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* Part two: “Martha Zoller, “DACA”, amnesty and “the likes of D.A. King” –here.

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Audio of FWD.us lobbyist and illegal alien Jaime Rangel hit today from The Martha Zoller Show ‘show clips.’

Related: “DREAM Act” amnesty is merely the hook for total amnesty…again

* LISTEN: Jaime Rangle talks DACA framework here and pasted below.

Audio of FWD.us lobbyist and illegal alien Jaime Rangel hit today from The Martha Zoller Show clips.’ Transcription from Rev.com pasted below. My cost $12.00.

It should be noted here that contrary to the labels presented on Martha Zoller’s radio show today, the amnesty legislation (there would be zero hearings) being discussed in the U.S. Senate will not be limited to DACA recipients. I called in and went on the air with Martha to say exactly that. I am grateful to Martha for taking the call. I am in hopes of posting that conversation here but need to access Martha’s podcast to do it.

*Updated: Martha did not include my on air call correcting the Rangel interview on the amnesty proposal being only for DACA recipients in her podcast. I did find a segment of here show the day after the Rangel interview in which she had more to say on her personal position on amnesty and “the likes of D.A. King.” You can hear that one and read as transcript here. Because of the results on the one-time amnesty of 1986, I am in the “amnesty-never” camp. Republican radio host Martha Zoller isn’t.

• Related: Here Are More Details About the Atrocious Backdoor Amnesty Deal

We had an exchange on Twitter this evening.

 

Martha had more to say about amnesty than what is included on her “show clips” that features the interview/sales pitch from FWD.us lobbyist Jaime Rangel. I am waiting to find the podcast of today’s show and will post the entire segment of the show in which Martha opined on the need for amnesty as a trade for a promise of future border security from the Biden administration. There is more.

Transcript:

“Martha Zoller – GOP radio show host:

Jaime Rangel’s joining me right now from Forward, and we’re gonna talk about this framework related to DACA, and, um, you know, it’s one of probably, uh, the most sympathetic groups of people that there are related to illegal immigration in America. Uh, and it’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time. And Jaime, first of all, thank you for coming in today, um, or being on the program today. Uh, it is something that people need to- to understand because we’ve been talking about this for a long time. There have been several solutions put on the table. Where are we today?

Jaime Rangel, illegal alien, DACA recipient and FWD.us lobbyist:

Well, first of all, thank you, Martha and all you for allowing me to be here this morning, and God bless you, to you and all your viewers out there. Where we are now, we’re in a, in a, in a position where there’s an opportunity to finally do something on DACA. Uh, recently, um, as you might have heard on the news, uh, Senator Sinema and Senator Tillis of North Carolina and Arizona have, uh, given a potential framework where a compromised legislation is possible. And at Forward, not only just at Forward, but as someone who is a DACA recipient myself, we’re encouraged by the reported talks and the bipartisan progress that’s being made right now.

And listen, Martha, like, you mentioned, you know, the American people want solutions. The issue o- of DACA is, you know, people support it and that will always support it. In fact, recent polling as of like 12 days ago I believe shows that overwhelmingly, including 70% of self identified conservatives support Republicans and Democrats working together now on immigration reform that’s strengthening the border. And allow people who were brought to this county, like myself, you know, to allow us to be a part of, continue being a part of the American dream. That’s what the American people want. And we need Congress to act now.

Martha Zoller – GOP radio show host:

And I don’t disagree with you. You and I have talked about this for a long time. There have been opportunities in the past. And I don’t wanna belabor the past because the past is the past. We got a new group of players right now and hopefully they’ll do things. But, you know, whether it’s DACA, whether it’s codifying Roe V Wade, whether it is, um, dealing with a number of other issues that we have. There are too many people in Congress that would rather have it an iss- as an issue to talk about, and to raise money off of, than to actually find a solution. And until we get past that place in, in our history, um, we’re not gonna get the work done that we need to get done.

I don’t disagree. I mean I was in favor of what former President Trump put forward. Where I felt like it was a great compromise, where it was money for border security in exchange for the DACA, um, uh, the legalization of DACA kids and their parents. And, and of course that didn’t go through and I don’t wanna belabor the point because it’s a different administration, a different Congress. So what does this particular, uh, situ- framework, as they’re calling it, look like?

