Search Results for: ajc open borders

Our email today brought a response (below) from U.S. Senator John Ossoff to an email I sent to his office about illegal immigration, temporary visas and the open borders operated by the Democrats. In it, Sen. Ossoff explains to me that “millions of hardworking immigrants across America meet critical needs in our economy through temporary work visas.”

No, they don’t.

Temporary work visas are nonimmigrant visas and they only go to nonimmigrants. Including illegal aliens and temporary visa holders, nonimmigrants are not immigrants. Unless they violate the terms of their permanent residence status, immigrants have  green cards.

To help Sen Ossoff, his staff, agenda-driven, liberal newspaper editors and the rest of the left, we post some easily accessed information below on the difference between immigrants and non-immigrants with links to the sources. Ugh.

* Contact Senator Ossoff here.

Easy phone call and a nice staffer at 202-224-3521 in Washington D.C.

He is on the Senate Judiciary Committee for Pete’s sake.

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• “immigrant”:  Any person lawfully in the United States who is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or person admitted under a nonimmigrant category as defined by the Immigrant visas are issued to foreign nationals who intend to live permanently in the United States. Nonimmigrant visas are for foreign nationals wishing to enter the United States on a temporary basis – for tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work, study, or other similar reasons.  dhs.gov

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• Nonimmigrant vs. Immigrant Status 

Nonimmigrant status

This status is for people who enter the U.S. on a temporary basis – whether for tourism, business, temporary work, or study. Once a person has entered the U.S. in nonimmigrant status, they are restricted to the activity or reason for which they were allowed entry. Some people may have more than one visa in their passport, but they can only be admitted into the U.S. in one type of nonimmigrant status at a time.  Most nonimmigrant visas are issued only to applicants who can demonstrate their intentions to return to their home country.

If a visa officer at a U.S. consulate abroad believes that an application for a nonimmigrant visa is only a pretext for an intent to stay permanently once allowed into the U.S., the officer may deny the visa application. The consular officer may conclude that the nonimmigrant does not have the intent to stay temporarily because s/he cannot show significant family or employment related ties to their country of origin.

Immigrant Status

This is for people who live permanently in the United States.  Synonymous terms for immigrant status are: Permanent Resident, immigrant, green card holder, and resident alien. Gaining immigrant status can be a lengthy and complex process that requires close consultation with an immigration attorney. UC Berkley

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immigrant:  Any person lawfully in the United States who is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or person admitted under a nonimmigrant category as defined by the INA Section 101(a)(15). U.S. Department of Homeland Security

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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In an AJC op-ed, Casas pushes multiple amnesty bills and supports ‘Americans last” legislation in Georgia

Updated with photo: Georgia state Republican Party Chairman David Shafer assisting The LIBRE Initiative – Georgia

Former Republican state Rep David Casas is now the director of grassroots operations for the pro-amnesty, leftist Libre Initiative Georgia  (The Freedom Initiative). He has an anti-enforcement column (“Opinion: Georgia must explore immigration reform to keep workforce, economy growing) running at the increasingly pretense free, liberal AJC. It’s a must read.

Don’t look for “the other side” in the newspaper. There was a time when the liberal AJC opinion page editor would run an occasional pro-enforcement piece from this writer but now he won’t even run a 165 word letter to the editor. Because too much information.

Related: The AJC is on record promoting open borders and the free flow of labor

The Casas column also runs at the same time as a very similar op-ed in the liberal AJC from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Georgia’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. It should also be noted here that Casas and the ‘Libre Initiative Georgia’ organized lobbying efforts for the failed SB 601 that would have allowed state payments to illegal aliens for private school tuition while illegal alien parents would have been in charge of disbursement of those taxpayer dollars.

Republican Casas’ 618-word opinion column promotes not one, but three amnesty bills now pending in congress while two million-ish illegal aliens have come over U.S. borders since Pres. Biden was sworn in.

He goes further and tosses out a Hail Mary promo for Georgia’s HB 932 which is as dead as Pancho Villa unless some Kamikaze GOP lawmaker tries to add its language and intent to a live bill before the end of the 2022 legislative session. We hope that happens for the educational value of seeing who’s who on floor votes – and to see if Gov. Kemp would allow it to become state law.

Readers may remember that HB 932 is the bill from outgoing Republican Woodstock Rep Wes Cantrell that would have altered state law that says all new Georgia residents must live here for a year before they are eligible for the much lower instate tuition rates in our public colleges. The bill, now endorsed by David Casas, would eliminate the waiting period for refugees, certain Afghan citizens and foreign nationals who have been awarded a “Special Immigrant Visa.” That group would be able to access the lower tuition rates the day they arrive in Georgia. Americans who relocate here from other states would still be required to pay the higher rate if they attend college during their first year of residence.

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

Readers may also remember that Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones was a signer on HB 932 but scratched her name off after we made the contents of the legislation public.

Cantrell, with cosponsors Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter and an assortment of Democrats was put up to this little caper with the joint effort and partnership between the increasingly powerful refugee industry and the real power at the Gold Dome, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

But wait, there’s more!

