Both leading Republican candidates for Georgia’s 2022 U.S. Senate race have supported immigration amnesty

A Washington friend asked me to outline what is happening in Georgia with the 2022 race for U.S. Senate related to immigration. I explained that reading the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution would not give him a full picture.

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The story so far.

Elected in 2010, career Big Ag lobbyist and Georgia’s current Commissioner of Agriculture, Gary Black, went to Washington in 2011 and recommended to a U.S. Senate panel that illegal alien farm labor be legalized. They should be required to remain in the farm industry to keep their renewable work permits, he said.

See here for a link to Black’s Senate testimony.

Gary Black is now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate to replace pro amnesty Democrat Raphael Warnock.    

Agriculture is Georgia’s largest industry. Republicans control the state Capitol – as much as the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Big Ag allow.

Georgia media treats Black’s amnesty and indentured servitude advocacy as a closely guarded secret. This includes the uber-liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution.  And some establishment Republican talk show hosts.

Black is the donor class choice for the 2022 Republican senate primary, which is illustrated by the fact that former Governor Nathan Deal has endorsed him. So have about seventy-five Georgia sheriffs and a long list of Republican state legislators – few of whom, we suspect, are aware of his past call for amnesty. We think it likely that few care.

Enter Trump-pushed senate hopeful and now front runner Georgia football icon Herschel Walker who finally announced his own candidacy in late August. Big on “unity,” Walker was slow to put out a real campaign platform or position on “issues” until news broke this week about his past call for immigration amnesty.

Yesterday the liberal AJC ran a story on Walker and a 2015 statement he made regarding amnesty.

“He told USA Today in August 2015 that he supports Trump’s idea of building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico but disagreed with his plan to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally. He also said then that he’d back a proposal that enables such immigrants to earn citizenship” goes the AJC report. Update: Walker on controlling the border and the economy to the UGA College Republicans – January 13, 2022 .

The next day (Oct 19) the AJC political blog (“The Jolt”) reported that Gary Black created and is airing a radio ad hitting Walker for his immigration stance.

As of late October 19, the AJC still has not reported on Black’s amnesty advocacy or the indentured servitude angle. I waited until the daily AJC political blog was posted this AM to put this up. No mention of Gary Black’s call for amnesty. Some news is apparently more news than other news…

It’s a good bet the liberal AJC plans on keeping Black’s secret as long as they can. Meantime, pro-amnesty Democrat incumbent Warnock has (updated amount from “9 million”) $17 million cash on hand.

The Herschel Walker camp has not disputed or backed away from his 2015 comments on amnesty but has put out a statement that includes the below moldy-oldie dodge:

“America is a nation of immigrants, and Herschel strongly supports those who follow the process to legally enter this country,” said Walker campaign spokesperson Mallory Blount. “He has several dear friends who have done so. We have a humanitarian and illegal immigration crisis at our southern border that career politicians have created.

“When you have a leak, you fix it. Any conversations about immigration have to start with finally securing our southern border and Herschel will work to make that happen, unlike our current senators.” – Capitol Beat News Service.

We don’t think the advisors in Walker’s campaign have a clue about visa overstays and that more than half of the illegal aliens in the U.S. today did not come over the border illegally. Voters either. It’s not included in “the news” from the AJC.

Did we mention that Walker is in the race because Trump pushed his candidacy? It is good to see that Walker is urging people to actually vote in the coming election.

Also relevant is an October 4, 2021 AJC story finally breaking the news that some pro-enforcement Georgia Republicans are not happy with the betrayal by Gov Brian Kemp. A large metro-Atlanta area county GOP group censured the Republican Governor for, among other things, ignoring his detailed 2018 campaign promises on illegal immigration.

The agenda-driven AJC editors headline described Kemp’s pledge to go after “criminal illegals” and sanctuary cities as being “anti-immigration.” It helps outsiders understanding of “news” in Atlanta to know that the AJC served as dinner Chair for a MALDEF fundraiser here.

We are desperately seeking pro-enforcement candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor – and refer to our GOP-ruled state as ‘Georgiafornia.’

Study Committee on Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent (including foreign cops) excludes pro-American worker voices  

“Foreign-born” depicted as victims of over regulation in Georgia economy

Readers who would oppose state legislation to allow foreign nationals to be certified law enforcement officers in Georgia may want to prepare their resistance. It’s a goal of one participant in last week’s meeting of the ‘House Study Committee on Innovative Ways to Maximize Global Talent.’