Jaime Rangel:

Well we don’t have anything in text so far right now, Martha. You know, they’re still working out the details. So I can’t really go into detail about something that I have, we have not seen on paper. But what I can tell your viewers is right now more than any other situation that we’ve had in the past, as I mentioned last time I was on your show, DACA’s under real threat in the courts. We’ve already seen that Judge Hanen out of Texas is more than likely gonna rule that DACA, um, the program itself is un-constitution. And the pathway through the courts, it does not work well.

So what does that mean down the road? Well it means that dreamers won’t be able to go to their jobs, they won’t be able to go to the hospital, where they’re being employed right now and helping the state. They won’t be able to go to our classes right now to teach the next generation of Americans. We’re looking at about, you know, one billion dollars being lost in the month in the US economy and the 1,000 people being pulled out of the workforce. And that’s real, that’s a real problem. In Georgia, we have 20,000 DACA recipients in this state who have a spending power of 1.3 billion, contribute over $100,000,000 in taxes. And we want these, we want, uh, we wanna stay in this state. We wanna stay in this country.

You know, I was brought to this, uh, this country when I was only a toddler. I took my first steps in American soil. I grew up and to this day will stand up and pledge to the greatest flag on Earth, and we need Congress to do something because there is a, a real threat. Um, and the what do, do we, you know, do we want our economy to grow stronger and for th- us to continue [inaudible 00:04:27], um, building jobs in our nation, or do we wanna deport, you know, 600,000 individuals back to a country that they don’t even know.

I think we should do what Ronald Reagan is protect and pass on lovingly that shiny city on that front, shiny city on a hill, and I know we have an opportunity with this framework. I’m encouraging all US Senators in our, in our Congress, congressional delegation in the house to get together. Enough with the finger pointing. We need y’all to negotiate, and we need you negotiating now.

Martha Zoller – GOP radio show host:

So what would you like to see? If you, you don’t have anything in writing, but what would you like to see?

Jaime Rangel:

I wanna see something that’s bipartisan, that’s well negotiated in a good faith effort that will pass the US Senate. We need 10 Republicans to come on board. We’ve, we’ve had I believe Republicans that have spoken favorably of dreamers in the past. And I believe the votes are there. We just need our senators in our, in our congress and DC to work together.

And we the American people have spoken. Like I mentioned, polling has showed that over 70% vote conservative and [inaudible 00:05:26] have supported do- dreamers in the past, and they want bipartisan solutions. The American people have spoken, and we want Congress to act. So that’s what I want. I want people to do the job they were elected to do.

Martha Zoller – GOP radio show host:

Jaime Rangel from forward.us, uh, we appreciate you being with us today and talking about this very important subject. Thank you.

Jaime Rangel:

Thank you so much Martha. God bless.

end of Rangel interview.

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Erick Erickson podcast

Below transcript by Rev.com

“More and more layoffs are starting to happen.”

Erick Erickson Dec 2, 2022, hour 3:

 

Begin topic:

“… so there’s a weird problem happening in this country that no one can seem to figure out. Where are all the workers going? The data suggests a lot of early retirements. That people decided to retire and not come back in. And a lot of kids, younger people, are staying in school. We’re in population decline to a degree as well. And so we don’t have workers, qualified workers, in particular, to fill a lot of jobs, and that’s going to have economic problems in this country. And, of course, the usual suspects are already out there saying, “Well, if we just open the borders, if we open the borders, everything will be fine. We’ll, we’ll be able to take care of this.” And I don’t necessarily think that’s the answer.

Uh, I, look, I am a proponent of, of more immigration in this country, qualified and skilled workers. Uh, as long as they don’t come from China these days, unless they’re fleeing Chinese communist persecution. Too many of them I think are coming over here with the encouragement of the Chinese government and eventually go back, we shouldn’t do that, but we’re going to have to come up with some way to find more workers for this country.

It is one of the weird side effects of the inflation dynamic is that, uh, part of the reason we’re seeing inflation is companies are having to pay much higher wages to incentivize people either coming back to work from retirement or getting new people to come into the office who otherwise aren’t working. They’re in college, and they’re incentivizing people dropping out. Major companies in the country right now, including, I think I read, uh, Walmart, Delta, and, and several others, IBM are ditching college requirements for more jobs. Used to have to have a college degree to get into certain sectors of the economy and certain, uh, departments of major corporations. Not anymore.

