K-12 “school choice” for illegal aliens is a bad idea 

“School choice” is a good idea. But illegal aliens should be excluded from taxpayer-funded private school tuition benefits.

You can become familiar with the issue here.

Below are a few nuggets from Rep Wes Cantrell and a bit of simple legal reality. We will now sit back and watch the Gold Dome Dog and Pony Show on”school choice” in a state with more illegal aliens than Arizona.                        

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We are told that Rep Cantrell’s bill (s) “specifically prohibits those who are here illegally from participating in the (scholarship) program.” Where? What line number?

We assume Rep Cantrell means the “Promise Scholarship” proposed in HB 60 and HB 999. We see no language like that in either bill. There should be. All Cantrell has done is refer to a verification system in a state law, OCGA 50-36-1, which is unworkable for this purpose.

FACT: OCGA 50-36-1 does not require anyone to produce documents that prove lawful presence.

Rep Wes Cantrell is telling constituents and presumably other Republican legislators (it’s apparently still a secret to the Democrats, as he hid it in his committee presentation on HB 60 that saw zero public comments) that OCGA 50-36-1  (“the verification law”) “requires a person to provide proof they are lawfully present in our state in order to receive public benefits.”

It doesn’t.

The term “lawfully present” which, as noted by the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals, is not defined anywhere in the INA, refers to presence in the United States, not Georgia.

Presumably, Cantrell is referring to the section of the verification law that requires the applicant for public benefits to provide at least one “secure and verifiable document” as defined in OCGA 50-36-2.  That affidavit can be seen here from the Georgia AG office website. It is clear that the secure and verifiable documents “may not be indicative of residency or immigration status.” Cantrell is wrong.

It should be noted that the intent of the legislation that created this part of the law was to require applicants to produce documents that provide proof of immigration status or U.S. citizenship.

FACT: OCGA 50-36-1 will not serve to verify eligibility of K-12 students for a state private school scholarship

The verification law was written to verify eligibility of adults or individuals near the age of eighteen. “…if the applicant is younger than 18 years of age at the time of the application, he or she shall execute the affidavit required by this subparagraph within 30 days after his or her eighteenth birthday.”

Neither the application nor the affidavit would have any effect in holding a 4^th grader (for example) responsible for the accuracy of the information entered or the documents submitted. Unless the state somehow decides to prosecute a kid for false swearing.

There is no provision for anyone except the applicant for (and recipient of) the public benefit  to complete the application or the affidavit. Repeat: There is no provision for parents to complete or sign anything. While I cannot find it now, I have seen Cantrell tell at least one person on a Facebook exchange that “the parents would sign the application for the student…” or words to that effect.

• Related: Rep Wes Cantrell’s latest “fix” for HB 999 & HB 60… isn’t

Cantrell’s unworkable verification solution could pave the way for massive fraud

The law says that mere completion of the application will serve as “presumed proof of lawful presence” until the information submitted attesting to eligibility is verified by the SAVE program. USCIS would not likely consider a query based on a second party signature on an application or an affidavit. Which means the SAVE program would not be completed.  It is very probable that if Cantrell’s legislation were to become law as it is as I write on Feb 8, 2022 that the “verification system” Cantrell has set up would go no further than a K-12 student (or parent/guardian/custodian) signing off on an application completed by a parent/guardian/custodian and be filed away as a finished product because the SAVE program was never run.

State officials should carefully consider the obvious shortcuts, falsehoods and omissions involved in Cantrell’s plan

Is the “Promise Scholarship” a clear “public benefit” for USCIS?

Curious readers (not many of those in the House Education committee) will need to know the people at USCIS who run the SAVE program must have clear authorization and citation of a statute to verify the eligibility of the applicant for a specific public benefit. OCGA 50-36-1 lays out a list of public benefits that includes “grants” and “state grant or loan.” While the proposed “Promise Scholarship” in HB 60 and HB 999 may in fact fit into one of those two categories for the state purposes, it is not at all clear that it is specific enough for the USCIS staff to operate the SAVE reporting. In early February 2022 I spoke at length with a senior USCIS staffer in the Trump administraton several times on this topic.

