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I’ll wash your car if you remind Gov Brian Kemp about illegal aliens in Georgia – Reposted from The Islander newspaper

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The below is reposted here from the St. Simons Island/Brunswick “The Islander” newspaper, Sept 19, 2022 edition

I’ll wash your car if you remind Gov Kemp about illegal aliens in Georgia

D.A. King

With the “Brian Kemp Track and Deport Plan,” then candidate for governor, Brian Kemp made a detailed 2018 promise to go after what he called “criminal illegals” in Georgia if he was elected. He went so far as to post detailed language of promised legislation on his campaign website that he said would create a public registry of the criminal aliens and end “sanctuary cities” in Georgia.

You can see an example of this pledge in a short video blurb from a May, 2018 Fox & Friends interview on the ImmigrationPolitcsGA.com website. There was no such legislation in Kemp’s first term.

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

In an October 2021 news report (“Kemp’s immigration policy could complicate bid for second term”), even the uber liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution took note of the Kemp’s betrayal with “Gov. Brian Kemp promised to enact sweeping crackdowns on illegal immigration on the 2018 campaign trail, boasting that he would “round up criminal illegals” himself as he pledged to “track and immediately deport” unauthorized immigrants with criminal records. Those unfulfilled vows now complicate Kemp’s campaign for a second term.” Indeed.

This writer is brilliantly aware of the fact that pointing out Gov Brian Kemp’s defiance on the many 2018 campaign promises he made regarding “undocumented workers” makes Republican voters uncomfortable. I have been told more than once to remain silent on the matter lest too many GOP voters remember too much from four years ago. I can’t count the times I have heard various versions of “we don’t want Stacey to win, D.A. – lay off Kemp until after the election!”

No.

For the record, I watched Stacey Abrams in the state legislature up close for many years and certainly don’t want her to be governor either. But the fact is that the “criminal illegals” Brian Kemp ran on in 2018 are still killing, raping, and molesting innocents in Georgia while he remains silent and boasts of Georgia being “number one for business.”

Other pro-enforcement Americans have taken note of Kemp’s “big truck trick.”

Tom Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Trump administration, on Fox News in February, 2020: ”I’m in Georgia today, I’m giving a speech in Atlanta. Governor Kemp, who ran on tough immigration enforcement, now he’s in office, he’s missing in action. Sanctuary jurisdictions are growing in Georgia. So, you know, again, it’s the politicians who aren’t living up to their word.” Homan was in Georgia to be the keynote speaker at a forum on immigration this writer organized.

Closer to home for The Islander readers, we point out a letter to the editor published in the Brunswick News in March which read in part “by order of the powerful special interests that profit from black-market labor, the entire topic of the organized crime of illegal immigration has been carefully set aside here in the Peach State where we host more illegals than Arizona” wrote Mr. Robert Trent.

A resident of St. Mary’s, Trent is a proud former immigration enforcement officer and former Border Patrol agent. Now retired, his final assignment was serving as the as Assistant Director, Enforcement Training, at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynn County.

“I am one of the many pro-enforcement voters who can remember all the way back to 2018 when then candidate for Governor Brian Kemp made a long list of promises concerning “criminal illegals,” his “big truck” and detailed legislation aimed at sanctuary cities and counties in Georgia. I am also old enough to see his arrogant refusal to so much as mention those promises since then” wrote Mr. Trent.

Solution

The solution to the Kemp betrayal on illegal immigration in Georgia does not involve ignoring it. In politics, silence is consent. Georgia Republicans should join Tom Homan and Bob Trent in making their voices heard by 2022 candidate for governor Brian Kemp about illegal immigration in Georgia.

I’ll wash your car if you call his Capitol office in Atlanta and speak up. The phone number is 404-656-1776.

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How ‘Immigrant Communities’ Beat Back ICE and Helped Flip Georgia #GLAHR

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Dec 10, 2020

Boltsmag.org

Growing up in Gwinnett County, Georgia, in the northeastern Atlanta suburbs, Jonathan Zuñiga remembers the fear his parents felt driving to the grocery store.

In 2009, the Gwinnett County sheriff’s office, under Sheriff Butch Conway, started turning over hundreds of Latinx immigrants in its custody to ICE—including many who only landed in jail after police arrested them for minor traffic violations. Zuñiga says his parents, who are undocumented immigrants from Mexico, had to leave their construction jobs for lower-paying factory jobs that required less driving. But running errands continued to pose a threat.

“Driving even small amounts of time was unsafe,” Zuñiga said.

The county sheriff’s office was making these transfers because it had joined ICE’s 287(g) program, which allows local officers to directly enforce federal immigration policies, including screening immigration status and detaining residents until ICE takes custody. Gwinnett County operates one of the largest 287(g) programs in the country: this year, it ranks fourth in the nation for the number of ICE detainer requests, in which local jails hold people in custody longer in order to hand them over to federal agents. Detainers in Gwinnett peaked in 2012 and then steadily declined throughout Barack Obama’s second term as president. But they soared again after Donald Trump took office in early 2017 with new enforcement priorities, including having ICE arrest noncitizens more frequently for minor crimes. A Mother Jones investigation found that between 2017 and July 2019, the primary charge for nearly half of the people held for ICE at the Gwinnett County Jail was for driving without a license or another minor traffic violation.

But in November, voters in Gwinnett and nearby suburban Cobb County chose Democratic sheriffs for the first time in decades, electing candidates who made campaign promises to end the 287(g) programs. A Democratic candidate who opposed 287(g) also won in Charleston County, South Carolina; altogether these wins mirror a string of progressive sheriff victoriesin 2018 that were driven by immigration issues.

