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A million Biden parolees march toward a multi-billion-dollar welfare ‘parole payday’

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Attention state lawmakers: “PRWORA provides (with some exceptions) that “an alien who is not a qualified alien … is not eligible for any Federal public benefit.” Who is a “qualified alien”? Illegal aliens are generally not, nor are aliens in the U.S. on temporary visas. The categories of aliens qualified to be “qualified” primarily encompass lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees, but also include “an alien who is paroled into the United States … for a period of at least 1 year”. (Emphasis added.)

  • Related: What is (immigration) parole?

Parole with Benefit

By George Fishman on April 13, 2023

Summary

  • The Biden administration has granted parole to over one million aliens in just over two years, including over 800,000 inadmissible aliens the administration invited into the U.S. or apprehended at the border and released – and it’s just getting started.
  • These Biden parolees will become “qualified aliens” with respect to eligibility for major federal welfare programs after one year in parole status. While in some cases they will become eligible to receive benefits as soon as they become “qualified”, in most cases, they will become eligible after five years as parolees. This privileged status is equivalent to that of lawful permanent residents for purposes of welfare eligibility.
  • Because of severe backlogs in our immigration courts and because the Biden administration has released hundreds of thousands of aliens apprehended at the border without even bothering to issue them notices to appear in court, many of Biden’s parolees will still be in parole status after five years (and, for many, far beyond that). Once the five-year “parole payday” arrives, the cost to American taxpayers will reach about $3 billion per year per million parolees.
  • Congress should seriously consider amending federal law to deny Biden’s parolees privileged access to federal welfare programs, leaving them eligible only for those welfare benefits available to illegal aliens.

Introduction

Milton Friedman famously postulated that “It’s just obvious that you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.” President Biden is aiming to prove Friedman wrong.

In the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), Congress dramatically curtailed the federal means-tested benefits (read: welfare) available to noncitizens and set forth a “national policy with respect to welfare and immigration”, stating in part that “the availability of public benefits [should] not constitute an incentive for immigration to the United States” and “[i]t is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.”

PRWORA, however, contains a gaping vulnerability that will in a few short years result in a multi-billion-dollar bill to American taxpayers. The vulnerability? PRWORA grants parolees in such status for at least a year eligibility for major federal welfare programs on the same basis as it does lawful permanent residents. This is not really a big issue in those rare instances in which the Department of Homeland Security grants parole in circumstances contemplated by Congress. But it becomes a huge issue in the context of the Biden administration’s abuse of the parole program. Team Biden has already — in little more than two years — paroled in excess of one million aliens, including those whom DHS released on parole after they were apprehended along the border and those that DHS invited into the U.S. as parolees despite their not being admissible under the duly-enacted laws of the United States. After five years of presence in the U.S., Biden’s parolees will become eligible (per PRWORA) for billions of dollars a year in federal welfare benefits. And they are likely to spend many years, if not decades, in the U.S., and give birth to many U.S. citizen children. As Sen. Everett Dirksen is reputed to have said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

The Biden Administration’s Misadministration of Parole

The statutory parole power provides that:

[The Secretary of Homeland Security] may … in his discretion parole into the United States temporarily under such conditions as he may prescribe only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit any alien applying for admission to the United States, but such parole of such alien shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien and when the purposes of such parole shall, in the opinion of the [Secretary], have been served the alien shall forthwith return or be returned to the custody from which he was paroled and thereafter his case shall continue to be dealt with in the same manner as that of any other applicant for admission to the United States.

Congress was clear in granting this power to the executive branch in 1952 that:

[The power should be] carefully restricted to those cases where extenuating circumstances clearly require such action and that the discretionary authority should be surrounded with strict limitations. … to permit the Attorney General to parole inadmissible aliens into the United States in emergency cases, such as the case of an alien who requires immediate medical attention before there has been an opportunity for an immigration officer to inspect him, and in cases where it is strictly in the public interest to have an inadmissible alien present in the United States, such as, for instance, a witness or for purposes of prosecution. [Emphasis added.]

As I have written, while the executive branch’s abuse of the parole power has been a perennial problem almost since its inception, President Biden has taken that abuse to a new level:

  • The Biden administration has notoriously used the parole power to release into our communities hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens apprehended at the border.

  • Could it get any worse? [In January,] the Biden administration issued press releases announcing new “border enforcement measures to improve border security” and “create additional safe and orderly processes” for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans “fleeing humanitarian crises”. As DHS proclaims:

    [T]hese processes will provide a lawful and streamlined way for qualifying nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela … to seek advance authorization to travel to the United States and be considered, on a case-by-case basis, for a temporary grant of parole. … These processes will allow up to 30,000 qualifying nationals per month from all four of these countries to reside legally in the United States for up to two years and to receive permission to work here, during that period.

    This represents the arrival of up to 360,000 aliens a year. And the administration could up the number with the stroke of a pen. It sure sounds like a categorical parole program intended to flout the immigration laws passed by Congress, the sort of program regarding which Congress thought it had bid good riddance.

  • Until [the announcement], the Biden administration was pursing this agenda under the guise of relative secrecy for Mexicans and Central Americans, as my colleague Todd Bensman has uncovered. Now, post-election, the breathtaking scale of what President Biden is attempting is all out in the open.

