Update: HB 932 was denied a vote in the House Higher Ed committee and is dead for the year. It is possible for a Kamikaze legislator to try to attach it to a live bill.

“Many Georgians – including here at our house, want to see how many Republican votes HB 932 would get in the full House”

A version of the below essay originally posted on the subscription website Insider Advantage , Feb 28, 2022

Vote on HB 932 putting refugees ahead of Americans

by Inger Eberhart

Many thanks to Insider Advantage for the excellent, detailed coverage of last year’s House Special Committee on ‘Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent’ from D.A. King. With Rep Wes Cantrell as chairman, one of the bills created from those one-sided committee hearings, HB 932, is now pending in the House committee system at the state Capitol. Pro-enforcement, conservative voters should pay attention to it and watch to see if Higher Education committee Chairman Chuck Martin allows a vote.

In the interest of shining a light on “who’s who” in the Republican House caucus, I write urging Chairman Martin to hold a vote on that Rep Wes Cantrell-sponsored measure as soon as possible. As a proud conservative voter, I also urge the House Rules committee to pass HB 932 out to the floor for maximum exposure on recorded votes.

HB 932 comes from the partnership between business and the massive, fast-growing refugee resettlement industry here in Georgia, largely led by Darlene Lynch. It’s called “BIG.” and is well worth reader’s time to explore. Lynch organized and supervised the special committee that produced the bill. Cantrell was the sponsor of the Resolution that created that committee. The Resolution passed unanimously in the House last year.

Lynch also apparently organized the fourteen or so mostly foreign-born leftists who testified in favor of HB 932 passing out of the House Higher Education Committee last Wednesday. Armed with this knowledge, curious readers may want to also see the Georgia Chamber’s page on its “Global Talent Initiative” to get a larger view of the vast network aimed at expanding cheaper, foreign labor in Georgia.

For a close up exposure to the liberal logic used to justify putting refugees over Americans in Georgia, an easy-to-read transcript and a link to the video of the Higher Ed committee hearing is available on the Dustin Inman Society website.

Along with his cosponsors, Cantrell has put language into HB 932 pushed by the above-mentioned Darlene Lynch & Co. that changes the state law on residence- waiting periods for people who move to Georgia regarding instate tuition in our taxpayer-funded colleges. Currently all new residents must live here for a year to be eligible for the much lower instate college tuition rate.

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

Lynch and Cantrell are pushing for that waiting period to be eliminated for refugees, some Afghan citizens and immigrants who say they helped the U.S. in their home nations. The change would not affect Americans who move here from any other state. They would still have to wait a year to access the lower tuition rate.

Democrats are pushing the bill as “pro-immigrant” and at least some Republicans go out of their way to praise Cantrell and the bill.

In the recent hearing on HB 932 several Democrats vocalized their enthusiastic support for making Americans pay three times more public college tuition than an Afghan refugee in Georgia.  Macon Republican Rep Dale Washburn joined in and was effusive in his admiration for the legislation with

“uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanna make the praise for this bill bipartisan. Uh, uh, thank you for bringing it. It’s an excellent bill, and certainly in my mind, it is the right thing to do for these people. And the added benefit is, is not only the right thing, it’s a good thing for Georgia and it makes sense in many ways.”

“Yeah. Well, it’s an excellent bill and uh, I hope we get a chance to vote yes on it, uh, soon.”

The liberal AJC reported on HB 932 but omitted the fact that Americans would not get the same financial break given to the foreigners.

Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones was originally a cosponsor on HB 932 until she removed her name from the bill after it gathered some attention created by the Dustin Inman Society.

While young Americans of all descriptions struggle to pay down student college debt and Georgia citizens watch inflation decimate their budgets, new refugees are supported largely by our tax dollars. Many Georgians – including here at our house – want to see how many Republican votes HB 932 would get in the full House.

So, I repeat my plea to House Higher Education Chairman Chuck Martin: from a Black conservative Georgia voter; Please grant Rep Dale Washburn’s wish and hold a committee vote on HB 932 as soon as possible.

We need more insight on “who’s who.”