Cobb County’s longtime sheriff, Neil Warren, lost to challenger Craig Owens. In Gwinnett County, Sheriff-elect Keybo Taylor won with 57 percent of the vote against Republican candidate Lou Solis, the second-in-command to Conway, who didn’t seek re-election. In 2016, by contrast, Conway ran unopposed and won 97 percent of the vote.

That upset, and the emphasis on 287(g) as a central campaign issue in both counties, resulted in large part from the work of local immigrants’ rights organizers who have grown their operations under the Trump presidency and activated communities of color. Their organizing also contributed to Georgia electing a Democrat presidential candidate for the first time since 1992.

Leading up to the November elections, Zuñiga joined Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) Action Network as a canvasser focused on the sheriff races in Gwinnett and Cobb counties. Working as part of the “Take Action, Get Power” coalition with Southerners on New Ground (SONG) Power, and Mijente, Zuñiga and other canvassers were able to reach more than 125,000 residences—primarily Latinx and Black voters—by door-knocking (with COVID-19 precautions), according to GLAHR. Their work paralleled groups like the Asian American Advocacy Fund, whose outreach helped to nearly double voter turnout among Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

Zuñiga found that many residents were aware of 287(g) but not of how to change it. “They didn’t know the formal name of that policy, but they knew what could happen if [you didn’t have] a license,” he said. “A lot of people thought it was something coming down from the federal level. They weren’t aware that changing a sheriff could actually change that policy.”

Founded nearly 15 years ago, GLAHR is the largest Latinx grassroots organization in the state. Under the Trump administration, GLAHR, SONG, and other long-established Georgia-based nonprofits have joined a nationwide trend of changing liberal activism by creating 501(c)(4) arms—organizations that are also exempt from federal income tax but can lobby and do political work—in order to be more aggressive political players, rather than solely focused on litigation, educational work, or providing services.

  • Related reading: Led by GLAHR, May Day marchers say Georgia immigration laws unfair

Kevin Joachin, an organizer with GLAHR Action Network, says the organization’s priority has become “building the political consciousness of our community”—helping inform Latinx residents about specific policies and their ability to change them at a scale that has little precedence in Georgia, particularly for a down-ballot race. That organizing began early in the election cycle; GLAHR lead organizer Carlos Medina says that activating Latinx voters for the sheriff primaries helped push Democratic candidates in both counties leftward, leading to promises to end the 287(g) program.

Related reading: Communist banner unfurled at anti-borders GLAHR Gold Dome  

Zuñiga says he found that many Latinx and Black voters in the suburbs—particularly in the more rural areas of Cobb and Gwinnett counties—never before had an interaction with a canvasser, despite the influx of political spending and organizing that’s accompanied Georgia’s demographic change in recent years. “We try to get that small, little conversation with people because we feel like that actually matters,” Zuñiga said.

Although Hillary Clinton won Gwinnett County in the 2016 presidential election, and Joe Biden won the county and state this year, more than a third of Latinxes in Georgia voted for Trump, according to exit polls. Canvassers with Take Action Get Power found that some Latinx voters in Gwinnett supported Solis for sheriff partially because of his Latinx identity. Joachin says GLAHR Action Network’s in-person approach was pivotal: Canvassers would see pro-Solis signs in some stores and talk to the owners or employees about Gwinnett’s high rates of deportations. The next time canvassers drove by, Joachin said, the signs were gone. Compared to hyperpolarized debates about presidential candidates, Zuñiga says he was able to have “more in-touch conversations [about the sheriff’s race] because it was something that was affecting their communities, and they could see that firsthand.”

SONG volunteer coordinator Tayleece Paul says door-knocking yielded contact or conversations with 32 percent of residences, versus just 2 percent with phone banking. Paul grew up in Gwinnett County and remembers a friend’s father who was deported through the 287(g) program. Many of the coalition’s canvassers met people who had similar experiences with the program, she says. “Each person had their own unique story.”

Joachin says that engaging the entire Latinx community—including those who cannot vote, like undocumented immigrants—is central to GLAHR Action Network’s strategy of empowerment. “We’re not always concerned if the person who we’re looking for is at home, because maybe their family member who is undocumented will benefit from the conversation by being included,” he said. “We’re not telling them to vote—that’s voter fraud—but what we’re doing is creating a culture of voting.”   More here.

AFP/LIBRE Initiative-Georgia is holding an amnesty sales seminar and pushing an easier life in GA for illegal aliens – David Casas, Director of Grassroots Operations

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Image: Libre Initiative- Georgia Facebook page.

The pro-amnesty LIBRE Initiative – a project of Americans for Prosperity (AFP)

David Casas. Photo: Gwinnett Daily Post.

Former Republican state Rep David Casas is Director of Grassroots Operations LIBRE Initiative – Georgia. See Casas bio on Ballotpedia. 

* UPDATE: Sign up here to attend the LIBRE Initiative Georgia “yes to amnesty” event. Don’t miss the terms and conditions for attendance. 

**UPDATE AGAIN: It seems that a group in Washington D.C. (since 1995) calling itself “America’s Future” is proud to be cohost (?) of the LIBRE-Georgia event.

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David Casas Lobbies for the LIBRE Initiative Corporation. Below is a short version of what Casas pushed during the last state legislative session.