According to my calculations, at the very least, the Biden administration has granted parole to 1,075,664 aliens. Even excluding the almost 200,000 Afghans and Ukrainians granted parole, the number of Biden parolees is at the very least 880,220. Here are the numbers, month-by-month:

(My colleague Andrew Arthur provided invaluable assistance to me in the derivation of these estimates.)

The Welfare Thoroughfare

PRWORA provides (with some exceptions) that “an alien who is not a qualified alien … is not eligible for any Federal public benefit.” Who is a “qualified alien”? Illegal aliens are generally not, nor are aliens in the U.S. on temporary visas. The categories of aliens qualified to be “qualified” primarily encompass lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees, but also include “an alien who is paroled into the United States … for a period of at least 1 year”. (Emphasis added.)

Qualified aliens generally have to meet special eligibility requirements for the most important federal welfare programs, in addition to meeting the eligibility standards for U.S. citizens:

  • In general, qualified aliens are eligible for food stamps — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) — “who ha[ve] resided in the United States with a status within the meaning of … ‘qualified alien’ for a period of 5 years or more beginning on the date of the alien’s entry into the United States”. However, with respect to qualified alien parolees, those under 18 years of age are immediately eligible, as are those who meet one of three “military-related” tests: they are 1) on active duty in the Armed Forces (other than for training), 2) veterans who have been honorably discharged and who have completed the shorter of 24 months of continuous active duty or the full period for which they were called or ordered to active duty, or 3) the spouses and unmarried dependent children of such service members or veterans, or unremarried surviving spouses… read the entire report at CIS.org

 

Hate mongering challenged: Federal judge rejects SPLC move to dismiss Dustin Inman Society libel/defamation case

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Image: CAPS

D.A. King and the Dustin Inman Society are said to be the first to overcome dismissal hurdle

“The society is seeking $25,000 in donations to fund its legal effort against the SPLC. Supporters can contribute on GoFundMe.”

The Daily Signal

April 4, 2023

SPLC to Face the Music for ‘Hate Group’ Defamation as Lawsuit Clears Major Hurdle

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan, but most lawsuits aiming to hold the SPLC accountable for this alleged defamation have failed.

On Friday, however, a federal judge denied the SPLC’s motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit, allowing the case to proceed.

The SPLC branded the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society an “anti-immigrant hate group” in February 2018 after the SPLC had previously stated in 2011 that it did not consider the society a “hate group.” The society, named after a 16-year-old Georgia boy killed in a 2000 car crash caused by an illegal immigrant, aims to combat illegal immigration.

“After telling the Associated Press in 2011 that we were not a ‘hate group,’ the SPLC changed their mind and made us an ‘anti-immigrant hate group’ within days of their registering as active lobbyists against pro-enforcement, immigration-related legislation here in the Georgia Capitol,” D.A. King, the society’s founder and president, told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement Tuesday.

King claimed that the SPLC’s “goal was clearly to paint us as the extremists and to marginalize us in the eyes of state lawmakers and the media. That effort was largely successful.”

  • Related: The SPLC took in $140 million in donations for 2021 alone

As I explain in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC took the program it used to monitor the Ku Klux Klan—the Intelligence Project—and weaponized it against conservatives and Christians, branding them “hate groups” in an effort to raise money and demonize its ideological opponents. The SPLC has an endowment of more than $500 million and bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. Amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal in 2019 that led the SPLC to fire its co-founder, a former employee came forward, calling the “hate” accusations a “highly profitable scam.”

King’s lawsuit quotes Heidi Beirich—then-director of the Intelligence Project—who told The Associated Press in 2011 that the SPLC did not consider the society a “hate group,” but rather listed King as a “nativist.”

“His tactics have generally not been to get up in the face of actual immigrants and threaten them,” Beirich said. “Because he is fighting, working on his legislation through the political process, that is not something we can quibble with, whether we like the law or not.”

D.A. King and former Georgia Gov. Zell Miller, a Democrat, in 2005. (Photo: D.A. King)

The lawsuit claims that the SPLC did not indicate that King or the Dustin Inman Society had changed their activities between 2011 and 2018—in fact, many of the statements and activities the SPLC cites as evidence that the society is a “hate group” date back to before 2011.

The lawsuit cites an SPLC definition for “anti-immigrant hate group” that dates back to 2020, which no longer appears on the SPLC website—although the center appears not to have adopted a new definition:

Anti-immigrant hate groups are the most extreme of the hundreds of nativist groups that have proliferated since the late 1990s, when anti-immigration xenophobia began to rise to levels not seen in the United States since the 1920s. Most white hate groups are also anti-immigrant, but anti-immigrant hate groups single out that population with dehumanizing and demeaning rhetoric. Although many groups legitimately criticize American immigration policies, anti-immigrant hate groups go much further by pushing racist propaganda and ideas about non-white immigrants.

While the SPLC brands the society an “anti-immigrant hate group,” it does not point to any specific evidence that King or the society “maligned an entire class of people” or fit the definition cited above. “Further, a cursory review of [Plaintiff] DIS’s website would have revealed that the Board of Advisors of [Plaintiff] DIS is a diverse group of Americans with a variety of racial and immigrant backgrounds,” the lawsuit alleges.

