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Open records request sent to Georgia Department of Labor today – Re: DDS as verification source of lawful presence

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To: Mr. Timothy Mitchell
General Counsel
Georgia Department of Labor
Mr. Mitchell,
Please regard this email as my official request for copies of Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) documents and records under state public records law.
I note that GDOL has an entry on its website (FAQs) informing readers that GDOL uses the Georgia Department of Drivers Services (DDS) to verify the lawful presence required by state law (OCGA 50-36-1) for aliens to qualify for public benefits.
“What is the Applicant Status Affidavit?

Georgia law requires that all applicants for UI benefits who are 18 years of age or older attest they are:

  • a United States citizen, or
  • a legal permanent resident, or
  • a non-citizen legally present in the United States.

The GDOL performs electronic verification of your lawful presence in the United States with the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS). The DDS validates the identity of individuals who indicate they have a Georgia-issued driver’s license or identification card.”

State law (OCGA 50-36-1) passed in 2006 and amended in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 mandates that this verification process for lawful presence be done using the federal SAVE program operated by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
1) Please send me a copy of any authorization or replacement law that would alter the GDOL requirement for SAVE verification and/or change verification source to DDS – including bill number, year passed into law and code section.
2) Please send me copies of any and all GDOL documents, emails, memorandums or policy files that pertain to or mention GDOL requesting or discussing a change in state law regarding GDOL’s direct use of the SAVE program and transferring the lawful presence verification to DDS with a time frame of from 1 January 2013 to 15 August 2020.
3) Please send me a copy of any agreement, MOU/MOA between USCIS and GDOL authorizing GDOL to use the SAVE program including original agreement and all renewals from July 1, 2006 to 15 August, 2020.
4) Please send me a copy of any official agreement between GDOL and DDS pertaining to DDS being the source and authority of verification of lawful presence of non-citizen applicants who apply for public benefits at GDOL – including any email, memorandums or proposals for GDOL to use DDS to verify lawful presence of GDOL applicants for public benefits.
5) Please send me a copy of any document that may illustrate the most recent date of a GDOL query to the SAVE program for verification of lawful presence of an applicant for the public benefit of unemployment insurance or other public benefit administered by GDOL.
6) Please send me copies of any/all internal GDOL email or memorandums or policy discussions that mention ‘Permanent Residence Under Color of Law’ (PRUCOL) including GDOL policy on PRUCOL creating eligibility for lawful presence or unemployment insurance and any correspondence between GDOL and DDS pertaining to PRUCOL.
7) Please send me a copies of any document or electronic form that serves as a transmittal of information from GDOL to DDS of information gathered from GDOL collected applications for unemployment insurance benefits.
8) Please send me copies of any and all internal email, memorandums, policy statement or records or correspondence pertaining to or mentioning federal deferred action on deportation or the Obama-invented DACA program for illegal aliens with a time frame of 1 July, 2012 to 15 August, 2020.
9) Please send me copies of any emails, memorandums or inquiries that ask for information on GDOL administering and or issuing unemployment insurance benefits for illegal aliens who have DACA status or other deferred action on deportation status.
10) Please send me copies of any/all GDOL emails, memorandums or internal correspondence pertaining to or mentioning the March 6, 2019 Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals finding that DACA recipients do not have lawful presence or legal status and are inadmissible and removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). For clarity, I link to that finding here.
11) Please send me any record or document that shows the response code received from the SAVE program to a query from GDOL on immigration status of an applicant with DACA status for unemployment insurance.
12) Please send any document, record, table or index that shows all possible responses and codes used by the SAVE program to answer GDOL queries on immigration status for applicants for public benefits including unemployment insurance benefits.
Please contact me at any time with questions on my request. Please expect this request to be one of several with a goal of gaining a clear and accurate understanding of GDOL policy and operations on administering public benefits/unemployment insurance.
Thank you for a timely reply. I look forward to your itemized estimate of research costs for my request.
Respectfully,
D.A. King
Marietta, GA.

I support the police.
All lives matter.

Fast Fact: “Some illegal immigrants can get Georgia driver’s licenses” – from the Associated Press #DDS

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From the Wayback File:

Some illegal immigrants can get Georgia driver’s licenses

By Kate Brumback

Associated Press

Posted Aug 23, 2012 
ATLANTA – Illegal immigrants who are granted permission to stay in the country under an Obama administration policy that was announced in June will be eligible for drivers’ licenses in Georgia, the state’s attorney general wrote in a letter to the governor.