HB 120 – 2021/2022 attempt to change GA law so that illegal aliens could access much lower instate tuition rates in taxpayer-funded colleges than Americans and legal immigrants from other states. HB 120 was a hustle in that the first two versions (of three) did not actually contain the “DACA” language the sponsor, Rep Kasey Carpenter (R), told the House was in it. BTW: DACA recipients are illegal aliens. See written testimony from a retired senior INS/Border Patrol agent. The management at Libre GA knew all of this. So did the legislators who voted the bill out of committee. HB 120 was stopped before it could see a floor vote.

See the House video of David Casas lobbying for HB 120.

David Casas. Photo: LIBRE Initiative-Georgia Facebook page.
  • Related (with video): David Casas, Director of Grassroots Operations for The LIBRE Initiative Georgia on Univision: “Immigration reform (amnesty) will come from an effort of the people.”

 HB 60 (see also HB 999) – 2021/2022 Legislation labeled “school choice!” from Rep Wes Cantrell (R) that would have provided a small fraction of Georgia K-12 students with a taxpayer-funded “Promise Scholarship” to attend private schools. The bills would have created accounts for parents to pay schools with state funds and put parents on an oversight committee to decide eligible expenses. The original language did not exclude or mention the 400K-ish illegal aliens in Georgia. The amended versions contained language that was sold as excluding illegal aliens. It didn’t. See here for more info. The bills would have created a scenario in which private school tuition was funded for some illegal aliens while some American students were left out.

Video of LIBRE Georgia’s David Casas lobbying for HB 60 here.

SB 601 – 2022 – From the same people who designed HB 60/HB 999. Senator Butch Miller (R). sponsor. The bill did not contain a real tool to exclude illegal alien students or parents/families. The bill made it all the way from the hopper to the Senate floor in twelve days. The Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman, Sen Chuck Payne (R), did not allow any public comment. The bill would have created a scenario in which private school tuition was funded for some illegal aliens while some American students were left out. See the statement of support from Libre GA spokesman David Casas here.

After we made it clear that we had spread the word on the contents regarding illegal immigration, the bill was voted down on the floor 29-20.

  • Related: (with video) LIBRE Initiative Georgia’s David Casas on Univision for the 10-year anniversary of Obama’s illegal DACA scam.

 * More video: David Casas on Univision peddles a repeat of the failed 1986 amnesty for illegal aliens while Biden administration operates an open border to the world. Follow the money. Like the Chamber of Commerce, Casas is pushing additional foreign labor in the U.S.

  • A March, 2022 post with more on David Casas, the LIBRE Initiative – Georgia, HB 932, the liberal AJC and the push for amnesty… here.

 

Jaime Rangel of the anti-enforcement FWD.us on the Martha Zoller Show, July 7, 2022 #DACA Transcript

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Illegal alien DACA recipients rally for “equity.” Photo, 2021 Twitter.

 

A note for beginners: Jaime Rangel is an illegal alien who lives in the Dalton, GA. area. He has worked for the notorious, corporate-funded GALEO Inc., has lobbied in the Georgia Capitol against passage of legislation designed to make life difficult in Georgia for illegal employers and illegal aliens. As a staffer for the billionaire lobbyist company, ‘FWD.us,’ he now lobbies here in Georgia and in Washington D.C. against immigration enforcement and for a repeat of the failed 1986 “one-time” immigration amnesty. He can work legally in the U.S. now because Obama’s illegal DACA decree granted him and about 700,000 other illegal aliens a “work permit.” If he worked before DACA, he worked illegally .

Rangel is the darling of the liberal media that is constantly helping in the well-funded push for another amnesty.

Related: More on GALEO Inc. here and here and here.

Here is a newspaper column with Rangel’s name as author published in the liberal Dalton Daily Citizen in 2019. Here is my response to that column. He has several more. Most newspaper editors in Georgia do not run responses to anti-enforcement goop anymore.

Related: A reminder from the liberal AJC on the label “anchor babies” – children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens – is used: “…Rangel’s younger brother, Eric, was born in America, making him a U.S. citizen. And Eric has sponsored their parents, helping them get lawful permanent residency (green cards) here.” – AJC story here. Here is how that works.

 

Link to interview.

 

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Martha Zoller: (00:09)
Jaime Rangel is joining me right now. And, um, Jaime, is it Jaime or is it (H)aime?

Jaime Rangel: (00:15)
Well, Martha, I’ve grown up in northwest Georgia practically my whole life, and I’ve been called both Jaime and Jaime, and I take no offense. So, uh-

Martha: (00:22)
Oh okay, great.

Jaime Rangel: (00:24)
… uh, look. So I’m-

Martha: (00:24)
Thanks.

Jaime Rangel: (00:24)
… I’m down with whatever, whatever y’all wanna call me, Jaime or Jaime, I’m perfectly fine with that.

Martha: (00:29)
That’s great. And you’re with FWD.us, and I wanted to, for you to give people just kind of an update on the cases related to DACA, because we’re coming up of 10 years of DACA. Uh, there’s, there’s cases in the courts right now, I know you’ve been very involved in that, so, can you give us an update?

Jaime Rangel: (00:47)
Yeah, so, um, and in fact before we went onto the show, like, um, there was b- a debriefer that was on, and it kind of explained it already. There is a, a decision… I mean, I’m, I’m sorry, let me back up. There is a court, um, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday heard an appeal from the admi- from the administration and MALDEF, [inaudible 00:01:06] and MALDEF, um, to appeal the decision from the lower court in Texas that is trying to end the program of DACA on the basis of the Constitutionality.

