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When asked why he robbed so many banks for so many years, the infamous 20th century thief Willie Sutton is said to have replied, “…because that’s where the money is.”

I have a similar response for people who ask why I often write about Gov Brian Kemp’s defiance on his campaign pledge and his oath of office regarding “criminal illegals,” sanctuary cities (and counties) and the scourge of illegal immigration in Georgia: “Because that’s where guilt” is my unapologetic answer.

On that, if nobody else is going to ask, I will. Again. Why aren’t more conservatives openly outraged, and taking loud public note of Kemp’s dangerous dereliction of duty? Why aren’t newspaper editors, “journalists,” radio show hosts and more Republican officials constantly pushing Kemp to honor his oath of office and enforce the laws aimed at illegal immigration? Why isn’t Kemp in “the news” for something besides “number one for business…” and “he’s never been more popular?”

What about the innocent Georgians who trusted him to protect them from “criminal illegals”? Those are rhetorical questions. There is a cost of doing business to consider for a lot of folks.

I bluntly asked a county GOP chairman here in the Atlanta area last fall why illegal immigration had dropped off the topic list in that group. “Because Gov. Kemp doesn’t like that issue…” was the quick, honest, and educated reply. Indeed.

• Gov. Kemp’s office phone number in Atlanta is 404-656-1776. Email Gov Kemp here.

Great respect and a well-deserved mention of retired immigration enforcement officer and former Border Patrol agent Bob Trent of St. Mary’s. If you missed Bob’s letter to the editor (“Kemp backs down on immigration”) recently published in the Glynn County paper of record, it’s worth your time to find it. You can also read it on our IPG website.

Forget the loss of ‘the rule of law,’ I am hearing that some readers don’t want to believe that illegal aliens present a danger. Here is a sample of some of the “criminal illegals” that did not escape capture here in Georgia. As of December 31, 2022, there were about 1500 criminal “undocumented workers” in the state prison system. Some of the charges and numbers go like this: Child molestation: 230, Murder: 176, Rape: 157, Armed robbery: 78, Cruelty to children: 7, Kidnapping: 47, Trafficking meth: 99, Vehicular homicide: 10, Aggravated sodomy: 12… the list goes on. That data is courtesy of the Dept. of Corrections via a concerned Republican state Representative.

The complete list from the DOC is posted on the Dustin Inman Society website.

For those who don’t know, the Dustin Inman Society is named after a Woodstock GA youth who is forever 16 years-old because an illegal alien who had been in close contact with local law enforcement agencies multiple times was always released before he finally separated the Inman family forever.

The goal of the Dustin Inman Society is to educate the public and to work to make Georgia as unattractive to illegal immigration as possible. There was a time when that was a goal of most Republican legislators under the Gold Dome. But that was back when most Republican voters didn’t depend on or allow their legislators  – or the governor – to determine “the issues.”

The Dustin Inman Society is completely dependent on donations to operate. We have been struggling here since 2005.

I planned on writing about the push by the big money lobby in Atlanta to pass “school choice” legislation that would make private school tuition a state benefit for illegal alien families today. Maybe next time. If you have an interest in learning more now, please see several relevant posts on ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com.

• A version of the above option column is also published in The Islander newspaper in Glynn County, GA. today.

“If somehow the Republicans running the state government decide that we have a budget big enough to encourage and reward illegal aliens who migrate here with a private school education, we should all start a “what about” list that includes detailed inquiries about the allocation for our own homeless, our veterans and the pay we give our law enforcement officers.”

The below essay was sent here by our friend Ev Robinson and also ran on the subscription outlet Insider Advantage, January 12, 2023 in response to a column there from Jake Evans.

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Many thanks to InsiderAdvantage for posting Jake Evans’ recent column in support of “school choice” legislation passing in the 2023 General Assembly. Kudos to Evans for including the commonsense caveat that the state benefit should be limited in its scope of recipients.

I write to offer a few observations and suggestions on the important matter. Evans wrote that “last legislative session, the General Assembly considered a bill embodying the concepts of school choice. The Georgia Educational Freedom Act provided for a $6,000 scholarship to nearly all of Georgia’s 1.7 million public school students, from kindergarten through 12th grade.”

