) – aimed at reducing Georgia’s attractiveness as a destination for illegal immigration. Gonzalez has also been criticized for badgering a diminutive female state Rep, Katie Dempsey, for her pro-enforcement position on E-Verify in a Rome, Ga. public forum.
GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez. Photo: Dustin Inman Society
In early 2016, another former GALEO board member and state court judge, Dax Lopez, was passed over for confirmation after an Obama nomination for a lifetime seat on the federal bench due to his ties to GALEO. This writer was proudly credited with leading the opposition to the Lopez nomination with the research series ‘A Beginner’s Guide to GALEO’ posted on the Dustin Inman Society website in 2015 and 2016.
On its political blog, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has reported that a PAC, ‘Advance Georgia,’ founded by Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor and president of the senate Geoff Duncan helped Anavitarte’s slim victory with a $250,000 infusion:
“Jason Anavitarte might owe Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan a thank-you note for his apparent narrow GOP runoff victory over Boyd Austin in the contest to replace state Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen. The lieutenant governor’s PAC pumped about $250,000 into Anavitarte’s bid. He’s currently up by about 200 votes – a 1% margin says the liberal AJC Political Insider blog.
Georgia’s Lt. Governor and President of the Senate, Geoff Duncan. Photo: AJC.
“Jason Anavitarte is a former member of the Paulding County School Board and candidate for Senate District 31 in the Georgia Legislature. Most recently, Jason served as Senior Adviser of Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan’s campaign and served on the state finance committee for Governor Brian Kemp during the 2018 election. Jason has been named one of the 50 Most Influential Latinos in Georgia” according to Anavitarte’s campaign website, Campaign website (August 19, 2020).
Anavitarte, who has described himself as an admirer and supporter of Senator Marco Rubio, is a former Doraville City Council member and in 2005 filed to run for the state House as a Democrat. In the recent primary he was endorsed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and originally did not mention illegal immigration on his campaign site as an issue.
That changed after he drew the attention of pro-enforcement conservatives and the media. He now has stated policy positions on immigration that are curiously tailored to a candidate for federal office as opposed to a state senate seat, but has assured voters he is supports legal immigration without offering limits. From JasonAnavitarte.com:
“I support legal immigration and I want to see our current immigration laws upheld. I support the following reforms:
End chain migration. Stop the original immigrant from petitioning to bring their extended families into the USA.
Move to a merit-based skill categories system. This system would put an emphasis on education and skill as a basis for acceptance into the country.
Reform welfare. Deny welfare to anyone with a green card or visa.
NO AMNESTY! Enforcement of deportation will stop people from coming to our borders.
I support the use of e-verify by our businesses. We need to hire people that are legal to work here in Georgia.
No in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.”
Lt Governor Duncan’s PAC was the topic of AJC coverage in October, which included the observation: “the financial haul could also help Duncan exert more influence over a fractious Republican caucus that sporadically sparred during his first legislative session. Duncan said he preferred to view it as a “partnership” to support Republicans.”
According to the most recent estimates from DHS, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and enforcement of laws designed to deny jobs, benefits and services to illegals is routinely ignored by the Republicans who have run the state for *more than a decade nearly two decades.
Anavitarte and his committee and floor votes on illegal immigration-related matters will be the focus of much attention from conservative writers and voters when he becomes a state senator.
A recent news report from the liberal AJC informs us that Zulma Lopez, wife of GALEO’s Dax Lopez has won the primary for State House District 86.
She also allows that former GALEO board member and fundraiser is “no longer a Republican.”
AJC:
Lopez moved to DeKalb County from Puerto Rico in 2007 and has owned her own practice for about six years. Her husband, DeKalb County State Court Judge Dax Lopez, was appointed to the bench in 2010 by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue.
President Barack Obama nominated him for a federal judgeship in 2016, but his nomination was thwarted by U.S. Sen. David Perdue due to the judge’s participation with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.
At the time, Dax Lopez aligned himself with Republicans, but Zulma Lopez said things have changed.