As is stated above, under state law, if there is no SAVE check, the affidavit is regarded proof enough for the “verification.”

All of the above is predicated on the presumption that the Plyler v Doe SCOTUS decision and the far left would allow the state of Georgia to ask K-12 students and/or their parents about immigration status. Alabama tried that and was rebuffed. There is a much simpler way to do this.

We don’t see anyone taking the time to create a workable bill. What will happen if this train wreck were to make it to Gov Kemp’s desk and he had to veto it as unworkable (as if) after the Republican base was all “school choice!” juiced?

 The Supreme Court says schools may not ask about immigration status

Rep Wes Cantrell is telling a lot of people that he has solved the problem created in his state-funded K-12 private school scholarship legislation. He hasn’t. He has two bills pending on this, HB 60 & HB 999. While I have not seen the language in the committee substitutes he took through the House Education Committee yesterday, I did watch the hearings online. I am glad I did. It confirmed my opinions of Rep Cantrell from my previous experiences.

This is Cantrell’s last year in the General Assembly. Note to Republican voters in his district. Please try harder next time?

Cantrell originally dodged the fact that previous versions of his bills (HB 999 & HB 60) contained no mechanism to prevent tax dollars from going to fund a private school education for illegal aliens. He only came up with an unworkable ‘remedy’ after public pressure started.  We expect the same scenario in convincing him that the current “fix”… isn’t.

*Update, Feb. 3, 2022: Current version of HB 60.

We tried to wave Cantrell off of any method of verification of eligibility that involved asking the K-12 student (or parent) about immigration status. It’s amazing that Legislative Counsel in the Capitol didn’t do the same. To repeat: A landmark SCOTUS decision in 1982 (Plyler v Doe) requires states to offer K-12 education 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.

As we have written before, Plyer v Doe does not address states paying for a private school education.

Cantrell has a lot of lobbying effort behind his push.

• Related: Cantrell’s legislation in a Breitbart news report: ‘Georgia Republicans draft legal giveaways to illegals’

While he kept it to himself when he presented his bills to committee members (I am told he did assure the GOP House caucus that he put new verification language in) yesterday, Cantrell says on Twitter that he has added language to insure that before the state of Georgia pays out the $6000 a school year scholarship, both the student and student’s parents (either one or both?) must meet the applicable verification requirements provided for in code section 50-36-1.

It so happens that I have been working on that code section since 2006. Cantrell’s solution idea will not work. I have an idea that might – but that is for later.

Georgia law in OCGA 50-36-1 sets the procedure for verifying eligibility of applicants for public benefits. In general, it requires applicants to swear they are eligible for a long list of public benefits because of either U.S. citizenship, a lawful permanent resident (“green card” holder) or “a qualified alien or non-immigrant under the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act with an alien number issued by the Department of Homeland Security or other federal immigration agency” on a notarized affidavit.

In addition, the applicant is supposed to provide at least one “secure and verifiable document” to prove status and or identity. Then the office administering the benefit is supposed to run the information gathered through a federal database called “SAVE.”

My point is that even if the process described above is not fulfilled, before a K-12 student or his parent (s) can meet the applicable verification requirements provided in the law Cantrell cites, they must be asked to reveal their immigration status.

But none of this applies to someone under age eighteen. So we all need for Rep Wes Cantrell to explain in detail how the verification system he hid from committee members and the public would work.

As you can see on video from yesterday’s committee meeting, Rep Cantrell wasn’t interested in hearing public comment on his (HB 60) substitute language either. He stopped the chairman in mid-sentence when it was time for public input.

Yes, I know how dry and boring all this is. The alternative to understanding it is tax dollars going to fund a private K-12 school education for illegal aliens. As I said, I don’t know if there is a way to exclude the huge illegal school population from Cantrell’s “Promise Scholarship” but I have an idea.

We repeat: Not one committee member asked Cantrell about illegal immigration in his bill.

