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“Chinga La Migra!” – More on the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) and their open hate for immigration enforcement officers

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“Chinga La Migra” “Abolish ICE!” “ICE out of Georgia” “ICE free Georgia”

What you won’t read in the liberal AJC

GLAHR booth at a recent event. Image. GLAHR Twitter feed.

 

GLAHR, along with ‘Project South Institute for Elimination of Poverty and Genocide‘ is one of several groups hosting a “community forum” against the lifesaving 287(g) program tomorrow in Gwinnett County. See my recent write up here.  We are watching to see if the Gwinnett Daily Post and the “compelling” AJC cover this coming anti-287(g) event put on by these illegal alien lobby groups.

The open borders GLAHR corporation is run by a Mexican-born communist named Adelina Nichols. The two groups were invited by Gwinnett County Commissioner Marlene Fosque to a two-sided forum in July but backed out when they learned I was a panelist. The Gwinnett paper and the AJC both covered that event.

Above is a recently posted photograph on the GLAHR Twitter page of their booth at an event last week. Look carefully.

See the banner in the back of the booth?

Image: Zazzle, via Transpanish.biz

Don’t know what “La Migra” means? It is a Spanish language slang term used to describe any law enforcement official who is authorized to enforce immigration law.

Here is an explanation from the Transpanish website

“A derivative of the Spanish term migración (migration) or related to migraciones – the offices dealing with immigration issues in Spanish-speaking countries – the term has become shorthand for both agencies and individuals that deal with immigrants and immigration. Both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agencies can be referred to as La Migra, as well as the personnel who work for them, including immigration officers and agents who perform inspections of cars crossing the border or in search of illegal immigrants in places of business.”

So, what does the illegal alien lobby mean when they say (they say it a lot) “Chinga La Migra?”

“Chinga” is a slang word in Spanish for the “F word” – and we don’t mean firetruck.

You can see for yourself here and here.

GLAHR (2017 contributions and grants, $458,557) has been organizing illegal aliens in Georgia since 2001. From the GLAHR website, you can – and should –  see here ( <– it may take a few seconds to load. GLAHR took the page down, so the link is going to the Wayback Machine) for an example of how far along they are with their “Peoples Committees.” Nichols has t-shirts and sweatshirts for her anti-borders followers, which read “GLAHR – DEFY, DEFEND, EXPAND” – here.

 

Pro-enforcement Americans should learn when to say “Viva La Migra!”

But be advised, they hate that.  

 

 

Open to the public: Atlanta illegal alien lobby to hold a ‘do-over’ anti-287 (g) forum in Gwinnett County

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Anti-borders protesters at July 31, Gwinnett County 287(g) panel discussion. Image: IPG

 

Organizers dropped out of a two-sided discussion in July – but sent screaming protestors

Where and when: Collins Hill  Branch of the Gwinnett Public Library, 455 Camp Perrin Rd. Wednesday, October 2, at 6:PM.

Call it a “do-over.”

Several corporate-funded, anti-enforcement immigration groups have scheduled a “community forum” focused on the federal 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to locate, report and hold illegal aliens in local jails. The program often leads to deportation.

The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR), the Project South Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, Women Watch Africa Inc. and BAJI – the Black Alliance for Just Immigration are listed in online fliers as organizers of the event.

GLAHR was co-founded in 2001 by former Mexican diplomat Teodoro Maus and Mexican-born Adelina Nichols. Nichols, who now runs the anti-borders company is a longtime activist against immigration enforcement and a proponent of drivers licenses for illegal aliens.  Legal & Advocacy Director for Project South is Iranian-born Azadeh Shahshahani who has worked with the ACLU and an off-shoot called ‘Georgia Detention Watch’ to end 287(g) agreements nationwide and to abolish detention of illegal aliens.

The event is intended to perpetuate false, race-baiting accusations against the 287(g) program and ICE and anyone who supports immigration enforcement.

Endless and shameless use of the term “immigrant’ to describe illegal aliens should be expected.

These are the goals the organizers hoped to pursue for in a six-person July panel discussion held by Democrat Gwinnett County Commissioner Marlene Fosque that included pro-enforcement panelists from the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s office, ICE and this writer from the Dustin Inman Society. Angry that the Dustin Inman Society was to be part of the event, Nichols, Shahshahani and the staffer from another open borders concern called ‘Asian Americans Advancing Justice’ dropped out at the last minute.