It is vital to a fair discussion on this matter that all concerned are careful with the accuracy of the information they present.

Lines 3 & 4 in the Georgia Educational Freedom Act make it clear that any taxpayer benefits for “school choice” would have been completely dependent on appropriations put in place by the legislature. Any appropriation – or lack thereof – would determine the number (if any) of K-12 students who would be able to access taxpayer dollars to attend private schools in Georgia.

On eligibility for any proposed school choice benefit, Evans seems to be inclined to limit eligibility to “taxpayers.” We should ask if he means federal and or state income taxes, sales taxes or property taxes. Here, it is important to note the raging illegal immigration crisis in the U.S. and in Georgia and remind everyone favoring “school choice” that Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders, with estimates of that illegal population going up to 400,000-ish foreigners here in violation of our immigration laws.

None of these “undocumented workers” can escape paying some sort of tax in Georgia even if their income level would exclude them from paying state income taxes – were they to be inclined to obey our tax laws.

I submit that paying taxes alone is not a qualification for inclusion in a state program that would provide taxpayer-funded private school tuition to any, some or all K-12 students in our state.

I am a retired, black conservative American who has raised two wonderful kids in Georgia. As an independent voter who takes an unapologetic pro-enforcement position on U.S. borders, I have watched as the plight of poor Americans is often ignored when the politics of illegal immigration and “migrants” is discussed. If somehow the Republicans running the state government decide that we have a budget big enough to encourage and reward illegal aliens who migrate here with a private school education, we should all start a “what about” list that includes detailed inquiries about the allocation for our own homeless, our veterans and the pay we give our law enforcement officers.

Any and all legislation considered under the Gold Dome should include the consideration that we should do everything possible to discourage illegal immigration in Georgia. Limiting school choice benefits to U.S. citizens and green card holders is the answer to the question that too few legislators are asking on school choice eligibility.

Whatever the percentage of students that are funded, including illegal aliens in the “educational freedom” funding concept should instantly end the discussion on school choice.

Everett Robinson of Canton is a founding member of the board of the Dustin Inman Society.

 

 

 

 

The below was emailed to Mr. McAfee today and put in the U.S.P.S.

January 11, 2023

The Honorable Mr. Scott McAfee

Inspector General, Georgia

2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SW,

1102 West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334

Re:

A second addition to my September 6, 2022 complaint against Governor Brian Kemp.

Complaint confirmation # F345217D89. My first addition is here.

• Please add OCGA 36-80-23.
• My request that you forward this complaint to the Attorney General’s office.

“The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.” Section ll, Paragraph ll of the Georgia Constitution.

Mr. McAfee,

Please update my September complaint against Gov. Brian Kemp to include my allegation that he is in violation of his oath of office on enforcement of yet another state law, OCGA 36-80-23, known as Georgia’s “sanctuary city law.”

For clarity, I paste part of the law below:

36-80-23. Prohibition on immigration sanctuary policies by local governmental entities; certification of compliance.

 “…(6) “Sanctuary policy” means any regulation, rule, policy, or practice adopted by a local governing body which prohibits or restricts local officials or employees from communicating or cooperating with federal officials or law enforcement officers with regard to reporting immigration status information while such local official or employee is acting within the scope of his or her official duties.

(b) No local governing body, whether acting through its governing body or by an initiative, referendum, or any other process, shall enact, adopt, implement, or enforce any sanctuary policy.

(c) Any local governing body that acts in violation of this Code section shall be subject to the withholding of state funding or state administered federal funding other than funds to provide services specified in subsection (d) of Code Section 50-36-1.

(d) As a condition of funding, the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Transportation, or any other state agency that provides funding to local governing bodies shall require certification pursuant to Code Section 50-36-4 as proof of compliance with this Code section.”

As you know, Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor has defiantly boasted to the national and Georgia media that his office will not share information on immigration status with federal immigration authorities (ICE).

I again respectfully remind you that according to quotes published in the media, including the Associated Press, Taylor’s exact words on this policy at his swearing-in event on January 1, 2021 were “one thing we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail of any of our facilities.”

I have spent many hours verifying that Sheriff Taylor has been allowed to fulfill his anti-enforcement pledge.