“While I do not agree with the actions of the President in issuing the directive, it has been implemented by the Department of Homeland Security, USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services), and state law recognizes the approval of deferred action status as a basis for issuing a temporary driver’s license,” Attorney General Sam Olens, a Republican, wrote in a letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Olens said illegal immigrants with the special status would not, however, be eligible for a state identification card. He says such cards are considered public benefits which are not available to illegal immigrants.

Under the policy – which was announced in June and took effect last week – eligible immigrants must have arrived in the U.S. before their 16th birthday, are 30 or younger, have lived here at least five years, and are in school or graduated or served in the military.

They also must not have a criminal record or otherwise pose a safety threat. They can apply to stay in the country and be granted a work permit for two years, but they would not be granted citizenship.

Read the entire AP story here.

Image: Georgia DDS

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Reminder: Georgia AG Chris Carr in 2017: “We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status…”

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Chris Carr, Attorney General for Georgia. January 18 2016. Photo: Law.com

 

The below story is from WABE News. Link at he bottom.

“As Attorney General, I take seriously my duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia. We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status,” Carr said. “It is important to remember that it is properly the role of Congress to address immigration issues from a legislative perspective. I am aware that this is a complex and emotional issue, and I would prefer to give the new Administration — which has been vocal about this issue — appropriate time to consider any additional actions that should be taken.”

 

Georgians React To Uncertain Future Of DACA Program
ELLY YU • JUL 17, 2017

Photo:Elly Yu/WABE DACA recipients are shown at a rally to demand in-state tuition in Georgia.

 

The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is uncertain.
CREDIT ELLY YU / WABE

The future of a program that protects young immigrants from deportation is uncertain. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told a group of lawmakers that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, will likely not stand up in the courts.

That has Jessica Colotl concerned about what’s next.

Earlier this year, Coltol, 29, briefly lost her deportation protection status. She later won in court and got her DACA reinstated, but the program itself is up in the air.

The program was created by President Barack Obama through executive action in 2012. If DACA ends, she worries she and others could face deportation.

“It’s scary,” she said. “It would basically paralyze the lives of Americans at heart. We’re talking about people who came to the United States as young as 2 or 3 months old.”

Jaime Rangel, 26, was brought to the U.S. when he was an infant. He agreed the uncertain future of DACA scared him, but he said he’s also hopeful of a more permanent solution for the nearly 800,000 immigrants in the United States protected by DACA. About 23,000 DACA recipients are in Georgia.

“We’ve got to see this as somewhat of an opportunity to try to pass bipartisan immigration reform because, at the end of the day, I think every DACA recipient in this country knew that sooner or later DACA would cease to exist,” he said.

The Trump administration has so far left the DACA program intact, and President Donald Trump has said he’d treat DACA “with heart.”

Meanwhile, attorneys general in 10 states, led by Texas’s attorney general, have sent a letter to the Trump administration saying they would sue the administration if it doesn’t end DACA. Georgia isn’t part of that letter.

In a statement, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said he’d prefer to give the administration time.

“As Attorney General, I take seriously my duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Georgia. We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status,” Carr said. “It is important to remember that it is properly the role of Congress to address immigration issues from a legislative perspective. I am aware that this is a complex and emotional issue, and I would prefer to give the new Administration — which has been vocal about this issue — appropriate time to consider any additional actions that should be taken.”

Georgia was one of 26 states that sued the Obama administration over the expansion of DACA and DAPA – Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. The Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue, leaving a lower court decision to block the program from being implemented.

Polly Price, a professor of law at Emory University, said while the Supreme Court now has nine justices, it’s hard to predict how they would rule.

“It’s not clear yet how they would have ruled if they’d been presented with DACA itself,” Price said.

Republican State Sen. Josh McKoon said he’d like to see Georgia join the letter led by Texas asking the administration to end DACA.

“I think state governments need to act,” he said. “Texas and other states have said, ‘We’ve been living with the program now for years, and now is an appropriate time to seek judicial relief, and I think that could trigger action by the administration.’”    *There is more. Read the rest here.

 

Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor endorses former board member of anti-immigration enforcement corporation for state senate – Jason Anavitarte

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Georgia’s Lt. Governor, Geoff Duncan. Photo: LtGov.ga.gov

GALEO infamous in state politics for its extreme positions on immigration and radical leadership

Jason Anavitarte registered to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.

Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan office phone – 404-656-5030

Republican Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan has endorsed a candidate for state senate who is a former board member of a leftist organization that lobbies against immigration enforcement, voter ID, ICE holds and official English for government.