Many thanks to Insider Advantage Georgia for last week’s news report (pay wall) educating readers on the existence of this committee and the Clarkston – located meeting.

Chairman Rep Wes Cantrell (R) – Woodstock) outlined his committee’s purpose at the August 19 meeting “…this committee has been formed to identify and make recommendations for removal of any barriers that limit the impact of our foreign-born population.” He made it clear input from the corporate-funded “expert” witnesses had been solicited.

The speakers offered repeated attempts to blur any distinction in context between “foreign-born” and residents who are foreign nationals. Most Georgians, including this one, don’t have a problem with naturalized Americans becoming law enforcement officers. But that’s not what the activist from Business & Immigration for Georgia Darlene C. Lynch was selling.

“We have outdated barriers and regulations that are preventing people from contributing to the economy. Foreign-born people who worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan in the military security system who can’t be police officers in their own community in Georgia because we have restrictive regulations in Georgia” was part of Lynch’s presentation.

What is the “restrictive regulation?” Police officers in Georgia must be U.S. citizens.

There were many references to “barriers” for “foreign-born Georgians”, but little detail on exactly what barriers are in place keeping any legally present individual from full participation in the Georgia economy. We won’t be surprised to see an expansion of the agenda. Will the state E-Verify laws requiring verification of work eligibility for newly hired employees come up as an “outdated barrier” in a future meeting?  We’ll see.

There was no opportunity for public input beyond the pre-arranged witnesses. There should be.

This pro-enforcement writer is a long-time, reluctant denizen of the Gold Dome who has assisted lawmakers with legislation aimed at discouraging illegal immigration by deterring access to illegal employment and illegal access to public benefits. After attending last Tuesday’s event I asked for the opportunity to provide more realistic input in either of the two upcoming committee meetings. That request was quickly denied.

It may be true that the first 236 names in the Hahira phone directory have at least as much knowledge on immigration as most Georgia legislators. So the day’s entry-level lesson for the committee had a segment on “key terms.”

Legislators were told that an “immigrant” is “a person who has left their country of nationality to live permanently in a new country.” This is true in a dictionary, but not in practice. Managing language and the endless effort to blur any line between legal immigrants and illegal aliens is the bedrock of the open border lobbying effort. Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.

Real immigrants do not require amnesty

The mindset presented to the attentive committee is that the million-plus illegal aliens who have already crossed our southern border this year are merely “immigrants.” And the foreign-born who routinely enter the U.S. on legal, non-immigrant, temporary visas and become illegal aliens when they refuse to leave are as worthy of accommodation as the million foreign-born we naturalize every year. Fact: For the seventh consecutive year, in 2019 visa overstays exceeded illegal border crossings (NPR).

Not all committee members are elected officials

The committee on eliminating “barriers” has two non-legislator members who will effect the coming recommendations for any legislation.

Legislators are Wes Cantrell (R), Woodstock (Chair), Kasey Carpenter (R), Dalton, Mike Cheokas (R), Americus, Angelika Kausche, (D), Johns Creek and Spencer Frye, (D), Athens.  Carpenter was absent.

Also Shushma Barakoti from the Refugee Women’s Network and Rene Diaz, CEO of Diaz Foods. Diaz is a past Atlanta Business Chronicle ‘Top 100 Most Influential Atlantans.’ He and his wife Barbara are a “Buckhead Power Couple.” Diaz is also Founding Friend of the well-known anti-enforcement, immigration lobbying group GALEO Inc.

One of the witnesses on a panel discussion was an illegal alien DACA recipient, Jaime Rangel – who is a lobbyist under the Gold Dome for Mark Zuckerburg’s pro-amnesty FWDus.

For this writer, the most irrelevant, eye-rolling remarks of the day came from state Rep Spencer Frye as he introduced himself to the room. “Unless anybody in here is full-blooded American Indian, I reckon we’re all immigrants of some sort.”  Frye did not speculate on from where the Indians migrated. But he did follow with “while I look like I look, I am absolutely descended from immigrants to the United States of America.”

Official House video of the committee meeting  here. Photos here. Program and players here. The next meeting is at Dalton State College, September 9^th and a final meeting in the state Capitol in early October.

A version of this column originally appeared (August 25, 2021) on the subscription outlet Insider Advantage Georgia as an OPED.