Jaime Rangel: (01:15)
Um, given a Senate hearing, this fifth circuit is a very antagonistic court, it’s not really a good court that represents the view of 75% of the country that wants a solution for DACA recipients who want the immigrants to stay. And we believe the outcome could come out ugly, and the DACA program could be in a situation recipient of the program, of the very popular program, will not be able to renew the work permit. Will not be able to go to our schools and teach our students, will not be able to go to our hospitals and heal those, and heal those that are sick. And they will not be able to contribute to the economy.

Jaime Rangel: (01:54)
But it’s a very scary situation for recipients not just in Georgia but around the country.

Martha: (01:55)
So overwhelming I think most people, and if you explain what a DACA kid is, that’s a kid that has been brought in the United States with their parents, their parents have brought them here illegally, but basically they have only known the United States as their home. And what, you know, even among people like me who are very much, uh, have a problem with the way our immigration system is right now, and I, I think we have way too many illegal, way too much illegal immigration into this country, and that we have lots of things we need to fix, okay?

Martha: (02:29)
But I see, you know, that this is a group of people that, that have been expected to have some kind of, uh, grace, from the United States of America. And so, and they have for the last 10 years. Two questions. This could have been codified in law, there have been opportunities. I mean, at the beginning of the Trump administration there was an offer from President Trump that if you could give us some money for the border wall, we’ll give you some protection for DACA. And that was, that was not dealt with.

Martha: (03:00)
We seem to have this ongoing problem with Congress not being able to codify the things in law that they should, and then they just wait for the courts to decide things. So, you know, how do we get out of this mess?

Jaime Rangel: (03:13)
Yeah, and Martha, I just wanna echo, like, um, you’re not alone on the frustration. The frustration’s on both sides of the aisle. And you mentioned this program is very, very popular. And it’s just crazy that both sides of the aisle, and this, this, this bears the plot on both sides of the aisle of not being grown up, and this is the will of the American people.

Jaime Rangel: (03:30)
And it’s going to come a time, unfortunately, um, in this court, that whatever the decision happens that affects it, it’s going to wind up in the Supreme Court, uh, win or lose, and there’ll be a few that would then go to the Supreme Court, guaranteed. Um, but the reality is that Congress needs to wake up. And it’s unfortunate that we wait till things get ugly, and then Congress reacts, and it shouldn’t be like that, Martha, it really shouldn’t.

Jaime Rangel: (03:52)
Um, and I’ll give you an example, here in Georgia, we are, just an example of how we could be moving the immigration conversation the right way is that and herein Georgia, we, we worked with Representative Kasey Carpenter, a representative from the, the, who lives in the Fifth House District up in Dalton, who lives in a very conservative Congressional district, works with democrats to a, a, a variety, um, pro- to propose a legislation that allows DACA recipients to pay in-state tuition if, you know, they could prove, you know, that they grew up in Georgia, and which most of them have, and who are, you know, being here working hard to get in-state tuition.

Jaime Rangel: (04:27)
And that’s a good example of legislators working together doing the will of the people of Georgia, doing the will of the American people, and trying to push legislation forward. And at the end of the day, Martha, like it, Congress needs to act, they need to realize that, you know, the malarkey’s going to hit the fan, and if they don’t act, peoples’ lives are going to be devastated. And not just DACA recipients, we have to understand we work in different industries. We have a labor shortage right now in this country, we have an inflation problem in this country, there is no denying that.

Jaime Rangel: (04:57)
But passing immigration reform or allowing DACA recipients to be in this country, to have a piece of mind, helps curb that inflation, helps to continue contributing to the country. What, I’ll give you an example, we have $1.3 billion in spending power alone in Georgia, and we contribute 100 million into state and local taxes, in, in Georgia. I mean, come on, this will affect our state, um, it will only hurt our labor shortages, it would only hurt, uh, continue to hurt inflation if Congress does not wake and act.

Martha: (05:26)
So what can the average person do? ‘Cause we’re waiting for the courts right now. Um, but-

Jaime Rangel: (05:31)
Yeah.

Martha: (05:31)
… what can the average person do?

Jaime Rangel: (05:35)
Um, Martha, I think what the average person can do and should do is call their member of Congress and say, “You’ve got to stop bickering.” This is a group of people that over 75% of the country agrees should stay in this country, and we need a permanent legislative solution. People just need to pick up the phone and call their, their Congressman, and call their US senators to act. Because both sides need to come together, they need to grow up, and find a solution. I’m frustrated, Martha.

Jaime Rangal: (06:00)
About 90, uh, uh, and the, like you mentioned earlier, a lot of people are frustrated because it includes (laughs) every popular, um, program, and yet, Congress cannot act.

Martha: (06:10)
So, how does, uh, FWD, are they taking a position at all on the crossings at the border right now, and all of the, that sort of thing? Or, are they focused primarily on DACA?

Jaime Rangel: (06:23)
Right now we do, uh, we are focused, and a great, like, I would say a great, our goal is to fix our broken immigration system. We have issues at the border because our immigration system is broken, and we don’t have a way for people to come here through a legal process. And then the only process they have for example is to seek asylum. And when they get to the border to try to seek asylum, that process in itself is broken as can be.

Jaime Rangel: (06:45)
So our goal is to work together, uh, with people on, on the Hill, no matter what party affiliation, and to try to fix our broken immigration system. Right now, for example, I will say that DACA is on top of our, on top of our agenda. We’re trying to work with Congress to find a solution, we’ll try to work with the administration to find a solution. Because this is like I said earlier, this is going to be in a situation where recipients might not be able to renew once the Appeals Court makes a decision, and that’s a scary situation to be in right now.