“Since he’s a judge, he’s nonpartisan,” she said. “I’m happy to live in a house that is not divided, and I can say he is no longer a Republican.”
State Court Judge and former GALEO board member, Dax Lopez circa 2014. Image: Twitter/GALEO
The Dustin Inman Society and this writer were (very proudly) key in educating Senator David Perdue on the relationship between Judge Dax Lopez and GALEO and GALEO’s true agenda and record in large part with the DIS “Beginner’s Guide to GALEO” series of posts.
We wish Ms. Zulma Lopez luck in the General Assembly.
Please regard this email as my official request for copies of Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) documents and records under state public records law.
I note that GDOL has an entry on its website (FAQs) informing readers that GDOL uses the Georgia Department of Drivers Services (DDS) to verify the lawful presence required by state law (OCGA 50-36-1) for aliens to qualify for public benefits.
“What is the Applicant Status Affidavit?
Georgia law requires that all applicants for UI benefits who are 18 years of age or older attest they are:
a United States citizen, or
a legal permanent resident, or
a non-citizen legally present in the United States.
The GDOL performs electronic verification of your lawful presence in the United States with the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS). The DDS validates the identity of individuals who indicate they have a Georgia-issued driver’s license or identification card.”
State law (OCGA 50-36-1) passed in 2006 and amended in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 mandates that this verification process for lawful presence be done using the federal SAVE program operated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
1) Please send me a copy of any authorization or replacement law that would alter the GDOL requirement for SAVE verification and/or change verification source to DDS – including bill number, year passed into law and code section.
2) Please send me copies of any and all GDOL documents, emails, memorandums or policy files that pertain to or mention GDOL requesting or discussing a change in state law regarding GDOL’s direct use of the SAVE program and transferring the lawful presence verification to DDS with a time frame of from 1 January 2013 to 15 August 2020.
3) Please send me a copy of any agreement, MOU/MOA between USCIS and GDOL authorizing GDOL to use the SAVE program including original agreement and all renewals from July 1, 2006 to 15 August, 2020.
4) Please send me a copy of any official agreement between GDOL and DDS pertaining to DDS being the source and authority of verification of lawful presence of non-citizen applicants who apply for public benefits at GDOL – including any email, memorandums or proposals for GDOL to use DDS to verify lawful presence of GDOL applicants for public benefits.
5) Please send me a copy of any document that may illustrate the most recent date of a GDOL query to the SAVE program for verification of lawful presence of an applicant for the public benefit of unemployment insurance or other public benefit administered by GDOL.
6) Please send me copies of any/all internal GDOL email or memorandums or policy discussions that mention ‘Permanent Residence Under Color of Law’ (PRUCOL) including GDOL policy on PRUCOL creating eligibility for lawful presence or unemployment insurance and any correspondence between GDOL and DDS pertaining to PRUCOL.
7) Please send me a copies of any document or electronic form that serves as a transmittal of information from GDOL to DDS of information gathered from GDOL collected applications for unemployment insurance benefits.
8) Please send me copies of any and all internal email, memorandums, policy statement or records or correspondence pertaining to or mentioning federal deferred action on deportation or the Obama-invented DACA program for illegal aliens with a time frame of 1 July, 2012 to 15 August, 2020.
9) Please send me copies of any emails, memorandums or inquiries that ask for information on GDOL administering and or issuing unemployment insurance benefits for illegal aliens who have DACA status or other deferred action on deportation status.
10) Please send me copies of any/all GDOL emails, memorandums or internal correspondence pertaining to or mentioning the March 6, 2019 Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals finding that DACA recipients do not have lawful presence or legal status and are inadmissible and removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). For clarity, I link to that finding here.
11) Please send me any record or document that shows the response code received from the SAVE program to a query from GDOL on immigration status of an applicant with DACA status for unemployment insurance.
12) Please send any document, record, table or index that shows all possible responses and codes used by the SAVE program to answer GDOL queries on immigration status for applicants for public benefits including unemployment insurance benefits.