Rep Kasey Carpenter (R–Dalton) is determined enough to pass his legislation granting special, reduced public college tuition rates to illegal aliens with DACA living in Georgia that he attacked his own county Republican party from the floor of the House Chamber last year (video).

Conservative voters should share his level of interest – and remember the DACA scheme is illegal.

We offer a review of Carpenter’s bill (HB 120) and another immigration related Gold Dome measure that may escape coverage in “the news.”

HB 120 – “Equity” in public college tuition rates for illegal aliens 

As we explained in November, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has joined the Mark Zuckerburg-founded, pro-amnesty (Build Back Better!) FWD.us lobbying enterprise in advocating for illegal alien Georgia residents with a DACA deferral on deportation to receive lower tuition rates than Americans and legal immigrants from other states. Carpenter’s bill would change state law so that could happen.

Another active backer is Jaime Rangel, an illegal alien with DACA who lobbies for FWD.us in the state Capitol.

Georgia Senate president Pro Tem and candidate for Lt. Governor, Sen. Butch Miller (R- Gainesville), also supports the tuition amnesty concept according to a January 7, 2022 news report in the Gainesville Times.

As Carpenter’s experience with his county GOP illustrates, the idea is wildly unpopular with Republican voters.

With more Democrat cosponsors than Republicans, HB 120 advanced out of the GOP-controlled House Higher Education Committee last March. The vote record is quite interesting – Rep Calvin Smyre (D, Columbus), “Dean of the General Assembly” voted “present.”

The bill must start the committee process over again this year to make it to a vote in the full House.

• Related: Republican state Rep Wes Cantrell to introduce bill to remove one-year wait for refugees (but not for Americans) to access instate tuition 

It helps to know that for academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com. In Carpenter’s bill an American from Michigan (for example) would pay the higher rate while a covered illegal alien living in Georgia would pay no more than an additional 10% of the instate rate. This is apparently the new “equity.”

It’s not too early to ask every candidate for governor if they would sign such a bill into law.

HB 228 – Closing a needless loophole on non-citizen ID in election law 

 The drivers licenses and official ID Cards that Georgia issues to foreign nationals are almost exactly like the ones commonly given to U.S. citizens. The difference between the ID credentials for citizens and non-citizens – like guest workers, green card holders, foreign students, DACA recipients (yes, DACA recipients ) – is that the non-citizens get a card with the words “LIMITED – TERM,” printed across the top.

As state Rep Charlice Byrd wrote for Insider Advantage GA in October (Secure Non-Citizens ID Now – Before New Elections), she has sponsored a “no brainer” bill (HB 228) to change the fact that there is nothing in state law that specifically excludes the non-U.S. citizen ID credentials from consideration as “proper identification” for voter ID purposes.

Last year the most strident Capitol opponent of Rep. Byrd’s legislation was Republican Rep. Bonnie Rich (Suwanee).  As a sub-committee Chair in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity she refused to grant Byrd a hearing on the bill. The Chairman of the full committee, Rep. Barry Fleming, was a hero to voter security advocates when he decided to preside over an abbreviated hearing for HB 228 himself.

That hearing illustrated a remarkable lack of knowledge on the part of committee members and the General Counsel at the Secretary of State’s office. There was no vote.

The heated objections to Byrd’s bill from Rich were that it was unnecessary because “non-citizens cannot register to vote” – so there is no need to add wording to state law making foreigner’s drivers license or ID Card ID ineligible as voter ID. Rich’s belief is contradicted by NPR, the Associated Press and reports from Michigan on the Motor Voter registration process also used in Georgia.

We doubt it will change Rep Rich’s mind or attitude, but voters need to know that last year a woman who is not a U.S. citizen was fined for voting illegally in Georgia in 2012 and 2016 according to the liberal AJC last week.

Byrd’s bill requires the warning “BEARER NOT U.S. CITIZEN – NOT VOTER ID” to be added to the front of the LIMITED TERM credentials. Also, as mail-in vote security, the Department of Driver Services would begin a system in which the first two characters of the drivers license/ID Card numbers be “NC” on the cards issued to non-citizens. We would catch up with Alabama on that one.

