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The column below originally ran on the subscription news and opinion website Insider Advantage Georgia and is posted here with permission.

“Lacking language that excluded illegal immigrants from this “driver’s seat” position, had the bills passed, Georgia Republicans would have created a system in which illegal alien parents/guardians had authority to distribute and directly manage taxpayer funds for a private school education for their illegal alien children.”

By Inger Eberhart

Inger Eberhart is Communications Director and a member of the advisory board of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society

One of the first things I learned in my years as an occasional citizen lobbyist under the Gold Dome was that one should not accept the hype or the “trust us” narrative on any legislation unless and until you actually read the bill. As the old adage goes, “the devil is in the details.”

That advice should be taken to heart by voters who are understandably clamoring for legislative financial help in moving their children from the public K-12 school system and the legislators and conservative groups pushing for “school choice” in Georgia.

Another hard-earned lesson in judging the worth of legislation is to keep a firm grasp on reality while all about you are howling for quick passage of what seems to be a “popular” bill.

Some too-often ignored reality in Georgia is that Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers encountered roughly 2.5 million illegal aliens in the fiscal year that just ended September 30 — smashing the previous record of 1.7 million set last year.

More reality: For a large share of these illegal border crossers, Georgia is a very popular destination. We are already home to more illegal aliens than live in Arizona.

School choice is a solid idea. Encouraging and rewarding illegal immigration into Georgia with offers of a taxpayer-financed private K-12 school education isn’t. The former does not have to include the latter.

In the fiscal year ended September 30, at least 266,000 unaccompanied migrant children/minors have been encountered at the southern border, per U.S. Customs & Border Protection agency data. That’s almost enough to fill up UGA’s Sanford Stadium three times. Jessica Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington tells us that about 80% of the minors are placed with family members who are already living here illegally – including in Georgia.

A 2013 study of the motivation of illegal immigrants in choosing U.S. locations as migration destinations (“Why we stay…”) from University of Wisconsin researchers reported that illegal immigrants consistently cite superior American schools as a key reason for remaining in the United States.

In the 2021-2022 General Assembly, three separate “school choice” bills were introduced by Republican sponsors. HB 60 and HB 999 were stopped in the House committee process and SB 601 was defeated on the floor when the vote came for final passage. None of them had genuine, effective, or workable language to exclude illegal alien students or families from accessing the taxpayer funded “Promise Scholarship” accounts set up for students.

The bills, products of model legislation from the open borders Cato Institute-linked American Federation for Children, set up accounts that could be used for private school tuition, private tutoring and homeschool co-ops. Advocates say the bills would have “put the parents in the driver’s seat…” Indeed.

The process of administering the tax dollars sent to “Promise Scholarship” accounts for the students would have been done by the parents or guardians. Further, the legislation set up an oversight committee process made up of parents who would have had the legal ability to decide on eligible scholarship expenses.

Lacking language that excluded illegal immigrants from this “driver’s seat” position, had the bills passed, Georgia Republicans would have created a system in which illegal alien parents/guardians had authority to distribute and directly manage taxpayer funds for a private school education for their illegal alien children. Not many thinking Georgians of any description can believe this “school choice” benefit would serve to deter illegal immigration into the Peach State.

A poll on the subject from the school choice advocacy group ‘GeorgiaCAN’ shows high favorable numbers on the “Promise Scholarship” concept described here, but the element of sending illegal immigrant children to private schools courtesy of Georgia taxpayers was not part of the survey.

We submit that the results of a voter poll with a simple question “do you favor the use of tax dollars to send illegal immigrant students to private school in Georgia?” would not be useful in selling most voters on any poorly written school choice legislation in the 2023-2024 General Assembly.

An August letter to the editor published in my hometown Cherokee Tribune from an independent conservative voter summed up the sentiment of a large swath of informed voters with “as a black, conservative American who votes Republican, it is impossible to express my own outrage that any politician would suggest that we increase the benefits already offered to illegals and thereby make Georgia even more attractive to the endless stream of illegals the GOP claims to want to stop.”

A 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyler v Doe, requires states to offer K-12 public education to students regardless of immigration status. There is no law or ruling that creates a requirement for Georgia taxpayers to send illegal aliens to private school. Legislators with serious intent to pass “school choice” legislation should include common sense language that limits eligibility to U.S. citizens and green card holders.

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Please read the entire column from Inger at Insider Advantage.

Sheriff to forward my complaint to GBI

Last month I wrote a lengthy column here with an explanation of several state laws passed years ago with the goal of making Georgia less attractive to illegal immigration and a detailed narration of the fact that Carroll County government was (and is) in violation of these statutes.

However dry and boring it may seem to the busy reader now, if they are honored and enforced, the laws create difficulty for illegal aliens to obtain jobs, benefits, and services in Georgia. The politicians elected to lead Carroll County ignored my “heads up” warnings about glaring violations for more than six months.

To repeat another point from last month: With Georgia having a larger illegal alien population than Arizona and the Biden Regime allowing millions of illegal border crossings while choosing not to enforce immigration laws, Carroll County officials took a very similar attitude until they received some public exposure. Illegal immigration is not only a “federal problem.”