Inger Eberhart is a board member and Communications Director, the Dustin Inman Society

Legislation would add verbiage“BEARER NOT U.S. CITIZEN – NOT VOTER ID” to Georgia drivers licenses and official ID Cards issued to foreigners

Gwinnett Republican Rep Bonnie Rich leads the opposition to HB 228

It was to be an easy fix to a needless gap in election integrity. Unless Republican voters take to the phones and email, it appears to be dead. Rep Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock) tells us her House Bill 228 has nearly zero chance of seeing even a committee hearing in 2022. The bill has an impressive list of cosponsors and is wildly popular with conservative voters. That is not the case with establishment Republican leaders who are under the thumb of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

HB 228 is 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. The credentials I mention 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 corrects 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.

Related: Rep Byrd’s most recent column from Insider Advantage on HB 228

Senior Republicans have been told to keep this bill from passing.

Last year the most vocal Capitol opponent of Rep. Byrd’s legislation was Republican Rep. Bonnie Rich (Suwanee).  As a sub-committee Chair in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity she refused to allow a hearing on the bill. We hear rumors Rich has primary opposition in May. We hope that’s true. Then chairman of the full committee, Rep. Barry Fleming, was a hero to voter security advocates when he decided to preside over an abbreviated hearing for HB 228 himself. There was no vote and the amount of ignorance displayed and misinformation put out by Georgia officials in that hearing was amazing even to this long-time denizen of the Gold Dome.

Fleming has since been removed from his leadership of the committee and Republican Speaker David Ralston has installed a freshman to preside as Chairman. I haven’t taken the time to count, but I am told there are more House Reps serving as Chairmen who were elected in 2020.

The heated objections to Byrd’s bill from Rich were that it was unnecessary because “non-citizens cannot register to vote” – so there is no need to add wording to state law making foreigner’s drivers license or ID Card ID ineligible as voter ID. Rich’s absurd assertion is contradicted by NPR, the Associated Press and reports from Michigan on the Motor Voter registration process also used in Georgia.

We doubt it will change Rich’s attitude, but voters need to know that last year a woman who is not a U.S. citizen was fined for voting illegally in Georgia in 2012 and 2016 according to the liberal AJC in January.

Related: Written testimony in support of HB 228 from an immigrant, U.S. Army veteran

HB 228 also requires 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.

Rep. Rich says adding that wording to the ID credentials given to foreigners in Georgia is unreasonable and would be a modern day “scarlet letter.” House Republicans recently elected Rep Bonnie Rich Majority Caucus Chair.

Why are senior Republicans told to keep this bill from a floor vote where it would surely pass? Because it deals with drivers licenses and is seen as a step away from the goal of increasing the number of foreigners with legal driving ability to get to work to make Georgia “number one for business” for another year. Just ask the leftist Georgia Budget and Policy Institute – and Democrat Secretary of State candidate, Rep Bee Nguyen.

For those who want to try to save this no-brainer bill, we provide contact information for House Boss Speaker Ralston.

We can’t help but note that there is plenty of time for this same voter security language to be passed in the Senate but that no Republican there has dropped such a bill. Somebody please send up a flare if you hear anything about this bill from the newly created state Freedom Caucus?

Rep Kasey Carpenter (R–Dalton) is determined enough to pass his legislation granting special, reduced public college tuition rates to illegal aliens with DACA living in Georgia that he attacked his own county Republican party from the floor of the House Chamber last year (video).

Conservative voters should share his level of interest – and remember the DACA scheme is illegal.

We offer a review of Carpenter’s bill (HB 120) and another immigration related Gold Dome measure that may escape coverage in “the news.”

HB 120 – “Equity” in public college tuition rates for illegal aliens 

As we explained in November, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has joined the Mark Zuckerburg-founded, pro-amnesty (Build Back Better!) FWD.us lobbying enterprise in advocating for illegal alien Georgia residents with a DACA deferral on deportation to receive lower tuition rates than Americans and legal immigrants from other states. Carpenter’s bill would change state law so that could happen.

Another active backer is Jaime Rangel, an illegal alien with DACA who lobbies for FWD.us in the state Capitol.

Georgia Senate president Pro Tem and candidate for Lt. Governor, Sen. Butch Miller (R- Gainesville), also supports the tuition amnesty concept according to a January 7, 2022 news report in the Gainesville Times.