State Senate District 31 hopeful Jason Anavitarte served on the board of directors of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) from 2006 to 2009. During that time, GALEO lobbied against passage of the nationally noted SB529, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act which established a requirement that public employers and their contractors sort out newly hired blackmarket labor with use of the federal employment verification system now known as E-Verify.

The legislation also required state use of the federal 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to screen jail inmates for immigration status and report illegal alien prisoners to ICE for deportation proceedings. The bill, now law, that GALEO vehemently opposed also requires that local and county governments verify the legal status of people applying for local, state and federal public benefits.

GALEO Executive Director and former Democrat fundraiser, Jerry Gonzalez, drew much attention during the lobbying frenzy against the 2006 state immigration enforcement measure when he escorted self-described illegal aliens into the gold-domed state Capitol telling legislators they should regard the illegal aliens  as “constituents.” Gonzalez described the illegals as merely “immigrants.” The staged and pre-announced GALEO transporting and encouragement of the illegals made a memorable note for pro-enforcement groups and news in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

As has been reported elsewhere, GALEO was established in 2003. Along with Jane Fonda, Anavitarte is also listed as a GALEO “Founding Friend.”

A February Twitter post from Lt. Governor Duncan describes Anavitarte as a “proven conservative…”

Photo: @GeoffDuncanGA Twitter feed

 

The endorsement from Duncan has raised eyebrows in conservative quarters of the state’s Republican Party not only because GALEO is well known for its corporate-funded opposition to immigration enforcement, but because candidate Anavitarte, now running as a Republican, filed to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.

The Lt. Governor also serves as president of the state senate.

Jason Anavitarte. Photo: Rome-News Tribune

Perhaps the most jarring surprise for pro-enforcement voters in Duncan’s endorsement is the fact that in 2016, U.S. Senator David Perdue terminated the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation process of another former GALEO board member and State Court Judge, Dax Lopez, who was nominated for a federal judgeship by former President Barack Obama. Perdue made it clear that his office investigated the nominee’s ties to the controversial GALEO and ended the chances of confirmation because of that relationship.

“After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his longstanding participation in a controversial organization including his service on its board of directors” Perdue wrote in his statement on the matter.

The obvious – and many say troubling – difference in judgment between Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor and its senior U.S. Senator is not going un-noticed by grassroots GOP voters.

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

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, snared a primary endorsement from President Donald Trump in 2018 due in large part to Kemp’s tough talk and campaign promises on illegal immigration. Kemp has not mentioned immigration since the November, 2018 election.

Ballotpedia lists four Republican candidates for Georgia’s senate District 31.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pitching a story and pleading for help – from Gov. Brian Kemp’s Georgiafornia

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Image: Dustin inman Society

Pitching a story and pleading for help

 #BigTruckTrick

Media blackout in Georgia

 

18 Feb 2020

 After campaigning on a promise to “track and deport” criminal aliens and keeping his ‘Big Truck’ for “rounding up criminal illegals” and a solid pledge on ending sanctuary jurisdictions while citing Kate Steinle and other victims, Georgia’s establishment Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has been totally mute on any part of illegal immigration since Election Day, 2018.

Image: Brian Kemp -National Review/Reuters

This, despite a growing unease by the pro-enforcement, independent voters. Here is my Brian Kemp file that includes letters to the editor and other information. The liberal media here in Georgia, including the AP and AJC have watched this happen without so much as a single note of Kemp’s betrayal on illegal immigration in a state that is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders — and more than Arizona (DHS).

Also despite the known rapes and murders committed by illegal aliens in Metro Atlanta, Kemp is still silent. He does not speak up to support the sheriffs who are fighting the corporate-funded anti-enforcement leftists in the full scale assault on 287(g)/. “Chinga La Migra!”

Add to that the fact that state law requires GA Dept. of Public Safety to have a 287(g) agreement and to train ten new officers each year in that program. Under Kemp, DPS is not 287(g) authorized.

While cutting the budget by $200 mil this year, he will not consider a $100 million annual new revenue stream because it effects black market labor in our Big Ag industry.

Now, POTUS announces his intent to send Border Patrol Agents to Atlanta to help with the sanctuary city crisis while Kemp remains silent. *Stats on criminal aliens in our prison system. POTUS endorsed Kemp – largely due to his announced “tough on criminal illegals” claim. It is obvious that President Trump is doing the job Gov Kemp will not do.

Because Republican-ruled Georgia is about where California was around the late 1990’s on this and the political corruption involved, we have taken to calling our once conservative state “Georgiafornia.”