Marlene Fosque. Image Gwinnett County Commission

Fosque found three anti-287(g) stand-in panelists including a board member of the infamous and discredited GALEO , Democrat state legislator, Brenda Lopez Romero ,who is a candidate for congress in Georgia’s Seventh District. The discussion went south when Romero, unable to offer factual arguments against using the 287(g) crime-fighting tool, decided to change the topic to attacking D.A. King (me) personally.

The fact that the radical groups dropped out of the panel did not prevent them from igniting and displaying the hate for immigration enforcement they have instilled in their young followers who disrupted the meeting multiple times with screams, jeers and a display of signs inside the Gwinnett County commission auditorium directed at the ICE Agent panelist and this writer. The liberal press wrote it up with a ‘victims of borders vs oppression’ angle complete with false descriptions of pro-enforcement Americans being “anti-immigrant and “anti-immigration.”

Online flier from event organizers. Image: Twitter

According to the illegal alien lobby’s flyer, the anti-287(g) forum will be held at the taxpayer-funded, (open to the public) Collins Hill Branch of the Gwinnett Public Library, 455 Camp Perrin Rd. Wednesday, October 2, at 6:PM.

For Georgians who have not been exposed to the tax-exempt-trained and hate-fueled opposition to borders and immigration enforcement, the meeting is a ‘don’t miss. ‘

Note: It is unknown if there will be law enforcement present but having your camera at the ready is highly recommended.

 

 

Corporate-funded anti-borders radical (Jerry Gonzalez) in Georgia: Verification of hiring records and ID is a “white nationalist agenda”

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Jerry Gonzalez. Image: Dustin Inman Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez opposes IMAGE certification for city governments

Just when the Average Joe might think the anti-borders mob has hit peak crazy, GALEO’s Angry Jerry Gonzalez explains to a Georgia newspaper that verifying ID used in the hiring process and use of E-Verify along with voluntary audits of HR records equates to… wait for it… a “white nationalist agenda.”

Jerry Gonzalez is Executive Director of the corporate-funded (Coca Cola, Georgia Power, State Farm Insurance, Southwest airlines, Cox Enterprises, Western Union…) Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials in Atlanta. GALEO marches in the streets protesting any immigration enforcement, lobbies in the Georgia Capitol against any legislation designed to make life difficult for illegal aliens – while referring to them as “immigrants” – against official English and photo voter ID,  – you know the drill.

We have a long history of fighting the GALEO machine here.

Angry Jerry’s comments came in a news report in the Marietta Daily Journal on the upcoming vote to renew the city of Marietta’s IMAGE certification. For a quick idea of what the IMAGE program is, think of it as E-Verify on steroids. Here is a excerpt from the official IMAGE website:

“Undocumented workers secure jobs through fraudulent means such as presenting false documents, completing fraudulent benefit applications and stealing someone’s identity. To combat unlawful employment and reduce vulnerabilities that help illegal aliens gain such employment, ICE announced the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program in July 2006. This program assists employers to develop a more secure and stable workforce. It also enhances fraudulent document awareness through education and training.”

Note: Since the IMAGE audits are intended to catch illegal aliens using fake and stolen ID documents to get hired, we think the use of the goofy “undocumented worker” term on the ICE/IMAGE site is a leftover from the nightmare Obama years. The victims of borders have plenty of (illegal) documents.

In 2012, this pro-enforcement writer worked long and hard to see IMAGE certification for the county HR department in my home of Cobb County and in the two cities in the county that also are IMAGE certified. Jerry doesn’t like that.

Never let a massacre by a lunatic go to waste

Gonzalez, who is known to scream at and chase down pro-enforcement advocates – even if they are diminuative women, told the MDJ the (IMAGE certification) renewal is likely to further strain the relationship between Latinos and elected officials because it comes at an especially bad time. After the horrific killings in El Paso. And actual enforcement in Mississippi.

“Two days after a white nationalist committed a domestic terrorist attack against Mexicans and people of Mexican descent in El Paso, there were massive immigration raids in this country as well, with the president pushing a white nationalist agenda,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the kind of alliance the City Council will be allying with. … I don’t think the city of Marietta needs to be pushing a white nationalist agenda like the president is pushing.”