As Carpenter’s experience with his county GOP illustrates, the idea is wildly unpopular with Republican voters.

With more Democrat cosponsors than Republicans, HB 120 advanced out of the GOP-controlled House Higher Education Committee last March. The vote record is quite interesting – Rep Calvin Smyre (D, Columbus), “Dean of the General Assembly” voted “present.”

The bill must start the committee process over again this year to make it to a vote in the full House.

• Related: Republican state Rep Wes Cantrell to introduce bill to remove one-year wait for refugees (but not for Americans) to access instate tuition 

It helps to know that for academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com. In Carpenter’s bill an American from Michigan (for example) would pay the higher rate while a covered illegal alien living in Georgia would pay no more than an additional 10% of the instate rate. This is apparently the new “equity.”

It’s not too early to ask every candidate for governor if they would sign such a bill into law.

HB 228 – Closing a needless loophole on non-citizen ID in election law 

 The drivers licenses and official ID Cards that Georgia issues to foreign nationals are almost exactly like the ones commonly given to U.S. citizens. The difference between the ID credentials for citizens and non-citizens – like guest workers, green card holders, foreign students, DACA recipients (yes, DACA recipients ) – is that the non-citizens get a card with the words “LIMITED – TERM,” printed across the top.

As state Rep Charlice Byrd wrote for Insider Advantage GA in October (Secure Non-Citizens ID Now – Before New Elections), she has sponsored a “no brainer” bill (HB 228) to change the fact that there is nothing in state law that specifically excludes the non-U.S. citizen ID credentials from consideration as “proper identification” for voter ID purposes.

Last year the most strident Capitol opponent of Rep. Byrd’s legislation was Republican Rep. Bonnie Rich (Suwanee).  As a sub-committee Chair in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity she refused to grant Byrd a hearing on the bill. The Chairman of the full committee, Rep. Barry Fleming, was a hero to voter security advocates when he decided to preside over an abbreviated hearing for HB 228 himself.

That hearing illustrated a remarkable lack of knowledge on the part of committee members and the General Counsel at the Secretary of State’s office. There was no vote.

The heated objections to Byrd’s bill from Rich were that it was unnecessary because “non-citizens cannot register to vote” – so there is no need to add wording to state law making foreigner’s drivers license or ID Card ID ineligible as voter ID. Rich’s belief is contradicted by NPR, the Associated Press and reports from Michigan on the Motor Voter registration process also used in Georgia.

We doubt it will change Rep Rich’s mind or attitude, but voters need to know that last year a woman who is not a U.S. citizen was fined for voting illegally in Georgia in 2012 and 2016 according to the liberal AJC last week.

Byrd’s bill requires 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.

Taking a cue from the illegal alien lobby, Rep. Rich has informed curious constituents that the added wording to the ID credentials given to foreigners in Georgia is unreasonable and would be a modern day “scarlet letter.”

Recent developments

* Rep Byrd has been advised to meet with the Speaker David Ralston and Gov. Brian Kemp before she could expect a committee vote on her election ID safeguard legislation.

* Companion language to HB 228 is reportedly coming up in the Senate.

* HB 228 – current version here.

An independent voter, D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com

A version of this column was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion outlet Insider Advantage Georgia, Jan. 14, 2022.

Legislation to allow foreign nationals as police officers pushed again

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is now openly supporting lower tuition rates in our public colleges for illegal aliens who migrated to Georgia than Americans and legal immigrants who live in other states.

That was just one of the eye-openers from the third and final meeting of the House Study Committee on ‘Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent’ at the state Capitol late last month. As this writer has previously reported (‘Georgia House committee with immigration focus solicits one-sided, activist input‘), Chairman Rep Wes Cantrell (R- Woodstock) made the committee’s goals clear in the first hearing “…this committee has been formed to identify and make recommendations for removal of any barriers that limit the impact of our foreign-born population.”

This long time denizen of the Capitol has not witnessed proceedings with a higher farce factor.

The powerful Chamber was not alone in pushing lowered tuition rates for illegals. That topic was worked into the presentations of many of the long list of handpicked advocates for an immigration amnesty, expanded state government, increased foreign labor and lower wages including the immigration amnesty advocates from Big Tech’s FWD.us.