Many thanks to StarNews publisher and owner Sue Horn for the space to outline the above.

• Related: Latest development in Carroll County

Please know that if the storyline was about Carroll County government being in violation of any law that grants benefits or privileges to illegal aliens it would have long ago been a lead report on “the news” and in an Associated Press headline. Imagine the media frenzy if illegals were refused a taxpayer-funded K-12 education in Carroll County’s public schools or denied no-cost, no-questions-asked medical care in any emergency room in the state.

It appears that we created enough interest in the multiple Carroll County government violations to stir up some action on corrections.

I received an October 24^th conference call from county attorney Avery Jackson and several county staffers including Mr. Ben Skipper asking me to check the changes they made to the county website and system of issuing public benefits. From here it looks like the changes they made corrected most of the violations.

I write “most” because a law we mentioned last month designed to ensure that taxpayer-funded projects run by public employers exclude black market labor is apparently being bypassed. “Public employers” refers to official entities like Carroll County, the state of Georgia or any other government agency in Georgia.

The law, (OCGA 13-10-91) requires contractors bidding on public jobs to swear on an affidavit they are using the federal E-Verify system to validate work eligibility of new employees and subcontractors. False swearing is a felony. The law is clear on what must be in the affidavit.

In response to my latest open records request to Carrol County government for a copy of the affidavit they use for this purpose Carroll County sent me completely unrelated copies of affidavits used for building permits. I sent a follow up email asking if there had been an error. I have not received a response.

Shorter: It looks like Carrol County government does not offer or collect the paperwork on which contractors are supposed to swear to use of E-Verify before they are allowed to bid on a tax-funded projects. I have no idea how many illegal aliens are working on public jobs paid for by Carrol County taxpayers. Neither do county officials. So much for the law.

As I wrote last month, I sent a request to Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley to forward my official complaint against Carroll officials to the GBI. The Sheriff was kind enough to call me in late October and informed me that he will grant my request.

The story isn’t so dry and boring now, is it?

Creating the political pressure for enforcement is now up to voters 

Carroll county voters have a choice. Absent outside pressure, it is obvious that little determination exists on the part of county government officials to fight illegal immigration, illegal administration of public benefits and illegal employment. But voting taxpayers do have remedies.

As we pointed out last month, the laws aimed at reducing illegal immigration in Georgia that conservatives fought for more than a decade ago were passed with the promise that state audits and inspection would be forthcoming “subject to available funding’ and “contingent upon appropriation or approval of necessary funding…” Georgia now has a huge budget surplus.

Governor Kemp is boasting of that budget surplus. In 2018 He ran on the promise of fighting illegal immigration in Georgia – it was his first TV campaign ad. He has betrayed us on that pledge. Phone calls to his office (404-656-1776) and unapologetic demands from voters to their public servant, state legislators that money be appropriated for the purpose of monitoring compliance is the only way this anti-enforcement crisis will be solved.

Heads up and a warning to voters who take the time to follow up on this: Not many legislators under the Gold Dome want to hear about or discuss illegal immigration in Georgia.

Carroll County officials ignored notice of violations from here for more than six months

Compliant and request for GBI action filed with Carroll Co. Sheriff

D.A. King

As readers may have heard, more than 2 million illegal aliens crossed the U.S. borders in the fiscal year (Oct. 1- Sept. 30); an estimated 3.5 million have crossed since President Biden took office. Because it is easy to get a job here illegally, Georgia is a very popular destination for illegal “migrants.” It cannot be said too many times: we host more illegals than Arizona.

The news from the southern border leads us to the below bit of local information you likely will not see on “the news.”

Despite more than six months of “heads up” notifications from here, as I write on September 29 and 30, Carroll County government is in violation of at least three longstanding state laws put in place to make Georgia a difficult place to live for illegal aliens – and for the employers who want to hire them. This is not a “maybe” – the responses to August open records requests sent to the county from my office clearly show that many Carroll County officials are in long term violation.

It does not require a law degree to understand what is going on in Carroll County – and our state.

Anyone involved in an honest effort to deter the organized crime of illegal immigration knows that the main driver of this ongoing catastrophe is illegal employment and the hope of the illegals to take advantage of the long list of taxpayer-funded public benefits available in the U.S. – including in Georgia. Absent fulfillment of the constitutional duty of the Washington Democrats who are running the Biden Regime’s open border scheme to increase the future far-left voter base, it falls to the states to create a hostile environment for the hordes of illegals who are being bussed around the nation – including to Georgia.

I have been involved in creating and passing legislation aimed at illegal immigration under the Gold Dome since 2005.

A massive bill (“The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act” – SB 529) was passed in 2006 over the vocal objections of a long list of business interests and corporate-funded far-left anti-borders groups. The legislation began a process of making it more difficult for illegal aliens to access jobs, benefits, and services here.

The President of Mexico at the time opposed the bill too. “Implementation potentially effects human and civil rights of Mexicans who live in or visit Georgia” he said in a press release.