Inger Eberhart, a member of the society’s board and its director of communications, is a black woman; Everette Robinson and Catherine Davis are also black; Mary Grabar is a legal immigrant from Slovenia (then part of Yugoslavia); Maria Litland is a legal immigrant who appears on the Austrian Society of America website; and Sabine Durden-Coulter immigrated legally from Germany. Durden-Coulter lost her son in a 2012 car crash caused by an illegal immigrant (with no connection to the crash that killed Dustin Inman).

While the SPLC claimed not to have any knowledge of the society’s board in legal filings, the SPLC’s article on the society notes its “eight-member board of advisors.”… the article continues here at the Daily Signal.

 

Martha Zoller and Rep Todd Jones on air, March 27, 2023 Re: SB 233 “school choice” #BrianKemp

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In the closing days of the 2023 push for “school choice” in Georgia, Martha Zoller had Rep Todd Jones on her show yesterday (here). He is carrying this year’s school choice bill in the House. I listened in for the first time in awhile.

Martha Zoller

We were happy (surprised) to hear Rep Jones finally mention illegal aliens as related to the “educational freedom”, “put parents in charge,” “Promise Scholarship” topic. We were disappointed that he didn’t mention that in the current version of SB 233 there is no language that excludes illegal alien parents from the state benefit process or serving on an oversight committee.

There seemed to be some confusion on Martha’s part about what informed, pro-enforcement watchers were saying about illegal aliens as related to being eligible students.

Audio and transcript on the bottom.

Martha found time later in her show to mention me and suggest that I arrange an interview on her show. We were not aware of that possibility. The usual process of radio show hosts having guests on for interviews is that the host invites the guest. But it seems that Martha has some resentment towards me for not memory-holing Gov Brian Kemp’s defiant betrayal on his 2018 campaign promises regarding “criminal illegals,” the promised  public registry of criminal illegals, the “Brian Kemp Track and Deport plan” and his pledge on ending “sanctuary cities.”

We now have sanctuary counties in Georgia.

  • Related: Under Gov Brian Kemp, Georgia is a sanctuary state for “criminal illegals”

Martha now says Kemp has done a lot on illegal immigration in Georgia, just different things than he said he would do – while continuing to try to divert listener’s attention to “the border.” During the last campaign Martha explained that Kemp had not done what he promised because things had changed at the border (even more illegal aliens crossing). We’ll get to all that and more after the legislative session is over.

Meantime, I am happy to be on Martha’s show anytime she wants me on. I wonder if I should regard  it as a hostile interview.

Audio (five-ish minutes) & partial transcript

Rep Todd Jones:

“… my swearing in in January of 2017.

Martha Zoller:

And then tell us about Senate Bill 233.

Rep Todd Jones:

Sure. So, Senate Bill 233, uh, effectively the- the Georgia Scholarship Promise Act, is what many are calling a voucher, but to me it’s an opportunity to provide families who are right now districted to a bottom 25% school within the state of Georgia, to provide them with an alternative, provide them with an opportunity. Frankly, to provide them hope.

Martha:

Now, you are getting some pushback from a lot of areas, okay, but one of them is in some of the anti illegal immigration groups, are, and, uh, many of them are Republicans, are- are pushing back saying that this is gonna open the door to illegal immigrants, uh, in education. Now I would argue that we already are required by the, by the Supreme Court to educate all children that are in our country regardless of their immigration status, but is there any foundation or any accuracy to some of the claims being made there?

Rep Todd Jones:

Yeah. So, when we were forming 233 with Senator Greg Dolezal, he’s the primary author of this, uh, on the Senate side. I’m honored to be carrying it on the House side. There was a series of things that we wanted to be able to do to make it clear, uh, what parents would be, uh, allowed to be able to take advantage of this voucher or the students, what a school would have to do. If it was a private school, what would have to occur for a homeschooling student, a hybrid school, et cetera. What would be accountability standards? What were the financial standards? And all the transparency that goes along with it. We wanted to make it the strongest school choice bill in the entire country in terms of, I’ll say, accountability.

Uh, in terms of this question around I’ll say illegal, uh, immigrants receiving the voucher, I can say this. To your point, the Supreme Court’s been very clear in terms of being able or having to educate students within the public school system, but we added in to 233 not only are you an existing public school student, but you also are eligible for HOPE. And HOPE, as you know, is effectively our opportunity to provide kids a pathway into the university system and be able to cover anywhere between 90% to 100% of their cost.

That does not provide for the funding of anyone who is here illegally. So ultimately, putting the guardrails around not just are they in the public school system, but also eligible for HOPE puts the guardrail in in terms of who can and who can’t. But the other thing I like to mention is, is that the voucher itself is not fungible cash. It’s not just cash that’s deposited into the parents’, um, I’ll say bank account, but rather it is a third party administered account that can only be released based on approved or pre-approved expenses that the commission has already reviewed and has indicated that those are expenses that are appropriate to be paid for by the account.

Martha:

You know, since about the 1850s or ’60s in New Hampshire and Vermont, there has been a system called Town Tuition. Uh, it is a system where basically the money follows the child. And it became about because there were a lot of small towns in New Hampshire and Vermont where maybe they didn’t have enough money to have a middle school and a high school, or whatever. So there’s been this, you can go to … It used to be you can go to parochial schools, you can go to private schools. Up until the 1980s, you could go to parochial schools. And they’ve had this in place for, you know, 150 years.

Um, hav- are you aware of that system? Had you heard about it? Has anybody looked at it if so? Because it seems like we got a model that’s worked for 150 years, and, you know, but nobody seems to know about it.