These companies are saying they need all the workers they can get and they’re taking life experience over college degree just to be able to fill positions. If we can’t get a handle of the labor crisis, and we do have a labor force participation shortage in this country and it’s becoming a crisis, we’re gonna have more, and more problems and we’re not gonna be able to get rid of inflation. Uh, bargain a major economic meltdown. The Fed is still going to raise interest rates, uh, in the coming month, probably not as much as they were. On top of that, pending home sales are starting to crash. They’re down 37% year-over-year, the largest decline on record. The economy is starting to go wobbly and slow down.

More and more layoffs are starting to happen. Uh, we got problems out there in the country right now economically, and uh, we’ll see how successful the Democrats could be at blaming Republicans. Typically …the President gets the blame. And what’s happening is what was predicted. Even as Joe Biden tells people his economy is rebounding, which it isn’t.

When we come back, we gotta talk about Sam Bateman Fried  and the media scam.”

Episode 1

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

Rep Chuck Martin, Chairman

*Updated July 7, 2022 1:08 pm.

Media coverage here.

Workforce Development Meeting Notice-1

• House Higher Education Committee here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The entire 2011 NRO post is quite educational.

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

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

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

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

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

Update 9:10 AM: I adjusted the headline due to a text from Martha Zoller. Replaced “GOP” with “Republican.”

Ending sanctuary cities, “track and deport” and a criminal alien registry not necessary now?

Transcription and audio, Martha Zoller Show, April 4, 2020 (partial) #BrianKemp

I sometimes am able to listen to my friend Martha Zoller on her radio show (9-11 AM weekdays, WDUN -AM) and have been a guest on her show. Martha was a speaker at one of our White House rallies against amnesty when ‘W’ was president.

Today (Monday, April 4) in an interview with the Speaker of the Georgia House, Martha told her audience and Speaker David Ralston that Gov Kemp has done everything he promised he would do in the 2018 campaign. That is not true.

I tweeted as much with a tag to Martha and she replied on the air. My tweet and what Martha said in response is below. It sounds to me that the essence of Martha’s defense of Kemp is that because so many illegal aliens are coming over the border now as compared to 2018 when Kemp ran for governor the first time, that he doesn’t need to honor his 2018 promises on criminal aliens and the legislation he promised to see passed on those “criminal illegals.” Many obedient Republican voters will accept this as reality.

Georgia is home to more “undocumented workers” than Arizona.

Martha Zoller will be the first one to tell you that she has been a paid staffer for both Gov. Kemp and former Senator David Perdue, who is now one of Kemp’s primary opponents for 2022. For the record, as we have said before, Perdue also ignores illegal immigration in Georgia and does not mention Kemp’s defiant betrayal on his 2018 campaign promises. We call it the “#BigTruckTrick.” Led by the liberal AJC editors, most of the Georgia media ignores it. Likewise most Republican groups, but not in Cobb County.

Martha was also appointed to the state school board by Gov.Kemp.

 

The Martha Zoller Show – WDUN-AM, Gainesville GA.

Link to audio from the Martha Zoller Show, Monday, April 4, 2022

Transcript below from Rev.com

Part 1 (Ralston interview before bottom of the hour break) audio. Relevant text in bold.

Part 2 audio (after break)

Transcript below from Rev.com

My time: 3 hours. My cost $21.00

Martha Zoller (host): (00:04)
“Now you- when you go out at the end of the day today, whenever that is, um, you- there’s a big task then, uh, after that. There are people running in primaries, there are people that are gonna have, you know, a roughly a month until early voting starts, and then, uh, we’ve got about six or seven weeks until the- ’til the primary. What is the work that needs to be done in order to unite, in our case, you and I are both Republicans, the Republican party. But the Republican party is not the only party with- with some division issues, they’ve got ’em on the Democratic side too. Uh, so what are your thoughts about that going forward?