BTW”: Georgia’s governor has a “do not call me policy.” We are pleading with a national news outlet to expose this dangerous and defiant rot. And Kemp is pushing legislation through that will “reform” the dual enrollment program in our schools in an effort to educate more workers – but he refuses to insert any verification system to filter out illegal aliens who are obviously not eligible to work.

Tom Homan, D.A. King. Feb 8, 2020. Photo: Courtesy FetchYourNews.com

We held an event here Feb 8 that featured former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan as keynote speaker and when he learned of the above and verified it with his active Georgia-resident ICE Agent friends, he took some verbal swings at Kemp on Fox and Friends and at our event. Please see photo here.

Again, despite all of this, the GA media is silent. Most Georgians are unaware of any of this.

We are pleading for help from the outside world. I have been blacklisted by the media here since the amnesty fight of 2013 and a front page profile in NY Times and a resulting interview/trial on Univision with Jorge Ramos. Local agenda-reporters went bats over that one.

D.A. King

@DAKDIS

Marietta, GA

ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com

 

 

How many illegal aliens are in Georgia’s taxpayer-funded ‘dual enrollment’ program?

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Note: The below is a repost from 2020. We have been asking all concerned since then about illegal aliens and the Dual Enrollment program . We find no provision in the law that excludes  the illegals from the taxpayer-funded benefit. We take the silence as our answer.

HB 444 needs work 

*Updated: 2:12 PM Feb. 3, 2020

  • We find it necessary to remind all concerned that illegal aliens are not generally eligible to work in the U.S.

More attention should be paid to Georgia’s “dual enrollment” program, related legislation and the very real possibility that illegal aliens in high school are taking seats in the university system while avoiding the verification process for “lawful presence” through which the rest of the college applicants are supposed to be screened.

If we understand it correctly, high school students are taking state-funded college seats – with no cost to the student.

The SAVE program is the default federal tool in state law (OCGA 50-36-1) used to verify eligibility of foreign nationals for a host of Public Benefits. Post-secondary education is exempted from the verification mandate but USG implemented policy to verify “lawful presence” and the use of the SAVE program in 2010.

Covering legislation dealing with proposed changes to the system, in a recent “What to know about Georgia’s dual enrollment bill” the AJC reports that “supporters of the bill say the program’s costs have skyrocketed in recent years and changes are necessary to make it sustainable. About 52,000 students are currently enrolled in the program.”

Line 52 of the pending HB 444 defines an “eligible student” for dual enrollment but we don’t see any language that would exclude illegal aliens or that requires any verification process. *UPDATE: We don’t see any on the paper dual enrollment funding application either.

Before final action is taken on the bill, more questions should be asked.

  • Added Dec. 18, 2023: Related reading:  Kemp contacts House members on Dual Enrollment vote 

Where in the law and the legislation does the dual enrollment system exclude illegal aliens from the very costly program? Where is language that requires USG to use their in-place verification system for dual enrollment students?

Maybe it is already policy, but putting a verification requirement into dual enrollment law should be considered the belt to go with any USG policy suspenders. Maybe the AJC will do an “everything you need to know” expansion piece on this.

If these students are indeed “undocumented” how can USG verify “lawful presence”?

USG provides answers on how not to verify “lawful presence”

USG (correctly) does not accept the Department of Driver’s Services ‘LIMITED TERM’ driver’s license as verification of lawful presence for purposes of admission and/or determining eligibility for instate tuition.

For the unaware, because the feds have issued work permits (EADs) and SSNs to them, Georgia issues the exact same ID and driving credentials to illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation (and several other “you can stay for awhile” categories of illegal aliens) that is issued to real immigrants (green card holders) and temporary visas holders who did obey federal immigration law. Repeat: the identical credential.

Photo: DDS

Because they are REAL ID Act compliant, these credentials are used to board airliners, purchase explosives and as admittance to federal buildings.

Several other states including Michigan, South Carolina and even California have systems in place that create a separate non-REAL ID Act compliant credential. The Republican-ruled Georgia state senate passed legislation in 2016 that mandated a new and additional, separate design. That bill never saw a hearing in the Republican House.

It should be noted that the REAL ID Act – Section 202, (2)(B) – dictates that deferred action on deportation is “evidence of legal status” – for purposes of driver’s licenses/ID issuance only. The REAL ID Act does not require states to issue credentials to anyone.

The below from page 17 of the University System of Georgia Manual for Determining Tuition Classification And Awarding Out-of-State Tuition Waivers.