Rep Todd Jones:

So, I would, A, yes, I am aware of it. B, I also agree with you that no one is aware about it, is- is aware of those programs. But you’re starting to see maybe not exact replicas, but at least I’ll say, a- a- a good overlap, uh, in Arkansas, you’re starting to see, in Florida, in terms of what they voted last Thursday in terms of universal money follows the student. So, these are I’ll say concepts that are starting to sweep across the country, especially in those states that lean red or hard red. And we hope that our, and coming back to 233, we feel as if we have tailored this in such a way, uh, that to your exact point, if the school’s in the bottom 25% of our state, we’re not looking to do anything adverse to that school.

I want to be clear. If a student takes a voucher from one of those school systems, the per capita funding actually goes up, not goes down, and that’s a long formula and a, probably for a longer conversation. But we see this as an and, Martha, not an or. We’re gonna continue to fund public education, totally fund public education and provide those students who are districted to a bottom 25% school to be able to have an opportunity to do something else, because let’s face it, education is the great equalizer.

Martha:

Amen to that, you know. Education and economics is what separates us. Okay.

Rep Todd Jones:

That’s right.

Martha:

And that’s what we need to- to look at. Um, of course, I’ve gotten a number of question when the people heard you were gonna be on. I got some questions that I’ve k- kind of compiled because they were all on the same topic. Um, Florida made some big changes in their education system back during Governor Bush. And- and e- essentially by adding choice-…”

 

Illegal immigration: What is “parole?”

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What is parole?

USCIS uses its discretion to authorize parole. Parole allows an individual, who may be inadmissible or otherwise ineligible for admission into the United States, to be paroled into the United States for a temporary period. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows the secretary of homeland security to use their discretion to parole any noncitizen applying for admission into the United States temporarily for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. (See INA section 212(d)(5).)

An individual who is paroled into the United States has not been formally admitted into the United States for purposes of immigration law.

Parole is not intended to be used solely to avoid normal visa processing procedures and timelines, to bypass inadmissibility waiver processing, or to replace established refugee processing channels.

Length of Parole

If authorized, we will specify the duration of parole for a temporary period of time to accomplish the purpose of the parole. For example, if parole is requested to attend a civil court proceeding between private parties, we may authorize parole for the period of time necessary to attend the proceedings. We typically grant parole for no more than 1 year, although we may grant parole for a longer duration depending on the reason for the parole.

Parole ends on the date the parole period expires or when a parolee departs the United States or acquires an immigration status, whichever occurs first. In some cases, we may place conditions on parole, such as reporting requirements. We may revoke parole at any time and without notice if we determine that parole is no longer warranted or a parolee fails to comply with any conditions of parole.

Work Permits

We may, at our discretion, grant a parolee temporary employment authorization, if it is not inconsistent with the purpose and duration of their parole. You may request employment authorization after being paroled into the United States by filing Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization.

The above pasted in from the USCIS site here. See “terminology.”

Correction, apology and clarification: Partially inaccurate analysis of SB 233 – “school choice”

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Re; SB 233 as passed the senate (SB233/CFSA)

  • Update: I retract the below correction apology clarification and apology 

Correction: The conclusion I came to and posted here regarding eligibility of students for the proposed new state grant known as the “Promise Scholarship” in SB 233 was inaccurate. I wrote that aliens illegally paroled for admission into the United States by the Biden administration would be eligible for the proposed new benefit. That conclusion is wrong. In fact, eligibility for the benefit requires that a student be a United States citizen or a “permanent resident alien” (green card holder) who meets the definition of an eligible noncitizen under federal Title IV requirements.”

That restriction does not include recipients of Biden’s illegal parole as I wrote. I deeply regret the obvious error.

As Georgia’s only full time pro-enforcement voice on immigration, we strive for accuracy and have promised swift correction on any inaccurate information. I have proven that no matter how many times one checks his work, if the same glaring error is repeated in the analysis process the conclusion will be flawed.

One of the first things I was taught as a seventeen-year-old recruit was that “Marines do not make excuses.” That said, I wish I had paid much closer attention in grade school class on Roman numerals.

Including state Rep Will Wade, and Senator Colton Moore’s Chief of Staff Michael Gargiulo, many thanks to the various people who politely convinced me to check my work yet again. I am profoundly sorry for my mistake and grateful for the confidence so many people show for our credibility.

Clarification: As the state-funded private school tuition scholarship proposed in SB 233 would benefit entire families, we have been consistent in our opinion that students and “parents” (applicants) be U.S. citizens or green card holders (“LPRs” – Lawful Permanent Residents).

I have repeatedly pointed out that we see no provision that “parents” are required to have that status  – or have any lawful immigration status. Due to the involvement of “parents” in the application process, oversight authority and apparent ability to access payments for “certain qualified education expenses,” we believe the absence of that language is crucial in any judgment of the pro-enforcement fairness and viability of the measure. Please see more on parents here.

We are of the opinion that any new “Promise Scholarship” would be a state grant public benefit under OCGA 50-36-1 and that applicants (“parents”) would be required to complete the verification of “lawful presence” in that code section. Assuming this is the case, it would not alone limit the participation of “parents” to U.S. citizens or LPRs. It would allow “parents” with non-immigrant visas and Biden’s illegal parole to apply and participate. We respectfully recommend that legislators educate themselves on this matter.