This public defiance of the state law Taylor (and Gov. Kemp) are charged with enforcing should be treated as Taylor’s confession to repeated and now two-year long violations of not only OCGA 36-80-23 but also OCGA 42-2-14.

My original complaint was centered around Gov. Kemp’s refusal to enforce the latter law, which, as you also know, requires jailers – including Sheriff Taylor – to use reasonable effort to determine immigration status of foreign-born prisoners and to report illegal aliens to the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.

In addition, OCGA 36-80-23 requires certification of compliance from the “governing body” as a condition of funding from various state agencies.

(d) As a condition of funding, the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Transportation, or any other state agency that provides funding to local governing bodies shall require certification pursuant to Code Section 50-36-4 as proof of compliance with this Code section.”

As you informed me last year in your response to my original complaints against Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens and (Gwinnett Co.) Sheriff Keybo Taylor, these sheriffs are employed by their respective counties. Those county governments are the “governing body” of each sheriff and the sheriffs are the “elected or appointed official” and certified peace officer” in the law cited in paragraph (5):

“(5) Local official or employee” means any elected or appointed official, supervisor or managerial employee, contractor, agent, or certified peace officer acting on behalf of or in conjunction with a local governing body.”

The law does not say “may” – it says “shall” be subject to withholding of state funding or state administered funding not stated in subsection (d) of another law that goes unenforced by Gov. Kemp.

“Any local governing body that acts in violation of this Code section shall be subject to the withholding of state funding or state administered federal funding other than funds to provide services specified in subsection (d) of Code Section 50-36-1.”

I charge that Sheriff Taylor is in violation of both OCGA 42-4-14 and OCGA 36-80-23. Gwinnett County government, operated by the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners is in violation of OCGA 36-80-23 (while it is not the subject of this complaint, I believe Gwinnett County to be in violation of OCGA 50-36-1 as well).

Unless Gwinnett County government has made false statements of compliance on OCGA 36-80-23 making the state funding agencies believe the county complies, it would seem that all of the state agencies that have funded Gwinnet County since January 1, 2021 (Sheriff Taylor’s swearing in date) have done so illegally.

I limit this observation here to one county for space and time, but I can easily point to multiple additional governing bodies (including Cobb County) that are not in compliance with any of the laws mentioned here for the same reasons.

As the Chief executive, Gov. Kemp is responsible for the enforcement of all the laws mentioned above and for the public safety of all Georgians.

Please advise me if I must file a separate complaint with your office dedicated to the various state agencies involved with apparent funding violations outlined above – or if your investigators can and will use the information contained in this addition to my complaint against Gov. Kemp to examine my allegations regarding state agencies here.

Please forward my complaint to the Attorney General.

I have again read the mission statement and duties of your office:

“The State of Georgia Office of the Inspector General promotes transparency and accountability in state government. OIG diligently investigates fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in the executive branch. We work to promote effective controls, improve agency policies and procedures, and identify opportunities for efficiency…”

I believe I have met the requirements for your office to investigate all concerned in this letter and have outlined a valid account that accounts for nearly all of the examples of  illegal government actions in your “what we do” statement.

I will be grateful for a note that you have received this additional information and complaint. I will follow up on it.

Sincere congratulations on your appointment to the Judicial Branch.

 

Respectfully,

D.A. King

 

A version of this column is published in the January 2, 2023 edition of the Glynn County, GA. newspaper The Islander. 

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“The Governor shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace throughout the state.” Section ll, Paragraph ll of the Georgia Constitution.

Gov. Kemp’s Georgia can easily and accurately be described as a “sanctuary state” for the “criminal illegals” he promised to go after when he ran for office in 2018 and pledged to end already illegal sanctuary policies.

With constant reminders that Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and more illegals than green card holders, this space will often be used to offer continuing education on multiple laws that were put in place to deter illegal immigration into our state but are now ignored.

• Related: Cobb County Republican Party’s Resolution censuring Governor Kemp for his betrayal on Georgia’s illegal immigration crisis

This week we’ll start with OCGA 42-4-14: “Illegal alien” defined; determination of nationality and verification of lawful admission of person confined in a jail facility.” It was put into law in 2006 in the “Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act” (SB 529) which was a long, multi-section bill that passed out of the state Senate committee process by the Public Safety Committee – Sen. Brian Kemp, Chairman.