Please contact me at any time with questions on my request. Please expect this request to be one of several with a goal of gaining a clear and accurate understanding of GDOL policy and operations on administering public benefits/unemployment insurance.
Thank you for a timely reply. I look forward to your itemized estimate of research costs for my request.
Chris Carr, Attorney General for Georgia. January 18 2016. Photo: Law.com
“As Attorney General, I take seriously my duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia. We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status,” Carr said. “It is important to remember that it is properly the role of Congress to address immigration issues from a legislative perspective. I am aware that this is a complex and emotional issue, and I would prefer to give the new Administration — which has been vocal about this issue — appropriate time to consider any additional actions that should be taken.”
Georgians React To Uncertain Future Of DACA Program
ELLY YU • JUL 17, 2017
Photo:Elly Yu/WABE DACA recipients are shown at a rally to demand in-state tuition in Georgia.
The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is uncertain.
CREDIT ELLY YU / WABE
The future of a program that protects young immigrants from deportation is uncertain. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a group of lawmakers that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, will likely not stand up in the courts.
That has Jessica Colotl concerned about what’s next.
Earlier this year, Coltol, 29, briefly lost her deportation protection status. She later won in court and got her DACA reinstated, but the program itself is up in the air.
The program was created by President Barack Obama through executive action in 2012. If DACA ends, she worries she and others could face deportation.
“It’s scary,” she said. “It would basically paralyze the lives of Americans at heart. We’re talking about people who came to the United States as young as 2 or 3 months old.”
Jaime Rangel, 26, was brought to the U.S. when he was an infant. He agreed the uncertain future of DACA scared him, but he said he’s also hopeful of a more permanent solution for the nearly 800,000 immigrants in the United States protected by DACA. About 23,000 DACA recipients are in Georgia.
“We’ve got to see this as somewhat of an opportunity to try to pass bipartisan immigration reform because, at the end of the day, I think every DACA recipient in this country knew that sooner or later DACA would cease to exist,” he said.
The Trump administration has so far left the DACA program intact, and President Donald Trump has said he’d treat DACA “with heart.”
Meanwhile, attorneys general in 10 states, led by Texas’s attorney general, have sent a letter to the Trump administration saying they would sue the administration if it doesn’t end DACA. Georgia isn’t part of that letter.
In a statement, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said he’d prefer to give the administration time.
“As Attorney General, I take seriously my duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia. We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status,” Carr said. “It is important to remember that it is properly the role of Congress to address immigration issues from a legislative perspective. I am aware that this is a complex and emotional issue, and I would prefer to give the new Administration — which has been vocal about this issue — appropriate time to consider any additional actions that should be taken.”
Georgia was one of 26 states that sued the Obama administration over the expansion of DACA and DAPA – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. The Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue, leaving a lower court decision to block the program from being implemented.
Polly Price, a professor of law at Emory University, said while the Supreme Court now has nine justices, it’s hard to predict how they would rule.
“It’s not clear yet how they would have ruled if they’d been presented with DACA itself,” Price said.
Republican State Sen. Josh McKoon said he’d like to see Georgia join the letter led by Texas asking the administration to end DACA.
“I think state governments need to act,” he said. “Texas and other states have said, ‘We’ve been living with the program now for years, and now is an appropriate time to seek judicial relief, and I think that could trigger action by the administration.’” *There is more. Read the rest here.
President Trump recently set off a firestorm of criticism from conservatives recently when he indicated his administration may push for some sort of amnesty for some illegal aliens and mentioned the DACA program. Questions should be asked about the deferred action on deportation for childhood arrivals, known as DACA and candidates position on legalization for illegal aliens.
We assume everyone concerned understands that the U.S. instituted an amnesty program in 1986 that was presented as a “one time” action that would legalize about a million and a half illegals and would be the end all solution to illegal immigration. The 1986 amnesty actually legalized almost three million illegal aliens. Most experts on both sides of the debate say it caused an increase in illegal immigration. We are told that there are at least 11 million illegal aliens in the USA today.