In the interest of “a belt and suspenders” clarity, the bill should contain language on this point. We also note that similar previous legislation did not require students to be U.S. citizens or LPRs, only cited 50-36-1 as an eligibility and verification reference and was murky in it’s language and wrong in its presentation.

dak

 

Republican Senate ‘school choice’ bill: ‘A Mackerel in the Sun’ #SB233

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Correction: The conclusion I came to and posted here regarding eligibility of students for the proposed new state grant known as the “Promise Scholarship” in SB 233 was inaccurate. I wrote that aliens illegally paroled for admission into the United States by the Biden administration would be eligible for the proposed new benefit. That conclusion is wrong. In fact, eligibility for the benefit requires that a student be a United States citizen or a “permanent resident alien” (green card holder) who meets the definition of an eligible noncitizen under federal Title IV requirements.”

That restriction does not include recipients of Biden’s illegal parole as I wrote. I deeply regret the obvious error.

As Georgia’s only full time pro-enforcement voice on immigration, we strive for accuracy and have promised swift correction on any inaccurate information. I have proven that no matter how many times one checks his work, if the same glaring error is repeated in the analysis process the conclusion will be flawed.

Only U.S. citizens and green card holders should benefit from or participate in any new state grant for K-12 private school tuition

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School choice is an idea worthy of serious consideration. Including illegal aliens in any part of a new state grant isn’t.

The GOP-controlled state senate recently passed SB 233, a deeply flawed bill titled “The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act” – otherwise known as “school choice” and “educational freedom.” See also “putting parents in charge.”

Watching the rush to passage and the obfuscation of the senate Republicans to push the odiferous measure through reminded this writer of the scenario surrounding immigration legislation in Washington D.C. a decade ago.

During the successful struggle in 2013 to stop that year’s attempt at amnesty for illegal aliens, then Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions described the “immigration reform” legislation as “a mackerel in the sun.” He pointed out that the bill was meant to be passed into law before too many people had read it and before too many facts were provided to the American public.

Sessions advised inspection and comprehension of the contents of the most horrible measure. He knew that the light of day would expose the truth about the “Gang of Eight” amnesty.

“The longer it lays in the sun, the more it smells, as they say about the mackerel” is how Sessions described his reason for the roadblocks he put in front of passage to the New York Times. The amnesty bill failed in the U.S. House because of too much information. Former U.S. Attorney General Sessions is a personal hero here.

The “school choice” bill that the senate passed was dropped into the senate hopper on February 22 and passed just five legislative days later on the senate floor. That unfamiliar odor you may be smelling could well be coming from Atlanta and the stench of this Republican-concocted “school choice” legislation after only a week of being out in the open.

  • Related: We warned and informed GOP senators on the immigration-related problems in the bill well before they voted

The contents of SB 233 create a new state grant for families of K-12 students to use to pay for private school education and other expenses as an alternative to public school education.

The bill contains language that allows students attending private school at taxpayer expense to be formerly “inadmissible aliens” who have been illegally granted mass “parole” by the Biden administration. That scam was found to be unlawful last week by a federal court in Florida.

Parole, even when it is done legally, does not confer lawful border entry status. Legal immigrants do not need parole.

Related: A retired INS agent on SB 233 in the Brunswick News

Amazing, but true: the “school choice” bill (SB233) does not exclude illegal alien parents from the administration process. Processing of state benefits to eligible families begins only when “parents” file an application to begin the $6000 annual proposed new grant payments for K-12 students to attend private school.

GA state Senator Greg Dolezal, lead sponsor of SB 233 – “school choice” 2023 edition.

“Parents” includes a “legal guardian, custodian, or other person with legal authority to act on behalf of the student.” The bill authorizes “parents” to be part of an oversight committee that has authority to decide on eligible expenses in the use of state funds. “Parents” can be paid for unforeseen out-of-pocket expenses.

Again: There is nothing in the bill that says “parents” must be in the U.S. lawfully.

Lead sponsor on SB 233 is Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming). Dolezal did not mention anything regarding illegal immigration when he presented the bill. Floor debate did not include any discussion of the state’s illegal immigration crisis.

The bill was intentionally rushed through the committee process while this writer was refused an opportunity to speak during the much-abbreviated public comment period. Because I was the first person to sign up to speak on the bill, the committee chairman of the senate Education and Youth committee, Republican Sen. Clint Dixon (Buford), began selection of speakers from the bottom of the list. He ended the comment period when he worked back up the list to my name. That cheap and cowardly abuse of power is on official archived video record.

As if to prove they have forgotten that real conservatives don’t do anything that rewards or encourages illegal immigration into Georgia, every Republican senator voted in favor of final passage.

With the troubling bill now in the House, conservative Representatives should withhold action until next year so there is time to understand it and make an educated decision on their own vote. Idea: Only U.S. citizens and green card holders should be eligible for the proposed “Promise Scholarship.”

Pro-borders voters should step in and do for the Georgia senate’s “school choice” bill what Jeff Sessions did to the failed 2013 amnesty try. Contact your state Rep and tell them to ask the Speaker to wait until next year to consider “school choice.’

Let this anti-enforcement mackerel sit in the sun over the summer.