Casas also advances the “logic” of legislation like Carpenter’s HB 120 to grant public college instate tuition to illegal aliens living in Georgia while charging U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who come to Georgia schools from other states pay three times as much.

Conservatives should talk about it.

Two things to insure there is no confusion:

David Casas and the Libre Initiative of Georgia are pushing for Americans to have less freedom and fewer rights in Georgia than foreigners.

I will be happy to respectfully debate this fact and the ‘Americans last’ agenda Casas is promoting in the liberal AJC with him or friend of the Libre Initiative Georgia, Republican Chairman David Shafer if any Georgia “conservative” groups want to arrange that situation. We predict that will never happen.

Casas’ guest column in the liberal AJC a week before the end of the session illustrates the endless determination of dollar-first, bipartisan Establishment to do a repeat of the failed amnesty of 1986 and to speed once bright red Georgia further downhill towards becoming the California of the Southeast.

To be clear: They will never stop and yes, it really is all about the money.

I am wondering – am I the last one to know about David Casas’ transformation?

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If you don’t hit the links, you will not learn much.

Correction made on bill numbers in the copy below and the headline: 7:40 PM, Feb 10. My fault. I apologize for the typos.

Note to all concerned: The model language for HB 60 & HB 999 came from the Federation for Children. The flyers attacking Republicans who didn’t immediately swoon and support the bills came from…the Federation for Children.

More info on HB 932 here & HB 999 here , here and here.

Info on HB 120 here.

Related: A Breitbart news report on the entire train wreck: Georgia Republicans draft legal giveaways to illegals.

Mark Zuckerburg’s FWD.us is lobbying for Rep Wes Cantrell’s “Americans Last” (HB 932 here.)

It may help people to “get it” if they realize that the corporate-funded FWD.us lobbyist under the Gold Dome lobbying against immigration enforcement is an illegal alien.

Former Gwinnett Republican state Rep Buzz Brockway at the Georgia Center for Opportunity is pushing hard for HB 999. So is state Rep Chuck Eftrastion (R). See also Erick Erickson.

The Coalition of Refugee Services (CRSA) put on a large lobbying event in the Georgia Capitol today for HB 932 & HB 120. It was also available online. CRSA is part of the “BIG” partnership and works closely with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.*

Info on the CRSA (part of the refugee resettlement industry) Capitol lobbying event for Rep Wes Cantrell’s HB 932 & Kasey Carpenter’s HB 120. (click on “view details” on top)

HB 932 is a product of a special House committee chaired by Rep Wes Cantrell

A “Progressive” woman named Darlene C. Lynch works for both CRSA and the “BIG Partnership” and organized and ran the Georgia House Special Committee “Innovative ways to Maximize Global Talent” that saw three 2021 Summer and Fall meetings – with two in Georgia’s public colleges. HB 932 is a product of those committee hearings. The special committee was created by a resolution that passed unanimously in the House at the end of the 2021 session. Rep Wes Cantrell was the sponsor of the resolution (be sure to see all cosponsors) and served as the chairman of the agenda-driven committee that took zero pubic comment and arranged the witnesses.

*Updated, 5:25: PM Some of the agenda items from the hand-picked, pre-screened witnesses at the special committee mentioned above:

 

• Changing state law so as to allow foreigners to be law enforcement officers in Georgia
• Reciprocal agreements on occupational licensing rules with other states and foreign nations.
• “Relaxing” state law that requires immigration verification of applicants for occupational and professional licensing.
• Lower tuition rates in public colleges for illegal aliens living in Georgia with DACA  status than the rate Americans and legal immigrants fro other states pay.
• Removing the existing 12 month residency waiting period before new Georgia residents can access instate tuition in public colleges for refugees – but not for Americans moving here from other states.
• Reducing the educational period to become a medical doctor by two years, student loan forgiveness for foreign medical students and “relaxing the immigration issues for foreign medical graduates.”
• Creating a new state bureaucracy to accommodate “an office or a division of cultural and linguistic responsiveness.”

I lost track of the number of times “…the number one state for business” was tossed out.

I covered the meetings extensively here.

Related: Where do refugees resettle in the U.S.?

Related: The Libertarian Cato Institute is pushing the “school choice” concept in Cantrell’s HB 99 & HB 60  (see Corey DeAngelis). What is the Cato Institute and what else do they push? Open borders, that’s what. Bonus info: The liberal AJC on open borders.

No public comment allowed on HB 60 committee substitute in the House Education Committee – at Rep Cantrell’s request.

 

 

 

Update: Feb 10, 2023. Esteves is now a state senator in Georgia.

Jason Esteves immediate past Chairman of GALEO board

 Add this name to the long watch list in Georgia’s increasingly turbulent political scene. Jason Esteves, former Chair and a current “board member at large” of the far-left, corporate-funded GALEO Inc. has launched his campaign for the state senate. Esteves is currently the Atlanta School Board president.

Current state Sen. Jen Jordan is leaving her Senate district to run for state attorney general. Esteves seeks to replace her in the east Cobb/Fulton County District 6.