Jaime Rangal: (07:15)
We’re talking about over 600,000 individuals around the country all of a sudden not being able to continue their work permit, um, and not being able to go to work. And um-

Martha: (07:24)
So-

Jaime Rangel: (07:24)
… and I would, I want the listeners to understand that renewing a work permit, we have to do it every two years. We have to show to the government we’re not criminals. And it’s a very tedious and expensive process, but yet we’re doing it because we’re given an opportunity to show the country who we really are, and that we’re just here to contribute to be a part of society, and to help our country grow.

Martha: (07:45)
So, um, what do you see as the next step here? Because, you know, I think that most people would want to see, uh, DACA codified into law so that people knew what the rules were. But also, you know, I think we need big changes in our immigration system, I think we need, you know, I was a big supporter of the Raise Act, okay, where I think that, that that got us in the right direction, because it actually got us to where we were going to clear out some of these green cards, and we were going to be able to, uh, be able to look at things a little bit more on a merit basis.

Martha: (08:19)
But it didn’t even get to a debate. We’ve got to actually have real debates on this, because if we don’t, we’re never going to solve this problem.

Jaime Rangel: (08:28)
Mar- Martha, I 100% agree, and, uh, this is why I wanted to come onto your show, because we need to have that dialogue. And I think the American people wanna hear that dialogue, they want to hear us talk about our broken immigration system through a different perspective, because unfortunately there’s a lot of misinformation, um, first of all who DREAMERS are, of, like, of, of what we’re actually planning be here, to do, and um, people assume that it, that that get being legal or getting in line.

Jaime Rangel: (08:55)
Well for us, there is no line, unfortunately, there is no line for us to, you know, be part of this country, um, and find a, a pathway to citizenship. There is no, there’s no part of that. So-

Martha: (09:08)
So, so let me-

Jaime Rangel: (09:08)
… I do definitely agree with you for that.

Martha: (09:09)
… let me ask you a quick question. So the Trump proposal that he did at the beginning of his, of his time as president, which was basically allowing, uh, the, the DACA kids, as well as their parents, to get legal status, um, was that something you all were in favor of at the time?

Jaime Rangel: (09:28)
I’m sorry, can you repeat that again?

Martha: (09:29)
Uh, the Trump proposal at the beginning of his term in president, wh- as president, was actually, you know, the DACA kids at that time, I think the number was 670,000, I don’t remember exactly what the number was. But it also included their parents, a legal status for their parents. Um, was that something at the time you guys could have been in favor of? It never got to a legislative proposal, because Nancy Pelosi said “No” right out of the gate because they wanted to have funding for the wall included too.

Martha: (09:58)
But it sounded m- to me like a very reasonable proposal at the time.

Jaime Rangel: (10:03)
Um, unfortunately that, the legislation remained a proposal, so what we did during that time is that we worked with both sides of the aisle to move legislation forward and put that in writing, and move something uh, across the finish line. And um, that’s what we were doing at the time. We, we have to understand that we need to work together, and-

Martha: (10:20)
Yeah.

Jaime Rangel: (10:20)
… we understand we need to work together. And we’re going to continue doing that right now, and we’re going to continue pushing for legislative solutions that did reflect the will of the American people.

Martha: (10:29)
So if people want to know about, more about FWD, how can they do that?

Jaime Rangel: (10:33)
Sure thing. Um, well, it’s very simple, we have a very, a website that you can visit at FWD.us. Um, and we have a lot of good information there, and in fact, we just came out with a new report that extends, like, hm, uh, a report that it’s all about a decade of DACA for students, to careers and families. And it shows an overview of where DACA was just then going 10 years into the program. And it’s very interactive, for example, in Georgia we have a population of 20,000 individuals, the average age now is, and the average year they live in this country have been over 20 years.

Jaime Rangel: (11:08)
Uh, how 37,000 US citizens, and this is very key, is that 37,000 US citizens live with documentation. We have individuals who live in mixed-status families, where, let’s say, example, uh, my, for, for example, we have a brother who is a US citizen, but unfortunately he has a younger sister, um, is a DACA recipient. Because of a broken immigration system, you know, we had these mixed status families. So, and that’s for, that’s a key number there, I, I encourage people to go visit that website and learn more about, um, you know, about DACA recipients, uh, what is that for, and how we’re trying to work together to pass common sense solutions that represent the, the will of the American people.

Martha: (11:47)
Sounds great. Thank you so much, uh, Jaime, for being with us, Jaime Rangal from FWD.us, we appreciate you being with us today.

Jaime Rangel: (11:55)
Thank you, Martha, you have a blessed day. Thank you, thank you.

Workforce Development Subcommittee holds its first meeting (House Higher Education) – Rep Chuck Martin, Chairman Episode 1

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Rep Chuck Martin, Chairman

Episode 1

“Georgia’s next decade of economic growth depends on implementing creative, bold and untraditional workforce solutions now.”

Rep Chuck Martin, Chairman

*Updated July 7, 2022 1:08 pm.

Media coverage here.

Workforce Development Meeting Notice-1

  • House Higher Education Committee here.

Today was the first meeting and intended to establish goals. There will be at least three more meetings with two of them outside the Capitol. To get a notice of future meetings, please send an email to the legislative office of committee Chairman Chuck Martin.

  • Georgia Chamber of Commerce statement on the subcommittee.
  • Rep Kasey Carpenter is a committee member.
  • Transcript link on the bottom.

Reminder: The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is pushing hard to pass legislation to dismantle existing state law so as to give illegal aliens living in Georgia the much lower instate tuition rate in taxpayer-funded colleges — while Americans and legal immigrants who live in other states are required to pay the higher out-of-state rate. Read about that here.