Speaker Ralston: (00:44)
Well, I- I tell Republicans that, uh, if we’re not united, um, then we might as well be prepared to turn over, uh, state government to the other party. Uh, that would include the Governor’s office as well as one or both of the, uh- uh, legislative chambers. Um- uh, you know, Republicans are, you know, and we are Republicans, you and I, have been for many, many years. Uh, I have been for over 65 years, uh, and, um- uh, but we just have a real, real knack of eating our own and turning on one another, and having these, uh, sort of circular firing squads and… Um, I- I don’t know much about the other party’s divisions, um- um, but- but my sense is, is that they’re not, uh, as deep or as, um, seemingly insurmountable as those we have.

Speaker Ralston: (01:50)
And then the last thing we needed this year was a contested race in a primary against the sitting, uh- uh, Governor, uh, and, um, but, you know, it’s a free country and, uh, we are where we are, so we’ll, uh, tee it up. Uh, we don’t have long to go after today before or, as you say, early voting starts of the primary. It’s not gonna be a, um, a marathon, it’s going to be a sprint, and it’s going to be a very fast sprint.

Martha Zoller (host): (02:24)
—>No, I’m with you on that, completely. We’re gonna- I’m in the process now of laying out these interviews, and I know… And it’s a good thing in many of these races to have opposition, but I’m- I’m with you, um, that we have a Governor that’s done a very good job, that’s done everything he promised he would do and, uh, that’s- the, you know, the primary in that particular race is not helping. But, you know, you and I, I know, will be working hard for our values between now and- and that primary. And the primary is gonna be a ver- May 24th is gonna be a very big day for what people like to call the Trump Republicans versus the establishment Republicans, because Tex- Texas will be having their run-offs, and we will be having our primaries, and it’s gonna tell us a lot about where we are, I think.

Speaker Ralston: (03:12)
Well, you’re exactly right. Um- um, you know, the, um, former President Trump has made the Georgia primary and the… He- he’s made it, this hasn’t been the media, but he has made it, um, the first big test of his, uh, continuing, um, influence over, uh, the Republican party. And if he loses there and he doesn’t do well in Texas, and then it looks like, uh, he’s not going to do well in, um, Alabama. Uh, he’s pulled off of his un- endorsed opponent, or the endorsed, uh, candidate there, a fair chance, uh, or better that he doesn’t do well in North Carolina, then I think people, uh, will start saying, um, you know, maybe, uh- um, maybe the dew’s worn off the rose now.

Martha Zoller (host): (04:06)
Well Speaker Ralston, I know you’ve got a very long day ahead of you, and we appreciate you giving us a few minutes of your time today.

Speaker Ralston: (04:13)
Thank you very much, Martha. It’s always good to be with you and, uh, I hope you get some rest after the session and, um, and- and- and- and I’d- I’d love to come back on, but not until after I get some rest.

Martha Zoller (host): (04:25)
That’s right, you got it.

Speaker Ralston: (04:26)
(laughs)

Martha Zoller (host): (04:26)
I will have you on again soon. Thank you very much, sir.

Martha Zoller (host): (04:29)
We’re gonna take a break right now, and when we come back we’re gonna talk with you, find out what you think. What are you looking for in this, what we call, sine die. We’ll be back.

End of interview with Speaker Ralston, show goes to commercial break.

Return from 9:30 AM break:

Announcer 1: (00:00)
5:50 and FM 102.9 WDUN. (singing)

Martha Zoller (host): (00:09)
That increase in groceries every single week, uh, almost $300 a month. That is absolutely crushing. That is essentially a tax on every American. In addition, energy costs.

Martha Zoller (host): (00:20)
It is the Martha Zoller show. And, uh, you know, what is it that you guys are looking for as you look at this last day of session, are there still bills that you’re looking for? (770) 535-2911, because what’s really interesting about any of this is that, uh, you know, what’s really interesting about any of this is that they could actually gavel out right now. They pass the budget, that’s all they have to do. Um, and you know, I, I think it’s one of those things that people need to be aware of. Um, I think it’s important. So I got this tweet in from D.A. King and I don’t don’t really us- I usually don’t, um, uh, you know, read tweets on the air, but I think because he called me out directly, I will, he says, “Martha Zoller just told listeners and speaker Ralston that governor Kemp has done a very good job of keeping all of his 2018 campaign promises.”