At about 375,000 to 400,000, DHS says Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and the anti-enforcement Georgia Budget and Policy Institute shows that we have more illegals than Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders). Estimates from the Federation for Immigration Reform are that illegal immigration costs Georgians about $2.5 billion each year.
When the topic of former president Obama’s DACA executive amnesty comes up, most media coverage leaves out important facts that should be part of the conversation.
DACA recipients are “inadmissible and thus removable” under federal law.
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. Here.
An honest discussion of an amnesty for “DACA” should recognize three groups of illegal aliens.
United We Dream poster in support of illegal alien “dreamers.” Twitter.
Group one: The number of illegal aliens that now have DACA status according to federal figures (March, 2020) presented by the Migration Policy Institute (see interactive map for state numbers) in Washington: 643,560. It should be noted that originally, almost 800,000 illegal aliens received the DACA benefit but some have lost that status due to criminal offense and some have used DACA to become U.S. citizens.
Group two: The number of illegal aliens that would be eligible for DACA (using the Obama guidelines set forth in 2012) if President Trump had not ended acceptance of new applications in September, 2017: 1,326,000
Group three – Call it the “next DACA generation.” The number of children who illegally crossed the border in recent years and who will soon be part of the demand for expanding DACA or creating a system of legalization for children who came over our borders as minors with or without parents. This number is estimated at at least one million by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
Note that this figure is not static and will increase. Any conversation should include the topic of recurring legalization “for the children.”
We must recognize that all sides agree that at least half of the illegal aliens in the nation today did not cross the border illegally but came on temporary visas and then refused to leave. For example, imaging a family that comes with a temporary worker or visitor on a tourist visa and instead of departing as agreed, simply buys a home and enrolls the now illegal aliens children in American schools and waits for another amnesty.
Visa overstays in 2019 are put at 497,272 by DHS. See page V here.
We note that there is little if any reference to the illegal alien parents who used their children to anchor themselves in the U.S. and are still living, working and driving in Georgia and the U.S. illegally while using stolen or fraudulent ID and Social Security numbers.
Finally, it must be noted that amnesty by any name does not result in increased Hispanic votes for Republicans. After the “one time” Reagan amnesty of 1986, Hispanics rewarded Republican George H.W. Bush with 30% of their vote – tough-talking Trump got 29% in 2016. We think amnesty is mostly for the benefit of the special interests in the business lobby.
Candidates for congress should be asked their plans and positions on solutions and if they will vote to legalize any illegal aliens and if so, what part of the above groups of “victims of borders.”
The below post is taken from the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform Website with permission. Please hit the link below to see the complete post.
He predicted what the Democrats will do if they win the presidency and control of both houses of Congress, as polling indicates they will. These predictions are based on what Democrats themselves have said.
They will immediately amnesty 20 million illegal aliens and get them on the voting rolls, making it impossible for the Republicans to win any more national elections.
They will abolish the Senate filibuster rule, allowing a 51-vote majority to pass into law anything they want.
They will enlarge and pack the Supreme Court, eliminating the constitutional safeguard against tyranny.
They will grant statehood to the District of Columbia, enlarging their Senate majority.
“To state it plainly, the Trump administration rescinded DACA the same way that the Obama administration created it: unilaterally, and through a mere memorandum,” he wrote, calling Chief Justice Roberts’ reasoning “mystifying” in finding that what Mr. Obama did is acceptable and what Mr. Trump did is not.” Stephen Dinan in the Washington Times.
The U.S. Supreme Cpurt has ruled that Obama’s DACA amnesty will remain in place. The ruling creates a situation in which a former president, Barack Obama, can illegally create an illegal executive amnesty but the legal system in the fading U.S.A. says the next president will not be allowed to undo the illegal act.
In May, the Center for Immigration Studies pointed out the obvious and what we have been saying for years:” Perhaps even more importantly, a generation still in Central America is waiting in the wings, their parents and grandparents waiting to see what special protections await their children if they bring them over.”
Stephen Dinan wrote it up in the Washington Times. The entire WaPo report should be read here.