For the academic year 2019-2020, the average tuition & fees for Colleges in Georgia was $4,721 for in-state and $16,879 for out-of-state, according to collegetuitioncompare.com.

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You will need to know and understand who and what David Raynor is and be aware of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Global Talent Initiative.  

David Raynor.

And you need to know that as a Chamber lobbyist in 2011, *Raynor lobbied against the private employer E-Verify component contained in HB 87 (The Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011) . I watched gleefully as he fell into a trap set by the House Judiciary (non civil) Committee Chairman Rich Golich when he answered a question from Golich about the reliability of E-Verify. I had provided official USCIS facts and data on E-Verify weeks before a Feb, 8, 2011 hearing on the bill and educated all of the Republican committee members on false opposition “facts” long before the hearing in which Raynor came up with a whopper about E-Verify having an error rate from “50% all the way up to in excess of 80.” I almost fell out of my chair from stifling my laugh.

I sadly lament the near total absence of pro-enforcement legislators in the Georgia Capitol today.

David Raynor testimony to House Judiciary non civil, Feb 8, 2011 Re; HB87 & E-Verify.

The liberal AJC “PolitiFact” hustlers gave Raynor a “half-true,” which was as false as Raynor’s ridiculous 2011 false testimony. See here for a view of the AJC today.

Related: Mark Krikorian at NRO noted the Chamber’s 2011 lies in an NRO post at the time. All concerned should expect similar coverage of Martin’s subcommittee this summer.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Farm Bureau were drawn out and forced to testify in open committee against enforcement, which is apparently something new. King reports that the Chamber lobbyist told the House Judiciary committee that the error rate of E-Verify was “50 percent all the way up to 80 percent” — which is hard to describe as anything other than a lie. Meanwhile, the lobbyist (it was Bryan Tolar) for the Georgia Agribusiness Council complained in committee that the (numerically unlimited) H-2A farmworker program was just too darn expensive: “The H2A is very good if you can afford it…the H2A visa is a Cadillac system — and not everyone can afford a Cadillac.” (At least they’ve admitted that it’s just about cheap labor.)

The entire 2011 NRO post is quite educational.

  • Georgia’s E-Verify laws are not enforced. We challenge anyone to point to a single sanction for violation.

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Why does this House subcommittee exist? Because this Chamber-instigated committee failed to produce the needed goop to pass these two bills and we discovered and exposed this Senate Resolution in time to stop it. So now in the “anything-for-a-buck” world of “Mo’ Money” politics in the Republican/Chamber-ruled state legislature the effort to dismantle existing laws designed to discourage illegal immigration must start over.

We note that Georgia is being over-populated while Gov Kemp endlessly screams he is “creating more jobs” while the cry in the legislature is “we need more workers and must eliminate “barriers to employment.'”

  • Archived video of the (virtual only) June 6, 2022 meeting. Note: The video does not begin until about 18:35 on the counter located on the bottom of the screen.
  • Transcript here from Rev.com)
  • More info pasted here for my own notes
  • Meanwhile, the Georgia Center for Opportunity has joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Louisiana’s Pelican Institute for Public Policy to create the *Alliance for Opportunity.

*Updated with clarification edit on David Raynor’s opposition to E-Verify component in HB 87 and addition of video of his 2011 testimony.

Georgia law requires all jailers to report incarcerated illegal aliens to DHS – but it’s not enforced *Repost from Jan 2021 OCGA 42-4-14

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“Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.” Thomas Sowell 2017

Note: A version of hit essay was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion site, InsiderAdvantage.com (now James Magazine Online) January 26, 2021.

 

In 2011, Aurelio Mayo Perez, an illegal alien, was booked into the Cobb County jail for no driver’s license but released due to an immigration enforcement reduction edict from then-President Barack Obama. Two years later, Mayo Perez was charged with aggravated child molestation and rape. The name of the ten-year old girl he was convicted of repeatedly molesting is not available.

Last week, newly sworn Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens held an elaborate press conference packed with invited anti-enforcement activists and proudly announced his termination of the 287(g) program. The Marietta Daily Journal described the event’s big finish with “…as the event ended, and a mariachi band began to play, the mood in the room was decidedly celebratory. The new sheriff even took to the floor and waltzed for a moment, reveling in his audience’s approval.”  Cobb County Deputy Sheriff Loren Lilly – killed by an unlicensed illegal alien driver in a 2007 traffic crash – was unable to attend.

Cobb County Sheriff, Craig Owens. Photo: Project Q.

Democrat Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid pronounced Owens’ decision “bold, necessary, and overdue.” Cobb’s new District Attorney, Flynn Broady weighed in with “this is going to make our community safer.” We recommend reading the entire MDJ report

Created by congress in 1996, and signed into law by Bill Clinton, the voluntary 287(g) program is a tool used to expand the authority of local law enforcement to locate and report to ICE illegal aliens, usually in county jails. It’s a deterrent. Then-Senator Joe Biden voted in favor of passage.

The liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution reports Owens claims “the program morphed into one that profiled immigrants through traffic stops, which resulted in them being deported on misdemeanor charges.” While Sheriff Owens – a former Cobb County policeman – is certainly free to smear his fellow law enforcement officers with accusations of profiling, he should understand that it’s illegal aliens who are deported and that removal is the punishment for illegal immigration, not traffic violations.

Jose Alfaro-Contraras, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was one of the gunmen in an April, 2015 armed robbery of the owner of a check-cashing store in Duluth. A year earlier, Alfaro-Contraras had been in the Gwinnett County jail on a shoplifting charge. He was released because “minor crime.”