How will we know when they hit peak crazy – and disgusting?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Georgia Governor Appoints Replacement Insurance Commissioner with Ties to Anti-enforcement Immigration Lobbying Group, GALEO – Brian Kemp

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Left: Newly appointed Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King with GALEO Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez. Image: Facebook, GALEO.org

 

Note, due to today’s funeral of our friend Billy Inman, this is a rush write up that will be expanded on soon. UPDATED AND FINAL – June 14 – 8:50AM

 

Yesterday, Georgia Republican Governor, Brian Kemp, announced his appointment of a metro-Atlanta police chief, John King, to be the replacement for the now-suspended elected Insurance Commissioner, Jim Beck. In Georgia, Insurance Commissioner is a statewide, constitutional office.

Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of the corporate-funded, anti-enforcement lobbyist group, GALEO, was quick to send out a media release praising the “historic” appointment and boasting that King had assisted the activist group as keynote speaker at a GALEO breakfast fundraiser several years ago.

“Congrats to Chief King, close friend of @GALEOorg !” was the much-repeated celebratory post on the GALEO Facebook page.

Update: Since GALEO blocked me fro their Facebook page, I am not sure the above link still works. So, try this too.

Kemp’s Insurance Commissioner appointee has no background or experience in the insurance industry.

Kemp’s appointment of the GALEO-connected police chief to Insurance Commissioner comes as a shock to many Republican voters in the state. Georgia’s conservative U.S. Senator David Perdue stopped the Obama nomination of a one-time GALEO board member, Dax Lopez, to a federal bench seat in 2016 because of his concern with the GALEO relationship.

DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez. Image: Daily Signal

Perhaps unknown to most Republican voters, in addition to marching in the streets of Atlanta against enforcement of existing federal laws on immigration, GALEO and its director are well-known in the state Capitol for lobbying against state legislation aimed at reporting criminal aliens to federal authorities and establishing an official database of illegal aliens serving time in the state’s prison system.

GALEO lobbies against voter ID, official English and local jails honoring ICE detainers. Executive Director Gonzalez is known to verbally attack female legislators when he does not approve of speeches or positions on illegal immigration. In 2011, Gonzalez posted this angry explanation of being asked to leave the Georgia Capitol when he lashed out at state Senator Renee Unterman for a speech she made on the floor of the senate.

GALEO online poster opposing 2018 legislation to improve reporting of illegal aliens to federal authorities

In 2011, GALEO’s Gonzalez was escorted out of a Rome, Georgia luncheon that featured a panel discussion on immigration when he began yelling at diminutive state Rep Katie Dempsey as reported by the Rome News Tribune.

State rep. Katie Dempsey. Image: Georgia General Assembly

Gonzalez is a former lobbyist for the radical MALDEF corporation. GALEO founder, former state Senator Sam Zamarippa was a MALDEF board member. MALDEF founder Mario Obledo is best remembered for his promise that “California is going to become a Hispanic state and if anyone doesn’t like it they should leave. They ought to go back to Europe” on the Tom Likus radio show in 1998.

According to the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.

Kemp ran on a platform that included his now famous “I got a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ’em home myself,”

Kemp and a GALEO fundraiser – Advice from a liberal AJC political blogger 

Republicans are learning that before he was elected governor, then Secretary of State Brian Kemp also gave GALEO a fundraising boost when he attended the annual GALEO Power Breakfast fundraiser in 2015.

On GALEO, the liberal AJC political blogger Jim Galloway informed readers today  that the Republicans will need to court the illegal alien lobby group as a necessary first step to “court Hispanic votes in the future” which ignores thirty years of election results since the Republican immigration amnesty of 1986.

All this creates a simple question: Does appointee John King agree with the GALEO agenda? He is due to be sworn in in the next few weeks, somebody should ask.

Governor Brian Kemp’s office can be reached at 404-656-1776 and Brian.Kemp@georgia.gov 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGIA PROFESSOR DRAWS FIRE FOR CRITICIZING ILLEGAL ALIENS – Daily Caller

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Fanf Zhou. Image: Georgia GWINNETT COLLEGE

GEORGIA PROFESSOR DRAWS FIRE FOR CRITICIZING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Daily Caller

June 8, 2019

David Krayden

A Georgia college professor is under attack for saying illegal immigrants hurt the United States economy.