_

A version of this essay is publish in the March 12 edition of  The Islander newspaper in Glynn County. GA. and on the subscription website Insider Advantage Georgia on March 15, 2023.

Do you want to know how many illegal aliens are in GA prisons? One call…that’s all we ask – please help us get a vote on HB 136 in the GA legislature!

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Do you want to know how many illegal aliens are on in GA prisons and how much that costs taxpayers? Their crimes? Where they are from? We do.
HB 131 will produce public, quarterly reports on exactly that! You can read the short bill here (lick on “current version”).
WARNING: Lots of people in state government do not want you to know!
Monday is “Crossover Day” – which means bills must pass one of the two Chambers to move to the other. We need HB 136 to pass out of the GOP-ruled House.
We need calls (404-656-5141) to Rep Richard Smith, Chairman of House Rules Committee over the weekend and on Monday morning.. Please leave a quick message with the staffer or voice mail:
“Please tell Chairman Smith we are watching HB 136 and want it to become state law. Please let our Reps vote on HB 136.”
You can email his office too! (do both)  richard.smith@house.ga.gov 
Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders! We have sanctuary cities and counties!
If you call and email, I’ll wash your car!

“School choice” and illegal immigration in Georgia: A pro-enforcement look at SB 233

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Education for state legislators 

  • Update, 8:15PM: After posting this today and sending it to the Republican members of the Senate and House, I learned there was a (surprise!) 2:30 PM hearing on the below bill. I hurried to Downtown Atlanta and made it to the hearing room before the Senate Education and Youth committee meeting began. I was the first person to sign up to speak on the bill. The chairman of the committee is Senator Clint Dixon, Republican, Buford. Knowing that I would spill the beans on the bill, Dixon began calling names to speak from the bottom of the list.

    Sen Clint Dixon
  • When he got to number two on the list, Dixon told the room “I know the audience is not going to like this. We are under extreme time constraints and we are going to end the public comment now.”
  • I was prevented from speaking and offering an experienced and educated analysis of the phony immigration part of the legislation. I was cancelled by the Chamber of Commerce Republicans.  The Republicans passed out the bill. Senator Ed Setzler made the motion “do pass.” It should be noted that Dolezal was careful to avoid any mention of illegal immigration in his presentation.

____________________________

We judge the bill to be un-American in its current iteration.

Georgia Promise Scholarship Act (2023 version) Senator Greg Dolezal, lead sponsor. See cosponsors here.

SB 233         LC 49 1349

Note: All of the obvious problems outlined below can easily be resolved by using already offered language that clearly and openly limits benefits for, access to and authority over the use of state funds for K-12 scholarships to U.S. citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders) who have submitted documents proving that status. I was asked for this draft language in 2022 and sent it to senior House members then. I received no reply. I have since traded emails with Sen. Greg Dolezal on that draft language and know that he has read it and finds “language like this “appropriate.” He has declined to respond to two requests for a meeting. Coming soon: Sen. Dolezal and his campaign promises on “sanctuary cities.” dak

  • Related: New “school choice” bill in GA Senate would provide state benefit to Biden’s illegally paroled, inadmissible “migrants” – formerly known as “illegal aliens” SB 233

State funds are deposited into a consumer directed account on behalf of a participating student to be used for qualified expenses and distribution is ordered by “parents.”

“Parents”

Parents of the participating K-12 student submit the application (line 84) for the state to send funds to an account set up for the student and ‘promise’ (line 77) to only use the state funds for qualified services – which are basic education of the student.

“Parents” include legal guardians, custodian or “other person” (line 30) with legal authority to act on behalf of the student of the student living in Georgia.

The above definition of “parent” does not exclude illegal aliens.

Georgia media does not usually report that the Biden administration has been shipping “UACs” into the interior of the United States and puts them into the custody of illegal aliens – including in Georgia.

  • Related: Fake Families: “Overrun, How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History

According to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, only six states have a larger population of illegal aliens than Georgia (table 3, page 5). The anti-enforcement GBPI has passed on stats that show we have more illegal aliens than green card holders (pie chart).

The above fact should point out the very real likelihood that if this all becomes law, we will watch as authority to request $6000.00 per year in taxpayer dollars is turned over to illegal alien ‘parents’ who have been awarded the power to order up dispersal of those funds with the ‘promise’ it will be done within the guidelines of the Act.

This brings up another “Act.” The federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that illegal aliens defy. Here we also mention a long list of state and federal laws that illegal aliens violate literally every day – including employment laws and use of false or stolen ID and Social Security numbers. There is no reason to believe the illegal aliens won’t happily take advantage of the lack of security in the current version of SB 233.

Oversight

“Parents” also make up a review committee (line 193) that would have authority to determine the validity of expenses paid for by the “parents” on behalf of the student.  Again, we see the likelihood that illegal aliens could easily be deciding what constitutes an eligible expense and how state funds are used.

“Students”

A “student” is eligible if his “parents” reside in Georgia (line 73).

Considering illegal immigration, when we drill down through the bill’s references to various code sections students  are ineligible (lines 74-76) for the new state benefit under the same guidelines created for Title IX circa 1972 when the world, the U.S. and Georgia were very different places. Title IV noncitizen eligibility here.

The fact that the Biden administration has compromised the integrity of the Title IX eligibility guidelines should not be a reason for Georgia legislators to do join in and do the same in the name of “school choice.”