Intended to detect illegal aliens who end up in any of Georgia’s jails and report them to the feds, the law is short and simple.

In part: “As used in this Code section, the term “illegal alien” means a person who is verified by the federal government to be present in the United States in violation of federal immigration law. When any person is confined, for any period, in the jail of a county or municipality or a jail operated by a regional jail authority … a reasonable effort shall be made to determine the nationality of the person so confined… a reasonable effort shall be made to verify that such foreign national has been lawfully admitted to the United States and if lawfully admitted, that such lawful status has not expired.

If the foreign national is determined to be an illegal alien, the keeper of the jail or other officer shall notify the United States Department of Homeland Security…”

Who runs most of the jails in Georgia? – county sheriffs.

*  Related: 2018 candidate for GA governor Brian Kemp’s first TV campaign ad 

The statute reads “The Georgia Sheriffs Association shall prepare and issue guidelines and procedures used to comply with the provisions of this Code section.” Those instructions are in place.

As a state senator at the time, Gov. Kemp also voted “YEA” for final passage on this public safety measure.

This writer has spent considerable time over the last several years talking to law enforcement officials and collecting responses to open records requests that tell me many – if not most – jailers in Georgia do not obey this law. I have spoken to sheriffs who have no recollection of ever even hearing about it.

We’ll revisit this topic next time, but until then I leave you with the defiant and unpunished public pledge from metro-Atlanta’s Democrat Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor, made as one of his first remarks at his January 1, 2021 swearing-in event: “what we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in our jail or any of our facilities.”

Sheriff Taylor has been allowed to keep his promise.

I don’t know how many innocent Georgians have been killed, raped, molested, or otherwise harmed by Gov. Kemp’s “criminal illegals” in the last four years – neither does he.

Please re-read the top paragraph of this column and consider calling the governor’s office in Atlanta. The phone number is 404-656-1776. Leave a polite message with the young staffer who answers. Nothing will change if you don’t.

The lack of enforcement of this law is not an oversight – but we are “number one for business.”

• Related: Sanctuary Georgia: Another law that is ignored on “criminal illegals”

 

 

The below complaint letter was emailed to the OIG on November 11, 2022 and a hard copy sent via USPS November 12, 2022.

_______

November 11, 2022

The Honorable Mr. Scott McAfee

Inspector General, Georgia

2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SW,

1102 West Tower
Atlanta, GA 30334

Re: Addition to my September 6, 2022 complaint against Governor Brian Kemp – Complaint confirmation # F345217D89

Mr. McAfee,

Thank you for your response on the two complaints filed against Gwinnett Sheriff Keybo Taylor and Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens. I want to expand my complaint against Gov. Kemp filed in September. I agree with the statement on your office’s webpage that reads “key to public trust is the expectation that the OIG will hold state officials accountable for efficient, cost effective government operations and to prevent, detect, identify, expose and eliminate fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.

My original complaint involves Gov. Kemp’s refusal to enforce OCGA 42-4-14 which reads in part: “When any foreign national is confined, for any period, in a county or municipal jail, a reasonable effort shall be made to verify that such foreign national has been lawfully admitted to the United States and if lawfully admitted, that such lawful status has not expired. If verification of lawful status cannot be made from documents in the possession of the foreign national, verification shall be made within 48 hours through a query to the Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) of the United States Department of Homeland Security or other office or agency designated by the federal government. If the foreign national is determined to be an illegal alien, the keeper of the jail or other officer shall notify the United States Department of Homeland Security, or other office or agency designated for notification by the federal government.”

As I advised you in September, the above sheriffs are on record as defiantly and publicly refusing to comply with this state statute. This insolence has created a serious threat to public safety and the rule of law in Georgia.

I have done my best to appeal to Gov. Kemp’s sense of duty and honor in urging him to investigate and prosecute the openly admitted violations of this important public safety law dating back to January 2021. To my knowledge, there is no record of him taking an official action. While I understand your message that these sheriffs are not within your office’s jurisdiction, it is clear the governor is in the Executive branch of state government.