The above examples are taken from a 2017 report “Jail records reveal immigrants not deported after minor crimes later commit worse ones” from Atlanta’s Fox Five TV News investigative reporter Randy Travis.

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

In metro -Atlanta’s Gwinnett County, on his first day in office, Sheriff Keybo Taylor made his enforcement policy clear when he quit the 287(g) program: “What we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities…” said Taylor at his own presser. He told a local NPR interviewer 287(g) is slanted towards “people of color.”

“So basically, what that program started to do was target, uh, you know, people of color that were in this country that’s undocumented, so, you know, it became, you know, a racist issue for me…”,

Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor. Photo: Gwinnett Daily Post.

He says he would rather focus on gang members. I was curious, so I checked with experts on gangs in Gwinnett and the skin color concern Taylor expressed. But on that topic Sheriff Taylor apparently does have concerns about borders “…crime and criminals…they don’t, they do not respect borders, so, you know, it’s nothing to come from Atlanta to Gwinnett County…” says Taylor. Indeed.

In print and radio interviews, both sheriffs have done a remarkable job of learning and adhering to the anti-287(g) talking points distributed by the far-left. Below are some of those tips from a 2008 ACLU ‘toolkit.’

‘How to oppose 287(g) agreements in your state or locality’

*Always describe how police enforcement of immigration laws endangers public safety for everyone.

*Assert that local police of immigration laws will result in widespread racial profiling.

*Assert that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government.

*Assert that police resources are stretched thin already.

Georgia law as a ‘Plan B’ plan to address anti-enforcement sheriffs

Attention Georgia prosecutors, including Flynn Broady: Independent of 287(g), longstanding (2006) state law (OCGA 42-4-14) requires jailers to check the immigration status of incoming foreign prisoners. “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.”

Cobb County District Attorney, Flynn Broady. Photo: CobbCounty Courier.

The AJC – again

 In an entirely unbalanced, celebratory report on Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens ending 287(g) the AJC recently told readers as a statement of fact “the program originally began to remove terrorists, as well as other violent criminals, from neighborhoods across the country.” But, as was noted here in December, the law establishing 287(g) program never limited it to applying only to terrorists or illegal aliens who were arrested for violent crimes.

The liberal AJC has not covered the fact that the above law is not enforced.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society.

Republican Rep Bonnie Rich loses primary race in Gwinnett County – opposed voter security measure, HB 228

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Rep Bonnie Rich. Photo: Tn Star

Noting foreign status on drivers licenses and official ID would be a “scarlet letter…”

Rep Bonnie Rich has lost the race in the Republican Primary for the newly redrawn House District 100 seat. Rich, chairwoman of the House Republican Caucus, has represented House District 97 for the last four legislative sessions was beaten by state Rep. David Clark who is the (pre-redistricting) House District 98 representative.

A carefully protected favorite of Speaker David Ralston, Rep Rich is best known to pro-enforcement advocates as the lead opposition to HB 228 sponsored by Cherokee County Rep Charlice Byrd.

HB 228 was a simple, “belt and suspenders” bill that addresses voter ID security and the drivers licenses and ID Cards Georgia issues to foreigners here as immigrants, guest workers, foreign students – and about twenty thousand illegal aliens with DACA protection. These credentials are labeled “LIMITED TERM” and almost exactly the same as the ones commonly issued to U.S. citizens. Not many people, including most legislators, have any clue what “LIMITED TERM” means. Explanation: the valid term of the credential is timed to expire when the holders visa or “green card” runs out or renews.

HB 228 also addressed  the startling fact that there is nothing in state law that says these ID documents are excluded from acceptance as “proper identification” for voting purposes.

HB 228 also required the warning “BEARER NOT U.S. CITIZEN – NOT VOTER ID” to be added to the front of the LIMITED TERM credentials. Also, as mail-in vote security, the Department of Driver Services would begin a system in which the first two characters of the drivers license/ID Card numbers be “NC” on the cards issued to non-citizens. We would catch up with Alabama on that one.

Related: Popular “no-brainer” election integrity legislation, HB 228, apparently dead under the Gold Dome

“Limited Term” GA. drivers license issued to foreign nationals.

HB 228 died without a 2022 hearing or committee vote. In the process of killing the measure, the members of the House Special Committee on Election Integrity revealed a troubling lack of knowledge on the identity credentials Georgia issues and related immigration basics. Rich criticized the bill with the explanation that noting foreign status on ID credentials would be a “scarlet letter” for immigrants.

Rep Clark may present problems for pro-enforcement Georgians. He introduced a bill (HB 920) in the 2019-2020 session that would have allowed illegal aliens to access instate tuition in Georgia’s public colleges. Clark’s bill was not limited to illegal aliens with DACA status. We will watch to see if Clark, a member of the Georgia “Freedom Caucus,” submits similar legislation in the coming 2023-2024 legislative session.

Rich was endorsed in the race by House Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones (R), the second highest ranking member of the Georgia House.

*Updated 26 May with a blurb from the liberal AJC:

Ralston nemesis ousts colleague, but most lawmakers cruise in primary

“Buford state Rep. David Clark has been a pain in House Speaker David Ralston’s backside in recent years, and Tuesday he delivered another blow.

Clark ousted Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, in the Republican primary for the newly drawn House District 100 in Gwinnett, Forsyth and Hall counties. Rich chaired the House Redistricting Committee that drew the district maps.

Most incumbents cruised to easy wins on Tuesday in the new districts, which were drawn last year in such a partisan way that the candidate who wins the primary will likely win in the November general election as well.” Here.