Martha Zoller (host): (01:18)
Um, and, and he put in here, um, uh, some comments from governor Kemp related to immigration policy as governor, conservative businessman, Brian Kemp create a comprehensive database to track criminal aliens in Georgia. He will also update the Georgia law to streamline deportation from our jails and prisons. Uh, Donald Trump was right, we must in sanctuary cities and he goes on and talks about some other things.

Martha Zoller (host): (01:43)
Where I would disagree with D.A. about his, his, you know, belief. And he’s entitled to that belief, uh, that, uh, governor Kemp has not kept promises on immigration is that the immigration issue has changed as this session, as this governor’s term has gone on. So what is necessary is different than what he promised in 2018. He has been working with the Tex- with Texas, with putting National Guard on the border to try to help stem the tide of people coming across the border because in my view, the biggest problem is not the things that were mentioned here in this promise that was made in 2018.

Martha Zoller (host): (02:24)
And this is just my opinion. This is not governor Kemp’s opinion. Although I’ve asked governor Kemp this question when he’s been on the program and he will be on again tomorrow, and I will be talking to him about this, but there are these issues that, um, have changed. And you have seen that the governor has responded to immigration issues as they relate to sex trafficking and human trafficking and people that are coming across the border. No, it is not exactly what he promised in 2018. But if, if the situation changes and the people coming across the border have changed, then you’ve got to adapt to that.

Martha Zoller (host): (03:01)
Now, D.A.’s gonna disagree with me, and that’s perfectly fine. Okay. But I think sometimes you have to amend what you promised and it doesn’t mean that you didn’t keep your promise. It meant that you saw that you needed something different than what he had originally promised. And he did something different, but D.A. can disagree with me because, hey, we’ve been friends for 25 years talking about this issue and we don’t agree on every single thing. You can join us on the phones at (770) 535-2911. Let’s talk to Chad…”

 

 

 

 

 

Candidate for Lt. Governor, Senator Butch Miller on the Trump agenda and his role in HB 87 in 2011. 

Below is a transcript of part of the radio (Access WDUN) interview Martha Zoller did with Sen Butch Miller, March 25, 2022. here is the audio and a link to the entire seven-ish  minute interview.

We think Martha does good work.

 

Martha Zoller (host): (00:00)

‘…[inaudible 00:00:00], um, uh, you know, I, I think we’re pa- We’re getting past that, and I don’t think that Donald Trump- Donald Trump was asked not to come to Virginia in the governor’s race, and he, he had complied with that wish, didn’t come. Virginia had a positive message, and they ended up electing a Republican governor. You know, I have said- I said in the AJC yesterday, if he is negative and fore and backward looking, then he doesn’t help these candidates that he says he wants to help.

Butch Miller: (00:28)
A-, absolute that’s the case. And, you know, before they were, uh, Trump policies that, that they’re all talking about, they were Butch Miller policies. And matter of fact, we passed, uh, uh, I particularly passed, uh, legislation in the Georgia chamber that, that President Trump picked up and passed on a national basis to our federal employees when we talked about, um, family, uh, access, family leave, uh, low taxes, uh, those kind of things. Those are things that I have been worked on for years now and not, not gonna stop.

Butch Miller: (01:00)
And, uh, you know, we, we talked, he talked about immigration, making sure we had immigration control. I, I was part of passing House Bill 87, which was the strongest immigration bill in the history of the, of the United States. No one has more … No one has a stronger immigration bill than Ho-, House Bill 87. Uh, so I’ve been working on those issues for years on the state level. On the federal level, they picked up those very same issues. And I think-

Martha Zoller (host): (01:27)
Absolutely.

Butch Miller: (01:28)
… that’s [inaudible 00:01:28] you know, what, what is it? Uh, intimidation is the gra- Uh, excuse me. Imitation is the greatest compliment. And, uh,-

Martha Zoller (host): (01:33)
That’s right, greatest-

Butch Miller: (01:33)
… so that’s what we’ve done.

Martha Zoller (host): (01:35)
… form of flattery. Butch Miller,-

Butch Miller: (01:37)
[crosstalk 00:01:37]

Martha Zoller (host): (01:37)
… if people wanna help you in your campaign, how can they do that?

Butch Miller: (01:40)
Uh, butchmillerforgeorgia.com and, uh, that’s the website.