I would be grateful for an update on any action or progress your office has made in this matter since September. I note that as a state senator Gov. Kemp presided over the Senate Public Safety Committee that held hearings on the legislation that created this law. Then Senator Kemp voted in favor of final passage.

After spending many of hours of my own time on research in my own investigation using open records requests, I hereby add more Georgia laws that Gov. Kemp is allowing to be openly ignored. Please add OCGA 50-36-1, OCGA 50-36-2, OCGA 36-60-6 and OCGA 13-10-91 to my pending complaint against Gov. Kemp on OCGA 42-4-14.

While I can direct your office to multiple examples of local governments and state agencies that are not in compliance, to offer your investigators a place to begin on the additional allegations, I cite the numerous documented and admitted violations of these laws by the government of Carroll County.

To save time and paper, I respectfully direct you to the narrative of the literally thousands of defiant violations by Carroll County officials that I have posted here and here.

I have saved all the email exchanges with Carrol County that serve to illustrate and document proof of violation and staff admission of those violations. I can produce many more examples in other public agencies.

As Gov. Kemp has posted on the official website of his office, “the governor is the chief executive of the state and oversees the executive branch. He or she is the chief law enforcement officer.”

The state constitution tells us that the governor shall “take care that the laws are faithfully executed and shall be the conservator of the peace” in the state. This power to enforce laws is almost identical to that of the president of the United States.”

All of the laws here were designed to deter and punish the organized crime of illegal immigration while protecting jobs and taxpayer-funded benefits and services from illegal aliens. Like most Georgians, we consider them to be as important as street racing laws. Safeguarding the security and safety of innocent and trusting Georgians is part of the governor’s job.

It seems obvious to us that Gov. Kemp’s refusal to honor his oath of office on enforcement points to the corruption and abuse in the Chief Executive’s office on this matter.

Please add these latest accusations to my pending complaint and your investigation.

Please contact me with any questions.

Very respectfully submitted,

D.A. King

Marietta, GA. 30066

Con Ed – Georgia political history

Part two of a GALEO/Jerry Gonzalez profile in The Islander newspaper coming next Monday

In 2011, GALEO‘s Jerry Gonzalez went after a female Republican legislator, Renee Unterman, inside the Georgia Capitol. I was in the building when Capitol Police confronted Gonzalez. It is notable that this is the same time frame in which Jerry shouted at another female GOP Georgia legislator, 110 (ish)-pound Katie Dempsey, while chasing her around a Rome, GA  event designed to explain the E-Verify system and the corresponding state law requiring its use. We will save that one for later, but the Rome News-Tribune did a good job of the short story here.

We have been so busy here in Georgia lately struggling to stop pandering Republicans from advancing the far left anti-enforcement agenda that we haven’t had time to educate Georgians on the anti-borders Marxists in the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby. Here is a small view of one of these hateful leftists, GALEO’s CEO, Jerry Gonzalez. One problem with exposing the far left crazies is that lots of normal folks who only get their news from “the news” have difficulty accepting or believing  stories explaining how truly hateful the crazies really are.

We think many Georgians will be surprised to learn who helps GALEO with fundraising and operations.

I am halfway through a two-part profile of Jerry and GALEO for The Islander newspaper in SSI/Brunswick and mentioned this gem in part one. I’ll post them  here after the second part is published.

• Related: Readers write: AJC letter to the editor published October, 2020 – “Anti-enforcement GALEO is not a “civil rights group.”

Anyway, I stumbled across a page from GALEO’s website from 2011 on which Gonzalez is still seething about a speech then Senator Unterman made from the Well on the floor of the state Senate. It’s vintage Jerry. I link it below with link to the entire GALEO newsletter page.

First, a short explanation that cannot be repeated too many times: The anti-borders lobby (including most of the liberal media) is trained to always use the term “immigrants” when topic is illegal aliens – in the endless effort to make resistance and opposition to illegal immigration into “anti-immigrant.” Senator Unterman was addressing the topic of illegal aliens in Georgia during the process of debate on that year’s HB 87, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011.

Here is a link to the surviving GALEO newsletter page from 2011.

Below is the pasted image of Angry Jerry’s narration and illustration of his inner anger and hissy fit.