“SYSTEMATIC ALIEN VERIFICATION FOR ENTITLEMENTS (SAVE) PROGRAM

In some cases, it will not be possible to verify the lawful presence of a non-citizen student using the typical options provided on the USG Verification of Lawful Presence Chart, such as verifying using a U.S. birth certificate, Georgia driver’s license (not limited term), U.S. citizenship paperwork, or based on the student’s confirmed eligibility for federal student aid. In those cases, it may be necessary to use a program provided by the Department of Homeland Security called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, or SAVE…” Bold emphasis mine.

USG is admitting that the ‘LIMITED TERM’ driver’s licenses issued by DDS are not reliable indicator of who is and who isn’t an illegal alien.

It’s time to reform the dual enrollment program and the system for issuing driving and ID credentials in Georgia.

**PUBLIC SERVICE INFO: CONTACT YOUR GEORGIA STATE REP HERE.

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society.

 

 

 

 

 

#Georgiafornia: Another letter to the editor on Gov. Brian Kemp’s defiance on criminal aliens – Marietta Daily Journal

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Candidate Brian Kemp in his big truck – in case he rounds up criminal illegals. Image: The Hill, 2018

Marietta Daily Journal

OPINION

Letters to the editor

Kemp’s broken campaign promise

There is a reason we quit the Georgia Republican Party — and it is centered around the fact that in a state with more illegal aliens than green card holders, illegal immigration has become a forbidden topic in an effort to court the fabled “suburban moderates” and Hispanics. This insulting and dangerous treachery is not going to drive conservative independent voters to the polls in November. Including us.

January 7, 2020

DEAR EDITOR:

In November a male foreign national with an ICE detainer was arrested in Marietta for sexually molesting two teenage boys for years starting when the boys were ages 8 and 9. Just after Christmas another alien with an ICE hold, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, was arrested by Cobb police and booked into the county jail facing six felonies including murder, aggravated assault, fleeing police and possessing a gun during the commission of a crime. We know this because the MDJ reported it. Thank you.

While Gov. Kemp is endlessly boasting of his business-first approach to governing Georgia and the “No. 1 for business” ranking from some magazine, what the MDJ and the rest of the state media are not reporting is that these two examples of vicious crimes by illegal aliens illustrate part of a broken campaign promise from Kemp.

Readers who can remember back to 2018 may recall “Brian Kemp’s Track and Deport Plan” which was a particularly detailed campaign pledge to voters aimed at illegal aliens who commit additional crimes. It went like this: “As governor, conservative businessman Brian Kemp will create a comprehensive database to track criminal aliens in Georgia. He will also update Georgia law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons.”

We have no hope of Kemp going after the employers who draw the “undocumented” cheap labor into our state. That would upset the business donors. But at our house we have been waiting to see Kemp follow through on his tough talk on illegal alien crime. Including the two examples above, we challenge anyone to find any mention from Kemp — or the Georgia media — of the campaign promise, new laws, tracking criminal aliens or illegal alien databases.

There is a reason we quit the Georgia Republican Party — and it is centered around the fact that in a state with more illegal aliens than green card holders, illegal immigration has become a forbidden topicin an effort to court the fabled “suburban moderates” and Hispanics. This insulting and dangerous treachery is not going to drive conservative independent voters to the polls in November. Including us.

Bill Buckler

Kennesaw

Here.

Murder, rape, child molestation – Georgia Dept of Corrections ICE detainer report for November, 2019

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Image: Georgia Department of Corrections

DOC: 1595 foreign nationals under ICE detainers in the Georgia Department of Corrections system alone. This does not include county jails.

The Dustin Inman Society recently received statistics from the Georgia Department of Corrections on “active offenders” who are subjects of ICE detainers in the state for the month of November, 2019.

The Georgia Department of Corrections is 287(g) authorized. Despite a mandate under state law, the Georgia Department of Public Safety is not.

Below is a small sample of numbers and offenses. In total, there were 1595 foreign nationals with ICE detainers. According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders. And according to DHS more than Arizona.

Sample statistics for criminal aliens from the Department of Corrections on ICE detainers.

 

  • Child molestation – 234
  • Murder – 162
  • Rape – 127
  • Aggravated assault  – 116
  • Armed robbery- 110
  • Statutory rape, 63
  • Kidnapping – 63
  • Trafficking in meth – 137
  • Racketeering – 12

You can read the entire report on the DIS blog.

We thank Georgia sate Rep Jesse Petrea for obtaining and sharing these numbers.