Fang Zhou, who teaches history Georgia Gwinnett College, has made comments that have raised the ire of some students and Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen.

GALEO’s Dax Lopez passed over again despite support from Establishment Republican “influencer” Heath Garrett

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DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez. Image: Daily Signal

A partial list of reminders of when Dax Lopez did not resign from GALEO  *Updated with short audio

 

 

Conservative, pro-enforcement voters in Georgia should have an interest in understanding that Governor Kemp rejected DeKalb state court judge Dax Lopez for an appointment to higher court last week – May 31st – and who supported the appointment.

Lopez was on a short list with two other judges for a gubernatorial appointment for a promotion to a Stone Mountain Circuit Superior Court seat. On Friday, Kemp announced that Shondeana Morris, a former deputy district attorney in Fulton County and former assistant solicitor for the City of Atlanta was chosen for the position. Morris has been a State Court judge since 2017. Lopez was appointed to state court on 2010 by Republican Governor Sonny Perdue.

This was not the first time Dax Lopez has run into trouble. After intense public pressure, in 2016 Lopez was rejected by Georgia Senator David Perdue after then President Barack Obama nominated him for a lifetime seat on the federal bench in Georgia. Lopez also withdrew his name from consideration for Georgia Supreme Court when letters of objection poured into then Governor Deals’ office asking that Lopez be dropped from consideration.

Republican strategist and former Chief of Staff to Senator Johnny Isakson, Heath Garrett, reminded us that he and Senator Isakson backed Lopez for federal judge and expressed support for appointing Lopez to Superior Court on the May 13 edition of the liberal GPB radio show ‘Political Rewind. ’ Garrett explained that Dax Lopez was not only a friend but someone who Garrett has worked with. An excerpt from the radio dialogue on Lopez and the possibility of his advancement:

Heath Garrett. Image: Twitter

Heath Garrett: “And, look, full disclosure, Dax is a good friend. He’s worked with me on a number of campaigns. Uh, Senator Isakson and our organization has promoted him for that federal judgeship and backed him, uh, to the, uh, ’til the moment that he withdrew. Uh, we support him in this, as well. This is exactly the type of individual that Republicans ought to be supporting into these types of positions. And then to have others within the party come and attack him, I think is bad policy.”

 

Update: Audio.

 Garrett was joined in support of Lopez by the pro-amnesty corporation fund by open borders billionaires, FWD.us after GALEO leader Jerry Gonzalez sent out an action alert for supporters to contact Governor Kemp and directing them to the FWD.us page to sign on to a letter to Kemp.

Garrett is described as an “influencer” by Ballotpedia. *A favorite Heath Garrett story here.

 Why has Dax Lopez had so much trouble with advancement?

For eleven years Dax Lopez served as board member, treasurer, tactician and fundraiser for the corporate-funded, anti-enforcement immigration activist group the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO). He resigned from GALEO only after the Obama nomination for federal bench and the massive objections from the public, elected officials and law enforcement officers poured into the senate offices.

We think it is important to understand that Dax Lopez did not resign from GALEO when Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez, was race-baiting and smearing legislators for passing legislation aimed at protecting Georgians from illegal immigration. And smearing rule of law activists for taking a pro-enforcement position on immigration  – and attacking law enforcement officials for daring to use the federal  287(g) tool to safeguard public safety by locating and reporting to ICE criminal illegal aliens who were arrested for additional crimes and landed in the county jails.

According to the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.

Image: GBPI.org

 

 

Dax Lopez has made it clear that he supports the GALEO agenda.

An abbreviated list of the GALEO agenda items pursued with corporate funding during the time Dax Lopez served on the GALEO board include:

  • Leading and participating in protest marches against any immigration enforcement
  • Lobbying city and county officials against honoring ICE detainer requests in local jails
  • Transporting and escorting admitted illegal aliens into the senate chambers in the state Capitol
  • Lobbying against voter ID
  • Lobbying against increased penalties for driving without ever having been licensed
  • Lobbying state legislators against use of federal tools to insure public benefits only go to eligible applicants
  • Lobbying against implementation of the no-cost E-Verify system to protect jobs for legal residents
  • Lobbying against legislation to make English the constitutional official language of government in Georgia
  • Lobbying against state penalties for ID fraud for the purpose of illegally obtaining employment on the pretense that all of this would somehow be “anti-immigrant” and/or “anti-Hispanic.”