Readers may remember that another GALEO board member, then State Court Judge Dax Lopez, saw his Obama nomination for a seat on the U.S. District Court in Georgia’s Northern District sink in early 2016 as a direct result of his ties to the extremist outfit. Now candidate for governor and then U.S. Senator and Judiciary Committee member David Perdue bravely nixed the confirmation in the face of the establishment push for Republican Lopez’ approval.

There was massive opposition to the Lopez pick from conservative elected officials and howls from the GOP grassroots.

GALEO is known for advancing the cause of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens and lobbying against immigration enforcement, voter ID, official English for government and ICE holds. But they do support immigration amnesty. While smearing law enforcement officers, GALEO leadership joined the ACLU and the SPLC in a lawsuit against Georgia’ 2011 (HB 87) ‘Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act.’

Full disclosure: Including with our “Beginner’s Guide to GALEO,” the Dustin Inman Society of which this writer is president and founder led the fight against putting a GALEO board member and fundraiser on the federal bench.

Related: History and agenda of the above mentioned MALDEF

 

GALEO’s CEO Jerry Gonzalez brought focus to the group after he escorted illegal aliens into the state senate chamber to lobby against a 2006 bill (SB 529) targeting illegal immigration. In 2011 the Rome Tribune reported that security officials had escorted an angry Gonzalez from Coosa Country Club after he screamed at diminutive state Rep. Katie Dempsey at a lunch meeting focused on use of the E-Verify system for employment eligibility verification.

Voters may want to gauge judgment and priorities by noting that their reputation did not stop senate candidate Jason Esteves from later joining the GALEO board.

Esteves is also chairman of GALEO’s innocuously named but well funded ‘Latino Development Fund,’ which is dedicated to training future community organizers to follow up on the path set by Gonzalez.

GALEO boasts of its partnership with UGA’s J.W. Fanning Institute in this education. See also the ‘GALEO Leadership Council’ – “develop your leadership skills and support the Latinx community in Georgia.”

Sam Zamarripa, who went on to become a state senator known for opposition to immigration enforcement founded GALEO in 2003. Jane Fonda is but one American luminary on the long (and perhaps surprising, to many) list of “Founding Friends’ (#32).

*Update, Dec 17, 2021. Related: GALEO CEO Jerry Gonzalez wrote a guest column posted Dec. 15 on the liberal Georgia Recorder website urging the U.S. Senate to pass the amnesty provisions in the Democrat “Build Back Better” bill and to use that as a “stepping stone” to “passing citizenship for all.” That’s right. All. Everybody. Including the illegal aliens flooding the southern border right now. And tomorrow. And next year. It’s open borders. Read Jerry’s words here. We happily note that the Senate parliamentarian killed the amnesty provision in the ‘BBB’ bill last night. 

“I’m running for state senate to fight for a brighter future,” says Esteves who serves as Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Georgia. “In his first year (as Atlanta School Board Chair – 2018), the Board adopted an Equity Policy and Anti-Racism Resolution that eventually led to the creation of the Center for Equity and Social Justice. He oversaw the process of renaming buildings with hurtful legacies,” reads his campaign site. 

We may have lost count, but it appears that if he were to be elected, it would make at least three GALEO-associated state senators. Esteves would join former GALEO board member and Founding Friend Jason Anavitarte and Founding Friend Nan Orrock in the Georgia senate.

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

A version of this column originally ran on the subscription news outlet Insider Advantage Georgia December 10, 2021. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“End detainment and deportations.” “ICE out of Gwinnett.”

Stacey Abrams seems to have clarified her position on illegal immigration and enforcement. Her ‘New Georgia Project’ distributed pre-addressed, information-gathering post cards featuring the demand to “keep ICE out of our communities” at an anti-enforcement forum in Georgia’s Gwinnett County last week.

In a state with more illegal aliens than green card holders and more than Arizona, Gwinnett County is home to about 71,000 illegal aliens, or about 8% of the metro-Atlanta county’s total population according to stats from the Migration Policy Institute. The figures came with a depiction of the effects of immigration enforcement contained in a 2018 report from the leftist The Guardian.com.

The October 2 event was organized by several  militant extremist, anti-287(g) groups including the ‘Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights’ and the ‘Project South Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide’  to create opposition to the decade-old 287(g) agreement Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway has with ICE. Event organizers were surprised with the attendance and participation of pro-enforcement Americans after IAG and the Dustin Inman Society made the meeting in a public library known outside of the anti-enforcement circle. Several people on the pro-American side sent us photos and the post cards from Abram’s New Georgia Project.

Abrams, runner-up in the 2018 Georgia governor’s race,  has partnered with anti-borders groups (“communities in resistance”) that use banners and t-shirts to disparage immigration enforcement officers with the foreign language slang term “chinga la migra”

 

 

“Keep immigrant families safe”

As is now the default propaganda tool for the corporate-funded anti-borders mob and much of the media, use of the term “immigrants” is substituted for any reference to the fact that the support is aimed at and intended for illegal aliens.

Readers of all pronouns can see the reverse side of Abrams’ New Georgia Project postcard below.