While it is quite active in the state Capitol, most Georgians – including most Republican legislators – are not well versed on FWDus. That fact does not bode well for conservative voters. One relevant policy initiative posted on the FWD.us website is entitled “Fixing Our Harmful Immigration System.” Discover the Networks, an online database of the left and its agenda describes the billionaire-funded lobbying group this way: “launched on April 11, 2013, and drawing its name from President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign slogan, (Forward). FWD.us is a pro-Democrat organization founded by thirteen tech-industry leaders to promote the passage of “comprehensive immigration reform” in the United States.”

Related: FWD.us launches national ad supporting a repeat of the failed 1986 immigration amnesty 

Jaime Rangel, an illegal alien, DACA beneficiary and darling of Georgia’s liberal media represents FWD.us under the Gold Dome. Lobbyist Rangel was called to be a witness in two of the three-committee meetings. Be wary of “misinformation.” he told the panel. “We’re just asking for a fighting chance to pay in-state tuition.” He did not mention the sure-to-come battle to expand any future state law granting special, lowered tuition rates to the hordes of illegal aliens swarming over the U.S. border as I type and who are on their way to Georgia.

For the attentive and curious, yes, this is the same FWD.us to which the liberal AJC now links in online news stories on immigration, Cantrell’s committee and “…barriers that hold immigrants back from labor force.”

Proposals that will interest voters but omitted from scant media coverage of the committee agenda include a repeat of the call for changing state law so as to allow foreign law enforcement officers, international occupational licensing reciprocity along with yet another push to “relax” immigration status verification in Georgia’s occupational licensing process. See also granting refugees “in-state” status for tuition purposes upon arrival. No waiting period.

Another change put forth by the “expert witnesses” was reducing the educational period to become a medical doctor by two years, student loan forgiveness for foreign medical students and “relaxing the immigration issues for foreign medical graduates.”

There was a quite serious proposal for Georgia to create “an office or a division of cultural and linguistic responsiveness.” That last plea to create another state bureaucracy came in the testimony from Dr. Pierluigi Mancini of the Multicultural Development Institute Inc. – MCDI. A quick look at the MCDI’s website assures us they are committed to “racial justice” – via Black Lives Matter Inc.

We remind the reader that the Republican-chaired committee solicited all of the witnesses. I lost track of the number of times “…the number one state for business” was tossed out.

Fact: The average tuition & fees for Colleges in Georgia is $4,739 for in-state and $17,008 for out of state

With the donor money and the liberal media now openly promoting the public college tuition reduction for illegal aliens there is a time sensitive need for voting Georgians to understand what comes next.

Republican state Rep Kasey Carpenter (Dalton) tried and failed to slip his HB 120 through last session. In its third iteration, the bill came out of the House Higher Education Committee (vote record) – but not the House Rules Committee.

It seems not many Republican House members wanted to vote on it.

That reluctance is unlikely to change in an even-numbered year. But it should be repeated until state legislators and trusting GOP voters get the message: HB 120 is written to be expanded at a future date (see line 31) and does indeed allow illegal aliens to pay lower tuition rates in Georgia’s taxpayer-funded postsecondary schools than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants from (most) other states. Carpenter is a member of the committee.

To pass in 2022 Carpenter’s bill must now start the House committee process over again. Education on its contents is key to stopping HB 120.

It’s worth asking now – would Governor Kemp sign such a bill?

Agenda and players here. Transcript and official video here.

D.A. King is proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com and president of the Dustin Inman Society.

A version of the above column originally ran on the subscription website Insider Advantage Georgia .

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 11^TH 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.

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.

“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:

1. Secure the border. Lack of border security is causing a rise in crimes. It is estimated that in 2018 235,000 illegal immigrants were arrested on various charges.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/president-trump-sends-letter-border-security/

2. End chain migration. Stop the original immigrant from petitioning to bring their extended families into the USA.

3. 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.

4. Reform welfare. Deny welfare to anyone with a green card or visa.

5. NO AMNESTY! Enforcement of deportation will stop people from coming to our borders.

6. I support the use of e-verify by our businesses. We need to hire people that are legal to work here in Georgia.

7. 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.

*Edited, 1Sept2020 – dak