Not only did Dax Lopez not resign from the board of GALEO when all this was happening, but as a sitting state court Judge Dax Lopez assisted with GALEO fundraising by serving as keynote speaker at a 2011 GALEO breakfast fundraiser.

Also according to the Charlotte Observer Lopez was personally and directly active against state immigration enforcement-related legislation in a very direct manner (2008). Lopez wrote then-Gov. Sonny Perdue, requesting a gubernatorial veto of two pieces of legislation, House Bill 978 and Senate Bill 350. Both measures were judged by GALEO to adversely affect Georgia’s growing illegal alien community.

“Gov. Perdue did veto HB 978, which authorized the impounding of vehicles from operators who had no valid driver’s licenses. But he signed Senate Bill 350 into law, making a fourth conviction for driving without a license a felony.

The measure also requires police to determine the nationality of anyone jailed after being convicted for driving without a license. The Latino officials association opposed the measure, saying it would create tension between immigrants and law enforcement while making crime victims and witnesses less likely to contact police” the newspaper reported.

We think Governor Kemp did the right thing to listen to pro-enforcement Georgians and to ignore the voices of Establishment Republicans like Heath Garrett when he passed over GALEO’s Dax Lopez.

Full disclosure: The Dustin Inman Society, of which this writer is president, proudly organized opposition to state court judge Dax Lopez for federal court, for state supreme court and the most recent attempt to advance to superior court.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illegal Alien Employer Bust an Enforcement Opportunity for Gov. Kemp – Will Identity Fraud By Illegal Aliens Be Punished in Georgia? Update: No.

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‘Yep, I Just Said That’: GA Gov. Candidate Brian Kemp’s Ad Said He’d ‘Round Up’ Illegal Aliens In His Truck | Image: Fox News Insider

 

“Offense of aggravated identity fraud”

(a)  A person commits the offense of aggravated identity fraud when he or she willfully and fraudulently uses any counterfeit or fictitious identifying information concerning a real, fictitious, or deceased person with intent to use such counterfeit or fictitious identifying information for the purpose of obtaining employment.”

The law says that a first offense “shall be punishable by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 15 years, a fine not to exceed $250,000.00, or both…”

*The below guest column was posted on the subscription website, Insider Advantage Georgia today

Illegal Alien Employer Arrest an Enforcement Opportunity for Kemp

by | May 10, 2019 | The Forum | 0 comments

The news that a Mexican illegal alien amassed a large fortune by illegally operating a construction company while employing other illegal aliens and living in a Bartow County compound — complete with a security wall and armed guards – presents a golden opportunity for Gov. Brian Kemp. That is, if the new governor wants to make clear his determination to fight illegal immigration.

It cannot be said enough: The chief cause of illegal immigration is illegal employment. Reduce the former and see less of the latter. Fewer illegal aliens equals fewer crimes committed by illegal aliens. It seems obvious.

As the anti-enforcement Georgia Budget and Policy Institute was kind enough to remind us last summer, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders). Only the most politically blind and naïve still hold out hope that congress will accomplish anything meaningful on ending the illegal immigration crisis.

The logical conclusion is that state and local governments should use all available tools to make Georgia as inhospitable as possible to illegal employers and illegal aliens. That would include unapologetic enforcement of state laws already in place.

Which brings us back to the governor and Juan Antonio Perez, the illegal alien recently busted by the feds and who reportedly had somewhere around 200 employees “almost all of them here illegally.”

Kemp should consider having the GBI obtain the employment records from all of the companies operated by Perez, if he has any. Including the I-9 forms. The I-9 form is the outdated, 20th century paper device used to collect and record identity verification documents presented by new employees to the employer.

It is impossible for an illegal alien to complete the I-9 process without use of false or stolen ID. Georgia has a state law for that.

Intended to severely punish ID fraud in the process of obtaining employment, Georgia’s  “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” (HB 87) put OCGA 16-9-121.1 in place.

“Offense of aggravated identity fraud”…read the rest here.

PSA: Governor Kemp can be contacted by email at Brian.Kemp (@) georgia.gov and Georgians can leave a message with his staff at the Capitol by calling 404-656-1776

Adios, IERB – Georgia Legislature Passes Law to Abolish the Immigration Enforcement Review Board

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Image: WOSU radio

Created in 2011 via HB87, and dubbed a “parody of a kangaroo court” by this writer, the controversial but obscure IERB has been abolished by the General Assembly.