We note here that then State Senator Brian Kemp was the Chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee that passed out SB 529. Kemp also voted “YEA” on final passage. He told Atlanta media in 2011 that many Georgians are “fed up” with illegal immigration. It’s a “burning issue” he said then. He doesn’t talk about illegal immigration in Georgia now. Neither do most state legislators.

After a ferocious fight with the same opponents, in 2011 another piece of legislation (“The Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” – HB 87) went into law. It increased public safety while adding penalties for government officials who would refuse to comply with the laws aimed at preserving jobs, benefits and services for legal residents.

The goal was to make Georgia less hospitable to illegal immigration. Business licenses/ occupational tax licenses are public benefits under state law.

Georgia’s “Verification of Lawful Presence Within the United States” law requires that an applicant for public benefits swear on a notarized affidavit that he is either a U.S. citizen or a “lawfully present” and eligible foreign national. The applicant is required to present a “Secure and Verifiable” ID. The foreign national’s ‘lawful presence’ is then supposed to be verified using a federal database known as ‘SAVE.’ It is the responsibility of the government agency that issues these benefits to offer and collect these documents which have been standardized by law.

It is amazing how far outside the clearly written state statutes the Carrol County Board of Commissioners et al have been allowed to operate since the original effective date of July 1, 2012. The response to my open records request shows that department has likely illegally issued 4746 occupational tax licenses (business licenses) since then.

• Related: Complaint and evidence sent to Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley – Re: Carroll county government illegally administering public benefits

Like county officials, I have no idea how many of these mistakes served to welcome illegals to Carroll County. For readers with a curiosity for detail, the two laws in question here are OCGA 50-36-1 and OCGA 50-36-2.

Be warned up front that enforcement of these laws is not on the priority list of the people who run “the number one state for business.”

Related update: Additional information, Carroll County in violation of state public benefits laws

There are stiff penalties for violation

Government officials ignoring this law should know that offense is “a violation of the code of ethics for government service…and subject such agency head to…penalties…including removal from office and a fine not to exceed $10,000.00; and a…a high and aggravated misdemeanor offense where such agency head acts to willfully violate the provisions of this Code section…”

There is more:

Carrol County government is also in violation of the state law that requires private employers with ten or more employees to swear they are using the no-cost federal online work eligibility verification system called “E-Verify.” The goal of this law (OCGA 36-60-6) is to keep illegal aliens from working illegally in Georgia.

Another law, (OCGA 13-10-91) requires government agencies (“Public Employers) and most contractors paid with tax dollars to use the E-Verify system.

The state does not enforce these laws either. I challenge anyone, including Gov. Kemp, to present any example of prosecution in court of these hard-fought-for laws.

Solution: Fund the state enforcement tools already in the laws

These laws, hated by the people who profit from illegal immigration and intentionally ignored by state officials charged with enforcement, have wording that was put in place to make monitoring and prosecution seem certain in a then future version of Georgia. One that had money for investigation and enforcement.

• An example from 2011: “Subject to available funding, the state auditor shall conduct annual compliance audits on a minimum of at least one-half of the reporting agencies and publish the results of such audits annually on the department’s website on or before September 30.”
• And: “Subject to funding, the Department of Audits and Accounts shall annually conduct an audit of no fewer than 20 percent of such reporting agencies.”
• More: “Contingent upon appropriation or approval of necessary funding and in order to verify compliance with the provisions of this subsection, each year the Commissioner shall conduct no fewer than 100 random audits of public employers and contractors or may conduct such an audit upon reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of this subsection.”

None of the built-in audits or monitoring are being done. There has been no appropriation of funding. Not many legislators in today’s state Capitol are educated on any of this. Even fewer want to hear about it. That goes double for the “journalists” who decide what’s in “the news.” But the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a Sept. 24 headline that unintentionally tells us where to find funding for state level enforcement: “Georgia’s fiscal tax surplus hits $6.57 billion.”

Readers who have an interest in fewer illegal aliens migrating to Georgia should hound their state legislators and the governor on this until our illegal immigration laws are as enthusiastically enforced as seat belt, no smoking and touching cell phones-while-driving statutes.

 I have filed a complaint with the Carroll County Sheriff against the county officials who ignored repeated warnings on this and are operating an illegal occupational license issuing system. You can read much more on ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com – put “Carroll County” into the search bar.

• Update: October 5, 2022. I had the above ready to post Sept. 30 but held it because of my space in the Carroll County Star News. I already had a Sept. 29 phone and email conversation with the County Attorney informing her that my patience was gone and that I was going to write this county caper up for her local paper (Star News) to see if we could finally create some interest. A little research today shows me that the Board of Commissioners canceled the scheduled Sept 29 work session and did not meet until the regularly scheduled time/date yesterday (Oct. 4). I see no mention of any of this in the agenda. I do see that some of the incorrect affidavits have been replaced on the county occupational tax page. But not all of them. They are still in violation. Sigh.

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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.

______

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.

“Held: The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

SCOTUS Opinion

June 24, 2022

Storage for my own record.