Taking a cue from the illegal alien lobby, Rep. Rich has informed curious constituents that the added wording to the ID credentials given to foreigners in Georgia is unreasonable and would be a modern day “scarlet letter.”

Recent developments

* Rep Byrd has been advised to meet with the Speaker David Ralston and Gov. Brian Kemp before she could expect a committee vote on her election ID safeguard legislation.

* Companion language to HB 228 is reportedly coming up in the Senate.

* HB 228 – current version here.

An independent voter, D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com

A version of this column was originally posted on the subscription news and opinion outlet Insider Advantage Georgia, Jan. 14, 2022.

State Senator quoted in hometown newspaper as supporting special (instate) tuition for DACA recipients

Candidate for Lt. Governor and current President Pro Tem of the state senate, Sen. Butch Miller Miller, has come out in support of giving the illegal aliens with DACA a lower tuition rate in public colleges than U.S. citizens and legal immigrants from other states.

Thanks to a Twitter post from an elated  former GALEO staffer and illegal alien DACA recipient, Jaime Rangel, who lobbies for FWD.us under the Gold Dome (yes, really) we see a January 7 report from the liberal Gainesville Times with that policy nugget.

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is also pushing hard for that action.

Boiled down for those new to the issue, there are about twenty thousand illegal aliens living in Georgia with a deferral on deportation proceedings because they came to the U.S. as “children.” That number could soon zoom up because of Biden’s “ya’ll come!” policy on our southern border.

Currently the University System of Georgia (and the Technical College System of Georgia – TCSG) offers essentially two levels of tuition rates – instate and out of state. For academic year 2020-2021, the average tuition & fees for colleges in Georgia was $4,739 for instate and $17,008 for out-of-state according to experts at collegetuition.com. It’s pretty simple: Georgia residents pay less to attend Georgia’s public universities and Tech colleges than a student from Michigan or Arizona, for example.

The news of Miller’s support comes in the Gainesville Times report “5 issues to watch to watch from Hall County legislators in 2022 session.”

Education:

State and local educators say they are pushing for traditional issues, such as fully funding schools and more transparency in voucher funding.

“We’re optimistic going into this legislative session that — both in the mid-term adjustment they give us but also the budgeting for next school year — that the austerity will be reduced, if not completely removed,” said Jeremy Williams, Gainesville City Schools superintendent.

In past tight budget years, austerity cuts from education have been used to help balance budgets.

Also, Williams supports bipartisan legislation proposed last session that would offer in-state tuition to those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status.

“They graduated from Gainesville High school, they’ve been here X number of years and what we’re doing is we’re basically losing a potential workforce,” he said.

Miller is also is a proponent of easing that restriction.”If we want these young people to be productive members of our society and contribute, then we’re going to have to educate them and not put them at a disadvantage,” he said.”

We should note that DACA is temporary scam and an illegal Obama administrative reelection end run around congress that a federal judge has found to be unlawful – and DACA recipients already have work permits. DACA status does not provide any legal status or lawful presence. We’ll have much more soon.

The entire Gainesville Times news piece is here.

Contact information for Sen. Miller here.

Related: HB 120 from Republican Kasey Carpenter (Dalton) is pending under the Gold Dome and is the legislative vehicle the corporate-funded anti-enforcement lobby (including the Georgia Chamber of Commerce) is pushing to get special tuition rates for the illegal aliens discussed above. You can read more on that here.

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* Georgia House committee with immigration focus solicits one-sided, activist input (1/4) Here

* Will Georgia legalize foreign police officers? – House committee on “barriers” to foreign nationals meeting again in Dalton, Sept 9 (2/4) Here.

* House committee on ‘barriers’ lacks transparency, continues one-sided agenda, escapes responsible media coverage in Dalton (3/4) Here.

* Handpicked witnesses to House committee on “foreign born”: Lower tuition cost for illegal aliens; expand state government, relax immigration verification … 4/4 Here.