Archived tracking of the IERB can be seen here on the Dustin Inman Society blog.

A more detailed story on the apparent demise of the IERB from the Decaturish.com news outlet can be seen here.

 

Public Safety Legislation: Track and report to Georgia public the number of non-citizens in state prison system with immigration status, nationality and crimes committed

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Image: Georgia Department of Corrections

 

 

Georgia Rep Jesse Petrea (R, Savannah) has dropped one-page legislation under the Gold Dome to begin the process of creating an official database of criminal aliens in the state prison system. The descriptive caption on Petrea’s new HB 202 reads:

to require the commissioner of corrections to report certain information regarding the immigration status, offenses, and home countries of persons who are confined under the authority of the Department of Corrections…

A staunch advocate of public safety, in 2017 Rep Petrea successfully sponsored HB 452 which required the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to share information it receives from the federal government on the release from federal custody of criminal aliens with Georgia sheriffs

“This bill is about transparency. The people have a right to know when criminal aliens are released back into our communities. That information is not now available to them. The people can form their own opinions based on the data made available to them. My goal is to make the information available” Petrea said at the time.

The current effort at creating official records of crime and punishment of aliens in Georgia will serve to document one of the costs to taxpayers of criminal activity by non-citizens regardless of their immigration status. Including former Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety, now Republican state Rep. Bill Hitchens, a partial list of cosigners to HB 202 can be seen on the top of Petrea’s bill, introduced yesterday. While only the federal government has authority to deport illegal aliens, Georgia’s new governor, Brian Kemp is expected to show support for the concept, as he ran on a platform of cracking down on criminal aliens and gangs. Georgia has suffered a noted increase in gang activity.

Rep. Jesse Petrea. Image: Georgia General Assembly

Expert observers predict that the corporate-funded anti-enforcement immigration lobby will offer strong resistance to Petrea’s public safety information sharing measure. Currently, the Coca Cola – funded GALEO Corp. is joined by the SPLC and FWD.US along with multiple other leftist groups in a massive lobbying force to convince the Republican-controlled Georgia legislature to kill any legislation that advances immigration enforcement or establishes official records of costs associated with illegal immigration.

According to the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Lawful Permanent Residents – green card holders.

Contacted by phone Friday, Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway expressed his strong support for Petrea’s bill, saying “it’s always a good idea to collect more information on crime and this is valuable information. It’s a no brainer”, said Conway. In 2009, Conway implemented the federal 287(g) program in the Gwinnett jail.

Legislators in other states have expressed interest in Petrea’s public safety move. Georgia Rep Jesse Petrea can be contacted through his Capitol office.

 

Hall County elections board to study possibility of foreign language ballots

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Image: Flickr

Gold Dome Republicans will not allow voters to decide on constitutional official English

The liberal Gainesville Times is reporting today that the Hall County elections board is again investigating the possibility of foreign language ballots.

Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act requires that counties with large enough populations of minority groups provide election materials in their population’s native languages. Voters who are not proficient in English have the option to bring a translator with them to the polls.

Hall’s elections board voted last year to reverse plans to provide ballots in Spanish, but now that the busy election season is over, board members said Tuesday that they wanted to devote some time to studying how the county could offer ballots in Spanish.

The corporate-funded anti-English Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) in Atlanta has long lobbied against English as Georgia’s constitutional official language of government and has led the attack on English in the voting process. The Republican-ruled Georgia House killed legislation in 2016 to allow Georgia voters to answer a ballot question on amending the state constitution to make English the state’s official language of government.

The ability to read, write, and speak basic English is a requirement for naturalization.

Gwinnett County is already using foreign language ballots.

“GALEO is very glad about the designation by the U.S. Census Bureau and the requirement to provide much needed Spanish language assistance to Latino voters in Gwinnett County,”  Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said in a news release Monday afternoon.

“Voting is an important right we have as U.S. citizens, regardless of English language proficiency. As we had mentioned over one year ago, the need for Spanish language assistance and information is certainly a reality,” GALEO Executive Director Jerry Gonzalez told the liberal AJC.

Metro-Atlanta’s DeKalb County School system alone deals with 140 languages

The Times’ story on Hall County and foreign language ballots can be read here.