  • Fact on parole: “While individuals who receive a grant of parole are allowed to enter the United States, they are not provided with an immigration status nor are they formally “admitted” into the country for purposes of immigration law.” 

These parameters make hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens from all over the planet who have been illegally granted blanket “parole” by the Biden administration and herded into the U.S. eligible for the proposed “Promise Scholarship” benefits provided by Georgia taxpayers in this version of “school choice” in SB 233. The Biden “parole” scam is ongoing.

As is, SB 233 creates the scenario in which illegal alien/paroled parents can be in charge of dispersing state funds and determination of the eligible use of those funds for payment of private school tuition for paroled (otherwise illegal alien students) eligible.

Statistics taken from official Border patrol reports show that in the period Oct 2021 – Sept 2022 (FY 2022) about 380,000 otherwise illegal aliens were released into the nation under Biden’s (illegal) parole program. Immigration watchdogs are asking “How Long Does Biden’s DHS Wait to Put Paroled Border Migrants into Removal Proceedings?” (see Parole `+ATD in table).

I am working on cobbling numbers together to reflect the number of “parolees” created by Biden from what were previously known as “illegal aliens” in the first five months of FY 2023, but we anticipate those numbers will be similar to FY 2022. Georgia is already a very popular state for illegal “migration.” Offering private school tuition to paroled parents and students will only increase that attractiveness.

Twenty GOP states are challenging Biden’s illegal border parole hustle in a Texas federal court – GA is not one of them.

Appropriations (?)

 Unless I have overlooked it, there is no mention of any caps, limits or “subject to appropriations” disclaimer in the bill. This was not the case in some previous measures aimed at “school choice.” It can be assumed that the intent and expectation is that the state budget will always include provisions to accommodate funding for all eligible students.

At least one previous bill included a lottery system to determine winners and losers in the event there was not sufficient funding to benefit all eligible applicants.  We hope this possibility is made clear to legislators and voters as that scenario creates a possibility of illegal alien ‘parents’ and or paroled students winning that lottery while American students and parents watch them access state benefits that are unavailable to the citizen families.

Please see also: “New “school choice” bill in GA Senate would provide state benefit to Biden’s illegally paroled, inadmissible “migrants” – formerly known as “illegal aliens” SB 233.

Updated, March 2, 2023, 5:45 PM. Removed my personal opinion of Senators Dixon and Dolezal. Added copy on top that SB 233 did not come out of Rules committee. 

 

 

Illegal immigration in GA: Republicans at work under the Gold Dome *Updated with Crossover Day results

By

Rep Jesse Petrea presenting his HB 136 – House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Feb.10, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It looks like Biden’s illegal parolees (formerly known as illegal aliens) numbered nearly 380,000 in the official statistics from October 2021 to September 2022. Many of them are here in GA.”

  • Updates below each bill explanation. Crossover Day was March 6.

Dear Georgians, here is a sample of what Republican legislators are doing at the State Capitol.

Rep Casey Carpenter (R-Dalton) lead sponsor, HB 131

HB 131 (Kasey Carpenter, R- Dalton) Would change GA law to lower tuition rates in taxpayer-funded colleges for illegal aliens who are recipients of the illegal 2012 Obama ‘DACA’ program. The bill would create a new tier of tuition much lower than out-of-state tuition and would not be available to Americans and legal immigrants who attend public colleges in Georgia from other states. Example: An American from Michigan would pay about $7000.00 more in tuition for full time classes than an illegal alien from Mexico at KSU per semester.  The sponsors are calling it “Opportunity Tuition” the illegal alien students are to be known as “Opportunity Students.” Committee Chairman Rep Chuck Martin is pushing hard to pass this one out.  Update: March 2, 2023 – 5:45 PM: HB 131 did not make it out of House Higher education committee  and is dead for the year. 

  • Related: Retired INS & Border Patrol agent sent a letter to House Higher Education Committee Chairman,, Rep. Chuck Martin Re: HB 131.
Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas) lead sponsor, SB 112.

SB 112 (Sen Jason Anavitarte, R – Dallas) “Workforce EXCELeration” creates a new “Adult Education” taxpayer-funded benefit being called the “High School Diplomas for Adult Learners” pilot program that would send applicants aged twenty-one and over to the Technical College System of Georgia for classes that result in a high school diploma. As are most bills ordered up by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, it is aimed at increasing the number of workers in the state. The bill does not exclude illegal aliens. It is a violation of federal law to knowingly hire illegal aliens. It is a violation of longstanding state law to allow illegal aliens access to Adult Education. Note: This bill has passed the GOP-controlled Senate. One GOP senator voted “NO”

  • Related: The Georgia Chamber of Commerce “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” page.
Rep Ron Stephens (R- Savannah) lead sponsor, HB 313.

HB 313 (Rep Ron Stephens, R- Savannah) “Workforce EXCELeration” again this is a House companion bill to SB 112 above. As I write, the author has not changed the language to exclude illegal aliens. We say again: It is illegal to hire illegal aliens, high school diploma or not. Both bills contain language that refers to waiving existing law (both state and federal) that is counter to the goal of the measures. Update: This bill did not make it out of committee and is dead for the year.

GA state Senator Greg Dolezal, lead sponsor of SB 233 – “school choice” 2023 edition.