 

Ecstatic supporters of SB 601 pose with Sen Miller after his “school choice!” bill passes out of committee March 8, 2022.

Update: noon, March 16, 2022 – SB 601 failed to see final passage on the senate floor yesterday by a vote of 20-29. It’s dead. Also of note: Sen Jason Anavitarte voted “YES do pass” in committee but then voted “NO” on the floor after we sent this column to the entire GOP Senate caucus. More here.

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 Update:  A phone conversation with the Senate President Pro Tem’s Chief of Staff, Steve Tippins

12:05 PM MARCH 9, 2022. I just got the promised call from Steve Tippins, Sen Butch Miller’s Chief of Staff who said he is pretty comfy with the unworkable and poorly researched language (his, apparently) they concocted on almost excluding illegal alien students from SB 601. He did not want to talk about the illegal alien parents who would be involved in handling state money and could easily have oversight on the spending rules. Tippens told me he was getting calls from members who don’t want to deal with the illegal immigration issue at all. For clarity, I asked him “you mean you are hearing from senate members who do not want to answer questions about excluding illegal aliens from Sen Miller’s “school choice” bill?” – “yes,” was his answer. It was very enlightening. But not surprising.

Tippins allowed that he would check with “lawyers here” to ask if they agreed with my recommended fix – which he judged far too involved even though he would not let me finish my short explanation of what needed to be done. I did not ask if he would be checking with the same lawyers who helped him create the unworkable “exclusion” wording in the bill now. I was assured that SB 601 is meant to become law and not a campaign ploy.

He told me he wanted any change on the illegal immigration topic in “school choice!” to be “as surgical as possible” – meaning he didn’t want to draw attention to that matter in SB 6o1. There is more.

While I have only been involved in drafting numerous pieces of legislation (many of those bills are now law) and immigration politics under the Gold Dome since 2005, this was the most incredibly arrogant conversation I have ever had with any staffer – or legislator. It was very educational. SMH

Contact info here.

dak

Text of SB 601 here.

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Update: My favorite exchange is when Sen Miller tells Sen. Jackson that the legislature may not a budget any money to the “school choice!” project that so many people think is going to allow all K-12 students in GA to access state funds for private schools.

“Senator Jackson: (04:47)
What’s the estimated cost? this how much do you think this will…

Sen. Butch Miller, “Mr. Pro Tem”: (04:50)
Well, it’s just within appropriation. So it might be, I mean, they might not appropriate anything.”

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Our view is that providing taxpayer funded benefits not already mandated by federal law to illegal aliens does not represent conservative values.

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SB 601 passed out of its senate committee about 10:00 AM this morning. I will post a transcript of the hearing and access to video soon.

Update: Video here then March 8, 2022 then 27:26 on the counter.

Transcript here.

Update: Transcript cost to me: $57.50. Total time for all this: 15 hours.

Audio: at player below.

• Related: American Federation for Children & Corey A. DeAngelis include illegal alien children and “parents” in model legislation for “school choice!” 

It is important to share the fact that many well-funded “conservative” groups in Georgia are pushing hard for “school choice!” and leaving out many of the realities of the actual legislation. Some do not care about illegal immigration. Others, many others, say about the inclusion of illegal aliens in private school benefits that “if we have to educate them, we may as well give them the best education we can…”

The sound you may hear is the stampede from the southern border into the increasingly welcoming Republican state of Georgia.

Unless the Georgia state senate leadership makes some easy changes to SB 601 (the ‘Georgia Educational Freedom Act‘) the Republican-ruled upper chamber may be about to pass a bill that will include illegal alien students and “parents” in state-funded access to a private K-12 school education.

In his SB 601, Senator Butch Miller has adopted most of the model legislation language being pushed nationwide by the American Federation for Children that was contained in the now failed HB 999 and HB 60 from Rep Wes Cantrell. As we wrote yesterday, Miller’s bill was dropped in the senate on Thursday, March 3, assigned to the senate Education and Youth Committee on Friday, March 4 and scheduled for an 8:00 AM hearing on Monday, March 7. Apparently time ran out on the Monday hearing and the bill was heard and quickly passed out 6-4 this morning in a 9:00 AM committee meeting. Although there were at least two pages of names on the sign-up sheet to speak on the bill, no public comment was allowed.