Former Acting ICE Director, Tom Homan: “When it comes to dealing with illegal immigration, Kemp has failed the people of Georgia and this nation”

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Photo: Twitter.

Tom Homan, acting ICE Director under President Trump has endorsed former U.S. Senator David Perdue in Georgia’s Republican Primary race.

Mr. Homan was the keynote speaker at the February, 2020 Dustin Inman Society event ‘Honoring Immigrants: A Pro-enforcement Conversation on Immigration’ in Atlanta and raised the issue of Gov Kemp’s defiance on his 2018 campaign promises then. We reminded all concerned about that fact last July with “Illegal immigration in Georgia: Former ICE Director Tom Homan Condemns Gov. Brian Kemp.”

We note that this announcement was posted on Twitter Friday, but we cannot find coverage of Homan’s support for Perdue or his criticism of Kemp in the that the liberal AJC.

A favor if somebody who still subscribes sends us a link to any story or blog post from the AJC editors?

We agree with Mr. Homan’s analysis of Kemp’s betrayal on illegal immigration in Georgia.

Pro-enforcement voters in Georgia want to hear about illegal immigration – in Georgia

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GA Gov Brian Kemp (L), former U.S. Senator David Perdue (R) at April 24 gubenatorial candidate debate. Photo: WSB-TV.

 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.”

Newly elected sheriff Keybo Taylor speaks at a press conference at the Gwinnett County Jail on January 1, 2021. STEVE SCHAEFER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION. (AJC)

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.

 

Former Republican state Rep David Casas has joined the dollar-first, pro-amnesty side #DavidShafer #TheLIBREInitiativeGeorgia

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Photo: The libre Initiative.

 

In an AJC op-ed, Casas pushes multiple amnesty bills and supports ‘Americans last” legislation in Georgia

Updated with photo: Georgia state Republican Party Chairman David Shafer assisting The LIBRE Initiative – Georgia

Former Republican state Rep David Casas is now the director of grassroots operations for the pro-amnesty, leftist Libre Initiative Georgia  (The Freedom Initiative). He has an anti-enforcement column (“Opinion: Georgia must explore immigration reform to keep workforce, economy growing) running at the increasingly pretense free, liberal AJC. It’s a must read.

Photo: The Libre Initiative Georgia Facebook post.

Don’t look for “the other side” in the newspaper. There was a time when the liberal AJC opinion page editor would run an occasional pro-enforcement piece from this writer but now he won’t even run a 165 word letter to the editor. Because too much information.

Related: The AJC is on record promoting open borders and the free flow of labor

The Casas column also runs at the same time as a very similar op-ed in the liberal AJC from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Georgia’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It should also be noted here that Casas and the ‘Libre Initiative Georgia’ organized lobbying efforts for the failed SB 601 that would have allowed state payments to illegal aliens for private school tuition while illegal alien parents would have been in charge of disbursement of those taxpayer dollars.

Republican Casas’ 618-word opinion column promotes not one, but three amnesty bills now pending in congress while two million-ish illegal aliens have come over U.S. borders since Pres. Biden was sworn in.

He goes further and tosses out a Hail Mary promo for Georgia’s HB 932 which is as dead as Pancho Villa unless some Kamikaze GOP lawmaker tries to add its language and intent to a live bill before the end of the 2022 legislative session. We hope that happens for the educational value of seeing who’s who on floor votes – and to see if Gov. Kemp would allow it to become state law.

Readers may remember that HB 932 is the bill from outgoing Republican Woodstock Rep Wes Cantrell that would have altered state law that says all new Georgia residents must live here for a year before they are eligible for the much lower instate tuition rates in our public colleges. The bill, now endorsed by David Casas, would eliminate the waiting period for refugees, certain Afghan citizens and foreign nationals who have been awarded a “Special Immigrant Visa.” That group would be able to access the lower tuition rates the day they arrive in Georgia. Americans who relocate here from other states would still be required to pay the higher rate if they attend college during their first year of residence.

Related: For academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for Colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for in-state and $17,008 for out-of-state.

Photo: The Libre Initiative Georgia Facebook post. *2nd from left, Georgia Republican Party chairman, David Shafer

Readers may also remember that Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones was a signer on HB 932 but scratched her name off after we made the contents of the legislation public.

Photo: LinkedIn.

Cantrell, with cosponsors Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter and an assortment of Democrats was put up to this little caper with the joint effort and partnership between the increasingly powerful refugee industry and the real power at the Gold Dome, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

But wait, there’s more!

Casas also advances the “logic” of legislation like Carpenter’s HB 120 to grant public college instate tuition to illegal aliens living in Georgia while charging U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who come to Georgia schools from other states pay three times as much.

Conservatives should talk about it.

Two things to insure there is no confusion:

David Casas and the Libre Initiative of Georgia are pushing for Americans to have less freedom and fewer rights in Georgia than foreigners.

I will be happy to respectfully debate this fact and the ‘Americans last’ agenda Casas is promoting in the liberal AJC with him or friend of the Libre Initiative Georgia, Republican Chairman David Shafer if any Georgia “conservative” groups want to arrange that situation. We predict that will never happen.

Casas’ guest column in the liberal AJC a week before the end of the session illustrates the endless determination of dollar-first, bipartisan Establishment to do a repeat of the failed amnesty of 1986 and to speed once bright red Georgia further downhill towards becoming the California of the Southeast.

To be clear: They will never stop and yes, it really is all about the money.

I am wondering – am I the last one to know about David Casas’ transformation?

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