SB 233 (Sen. Greg Dolezal R- Alpharetta) would allow illegal alien “parents” to begin  the application process for eligible students to access the proposed “school choice” state benefit.” More in this post: School choice – SB 233: GOP lawmakers ignore warnings on attention to immigration status of ‘parents’ at their political peril, here.

Note: The above is a corrected version of my original and erroneous description of the bill. I regret the error.

Update and related: Sen. Greg Dolezal omits requirement that students in SB 233 be U.S. citizens or green card holders in bill presentation to House Education committee – Video & transcript

 A good bill below

Rep Jesse Petrea, (R-Savannah) lead sponsor, HB 136.

HB 136 (Rep Jesse Petrea, R- Savannah) would require the Georgia Dept. of Corrections to post a quarterly, public report informing Georgia taxpayers of the number of “criminal illegals” in the state prison system – along with the crimes they committed and home countries. Through the department’s legislative liaison, the Kemp administration is striving to dilute or stop the bill in committee. Similar legislation died in the Republican controlled House in 2019. Update: March 7, 2023 – this bill did not come out of the House Rules committee and is dead for the year.

 

Bonus facts on Georgia, Republican Gov Brian Kemp, presiding, Republican Chris Carr, Attorney General: 

GA is not among the states suing to end Biden’s illegal “parole” hustle. Pictured: (L) -GA AG, Chris Carr, GA Gov. Brian Kemp.

 

Governor Kemp’s Capitol office phone number is 404-656-1776. We hope you already know how to contact your state legislators.

Silence is consent.

Note: A version of this column ran on the subscription news outlet Insider Advantage GA on Feb. 24, 2023 and is published in the Feb. 27, edition of The Islander newspaper in Glynn County, GA.

D.A. King is proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com and president of the Dustin Inman Society @DAKDIS – Twitter

Biden’s SOTU Boasts about Decreasing Illegal Immigration Were Fraudulent, Too

By

“Now, about Biden’s new border plan: It is not reducing the number of illegal aliens detained at the border; it is concealing the number of illegal aliens released into the country  through a “parole” scam.”

 

National Review

By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY

 

The president hasn’t fixed the problem; he has covered it up through a legally baseless sleight of hand.

In his speech, Biden brayed, “Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97 percent.” I will come momentarily to the administration’s new border plan, which, as I observed when Biden rolled it out, is both illegal and a political fraud. For now, though, let’s stick with what the president said. Even at face value, it was exaggeration. As Arthur runs the numbers, there was a decrease in unlawful migration from the four countries in question between December 2022 and January 2023, but it was a decrease of just 76 percent — and even that statistic makes the Biden administration’s immigration policies sound a lot more successful than they’ve actually been.

Because of Biden’s policies, illegal immigration is at astronomical, previously unseen levels, so any decrease, no matter how noticeable, is going to be a fall from unprecedented heights. And when you widen the time frame, comparing January 2023 with January 2021 (when Biden took office, and thus before his policies took hold) and January 2020 (before Covid shut down even most illicit travel), the picture starts to look a lot different from the one Biden painted. As Arthur shows, apprehensions from the four countries Biden mentioned were up 400 percent in January 2023 compared to January 2021, and an astonishing1,275 percent compared with January 2020.

Now, let’s look at the numbers for all countries, rather than just the four that Biden cherry-picked. In total, there were about 156,000 illegal aliens “encountered” by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) personnel in January — 128,000 detained at the border, and 28,000 stopped at ports of entry. In the 15 years between May 2006 and May 2021, monthly apprehensions exceeded the January 2023 total of 128,000 only once — in May 2019, when slightly fewer than 133,000 encounters were recorded. That is, the January 2023 numbers Biden bragged about are historically horrible.

Now, about Biden’s new border plan: It is not reducing the number of illegal aliens detained at the border; it is concealing the number of illegal aliens released into the country through a “parole” scam.

The scam works this way: Rather than trying to cross illegally at the border, aliens are now encouraged to arrange entry into the U.S. at CBP ports set up in northern Mexico. There, even if they do not have a valid asylum claim (which the vast majority do not, because a valid claim must meet a high evidentiary burden), they will be given “parole” so long as they can show a potential claim of credible fear of persecution in their home country (a very low standard).

As we shall see, the administration has no legal authority to grant such “parole.” Nevertheless, compliant and uninformed media are reporting on the plan as if it were legitimate and the “paroled” aliens were entering our country lawfully. The “parole” purports to authorize illegal aliens to work in the U.S. and lasts for two years, plenty of time to establish other ties (marriage, children) that will make it practically impossible to expel them — assuming that they show up for legal proceedings, and that the overrun system even schedules those proceedings in the foreseeable future. That is, Biden has presumed the unilateral power to amend statutory immigration law, in effect granting asylum to illegal aliens who do not meet the qualifications Congress has prescribed — aliens who are merely economic migrants, who could have applied for asylum in countries they passed through before arriving at a U.S. port of entry, and who do not have a cognizable fear of persecution in their native countries.

Biden’s parole program is lawless, which is why it is now being challenged in a Texas federal court by 20 states (including Florida, which has also brought a lawsuit in a Florida federal court). As I’ve explained a number of times, federal immigration law mandates that illegal aliens “shall be detained” from the time they are first encountered by federal authorities until their cases are disposed of (i.e., until they are either deported or granted asylum or some other statutorily authorized right to remain)…. read the rest here, at NRO.