I was signed up (on page 2) to speak against passage of the bill in its current form and was ready to offer a real “fix”-  and alternate language. Again: SB 601 was passed out of Dalton Sen. Chuck Payne’s Education and Youth committee without any public comment. This is an increasingly common occurrence in Republican committees under the Gold Dome.

Fact: Many, if not most, supporters of the “school choice!” bill – including many legislators, do not know what is in it.

Below I list some of the points I intended to share with the committee and the public if I had been allowed to speak.

• According to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona. And the leftist GBPI says we host more illegal aliens than green card holders.
•  “The news” tells us that lots more are on their way here.
•  Illegal immigration, like elections,  has consequences.
•  This bill does not allow an unlimited number of K-12 students to access the $6000 scholarship to attend private school. The term “subject to appropriations…” is written in various places in the bill. This means the number of students who will receive the promised state funding to pay towards a private school education is limited to how much money is allocated from the budget by the legislature. Put another way, a lot of students are going to be left out of the promised taxpayer-funded private school benefits.
•  The above fact is easily illustrated by the prescribed method of deciding who is chosen for benefits when funding runs out: See lines 220-224 for that method; It’s a lottery.
• Why would legislators vote to pass a bill that will surely put illegal aliens in front of Americans in the line for the touted “school choice” process?
• Lines 71- 75 in the bill do not spell out a real exclusion in state scholarship benefits for illegal aliens. The language is poorly researched and written, incomplete and unworkable.
• The 1982 Plyler v Doe SCOTUS decision says states must provide a K-12 education to all children regardless of immigration status in public schools. It does not in any way require that taxpayers fund a private school education for illegal aliens.
• K-12 students are not the only concern in SB 601. According to the language of the bill, it is the “parents” (“biological parent, legal guardian, custodian,” or other person with legal authority to act on behalf of a student”) who have the power to handle and distribute the state funds deposited in an account for the student. “Parents” also make up the committee that would be authorized to have oversight power on the funding approval process for expense items.
• There are 307 lines of text in the bill detailing every conceivable action and responsibility involved in the “school choice!” process. There are only 4 lines that allegedly deal with keeping illegal aliens out of the system. That is because the model legislation from Corey DeAnglelis and the American Federation for Children intentionally contains no section or text on excluding illegal aliens. Somebody in Georgia who doesn’t know the immigration issue tried to create a “fix.”
• Because there its no real language that would exclude illegal aliens in the current version of the bill (LC 49 0911) it can and would likely happen that Georgia taxpayers watch as their money goes to put illegal alien students in private schools while Americans are left behind in public schools and while illegal alien “parents” distribute state funds and have official power over state money and the scholarship program.

UPDATE, 8:10 PM: I forgot to include all of this: “To repeat: A landmark SCOTUS decision in 1982 (Plyler v Doe) requires states to offer K-12 education in public schools (not private schools) regardless of the student’s immigration status. It also prevents legally asking a K-12 student about immigration status – same for the student’s parents. You can read a summary or the syllabus.

I tried repeatedly to get a minute with the Lt. Governor’s Chief of Staff Macy McFall to explain all this but never received the hoped for phone call after two visits to the LG’s office today. I was successful in getting about a minute with Sen Miller and a staffer at an elevator to make it clear that his bill does not exclude illegal aliens. I have not yet received the promised follow-up phone call. Update, 8:43 AM March 9: I just called the Lt. Gov’s office and tried to give a heads up on all this to CoS Macy McFall – I got the brush-off. I sent her and other staffers this page via email. Update, 10:40 AM, March 9: Ms. McFall has emailed me to say she is reviewing my write-up.

Thank you Senator Mike Dugan

I am grateful to Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan for interrupting his lunch to speak to me in the hall so that I could give him and his CoS a heads up. My announced goal was to insure that there are no pleas of ignorance if the Republican senate passes SB 601 without major changes involving illegal immigration.

We have a real “fix”

While I am happy to send line-specific language, the general idea is that the scholarship should be made available to U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents only. The term “lawful presence” should be struck and there must be wording that requires the “parent (s)” of the eligible student to provide proof of the same status as the student.

I wrote it up here more than month ago.