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Correction on false information on SB 264 from Sen Mike Dugan is MIA

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Senator Mike Dugan. Contact:121-F State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Office: (404) 656-7872
District Address
PO Box 1260
Carrollton, GA 30112
Email: (contact form)

In addition to being grateful to editor/publisher Sue Horn for the space to write here about illegal immigration in Georgia, I am also a Star News reader. As such, it seems there was something glaringly absent from the previous three editions of this newspaper. I am very curious to know if other readers agree.

I was looking for and expected a correction from Republican Senator Mike Dugan. Was anyone else?

In the June (print) edition of Star News, I wrote about a Democrat bill pending under the Gold Dome that deals with changing a law that effects tuition costs in our public-funded colleges and the definition of “resident” used to determine eligibility for instate tuition. SB 264 is a Democrat bill on which Sen. Dugan is the number one cosponsor.  The headline over my column then was “SB 264: Americans last college tuition legislation” which reflects my view of the bill.

My experienced opinion is based on the language in the legislation and understanding what would happen if it became law.

Here is that exact wording with my own emphasis on what I regard as the “Americans last” part: “noncitizen students admitted to the United States as refugees pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section 1157; as special immigrants pursuant to Public Law 110-181, Section 1244, as amended, Public Law 109-163, Section 1059, as amended, or Section 602(b) of Title VI of Division F of Public Law 111-8, as amended; or as humanitarian parolees pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section 1182(d)(5)(A) shall be classified as in-state for tuition purposes immediately upon settlement in Georgia; provided, …”

Simply put for people who don’t read and work with state legislation on a regular basis, SB 264 says that “special immigrants” (known as “SIVs”) and otherwise illegal aliens who are granted Biden’s ‘humanitarian parole’ to legally enter the U.S. could migrate to Georgia and be eligible for the much lower instate tuition rate in our public colleges the same day they arrive.

The bill would alter current state law that requires all new Georgia residents to live here for a year before they are allowed to access the instate tuition rate. That “all” description includes the above foreigners as well as Americans who move here from other states.

The current instate tuition at West Georgia College is $2,732 (15+ hours). The current out-of-state tuition is $9,641 (15+ hours) per semester (westga.edu).

As I wrote, SB 264 does not change the fact that an American student from Michigan (for example) would still have to wait twelve months to qualify for the lower tuition while it allows a new student from Afghanistan to qualify upon arrival.

Sue Horn, the Star News editor quite correctly passed my column on to Sen. Dugan before the June edition deadline so that he could respond to my opinion of the bill on which he is a cosponsor in the same (June) edition. His reply ran directly below my space. But it was full of numerous obvious, easily refuted inaccuracies.

Just two examples:

  • Dugan told readers here that the bill “…never even got a committee hearing…” The fact is that I watched the March 16, 2023 Senate Higher Education Committee hearing on SB 264 myself. There was no vote. I posted a link to that meeting with a video of the hearing and a transcript of the proceedings on my website.
  • Dugan also told readers – and constituents – that “the language in SB 264 already exists in Georgia law with the exception of the term “Special Immigrants.” It doesn’t. Again, SB 264 eliminates the existing law that says the “Special Immigrants” and humanitarian parolees must live here a year before qualifying for instate tuition – just like Americans do.

The July Star News edition contained my point-by-point explanation of those false statements along with references and citations that illustrate the truth. Ms. Horn headlined it “Pending legislation creates a benefit and significant monetary savings for foreign nationals that is not available to Americans.”

Readers who want to review all of this can access these columns on ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com by entering “Mike Dugan” in the search bar. Please be reminded that despite what Sen Dugan wrote in June, SB 264 is quite alive and viable in the state Capitol for next year.

There has been no correction or explanation from Senator Dugan (contact info) in the editions of this newspaper that were published after his June rebuttal column. I checked with Ms. Horn to be sure I had not missed something. I also contacted Sen Dugan asking for any input he wanted to offer for this article but as I write on deadline on October 3rd, I have not received a reply.

So, I’ll end where I began on top. Did any other readers think they were owed a correction or explanation of any of this from Senator Dugan? I would like to hear from you either way.

It would be a shame if voters were not paying attention or are somehow timid enough to ignore the unapologetic, outrageously erroneous statements on Democrat legislation from a Republican state senator in their community newspaper.

  • A version of this column is also published in the October 15, 2023 print edition of the (Carroll County) Star News.

U.S. House Judiciary Committee: Biden Admin Failure to Remove Over 99% of Released Illegal Aliens

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New Data Reveal Biden Administration’s Failure to Remove Over 99% of Released Illegal Aliens, Fueling Border Crisis Concerns

October 9, 2023
Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) released an interim staff report titled, “The Biden Border Crisis: New Data and Testimony Show How the Biden Administration Opened the Southwest Border and Abandoned Interior Immigration Enforcement.” The report presents newly obtained data and information that reveal the Biden Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to remove more than 99 percent of illegal aliens, through immigration court proceedings, released into the country by the Biden Administration between January 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023, alone.

After persistent demands by the Committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement for basic information about the state of the border crisis, DHS produced data exposing the alarming state of immigration enforcement. These new, nonpublic data show:

  • Between January 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023, there were over 5 million illegal alien encounters. Of these encounters, at least 2,464,424 had no confirmed departure from the United States.
  • During the same period, DHS released at least 2,148,738 illegal aliens into the United States.
  • Only 5,993 illegal aliens encountered at the southwest border and placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge were actually removed from the United States during this time.
  • A mere six percent of illegal aliens released into the United States were even screened for fear of persecution for purposes of asylum.
  • As of March 2023, DHS had removed only 874 of the illegal aliens found to have a credible fear of persecution and whose claims were adjudicated on the merits and denied by an immigration judge.
  • An additional 205,473 aliens were released into the country through illegal categorical parole programs.

Read the full report here.

 

Brian Kemp’s refusal to keep promises on “criminal illegals” explained – and more news #MarthaZoller

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Screenshot, Brian Kemp 2018 TV campaign ad. Entire video on the bottom of this page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As someone who has dealt with the organized crime of illegal immigration every day for the last two decades, I never know how much information on the topic normal people see. So please forgive me if you have already seen any of this in “the news.” But I doubt it.

  • Biden program allows more than 200,000 illegal aliens to fly over the border

My friends at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington have posted an article that illustrates the fact that not all illegal aliens are entering the U.S. along the southern or northern border.

Over the past year, “more than 200,000 people from four countries” used a direct-flight parole program to enter the United States illegally, says Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Washington-based think tank devoted to researching immigration issues.

Those 221,456 illegal aliens are from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. Bensman learned of the federal government’s “CBP One” mobile application parole program, which “permits inadmissible aliens to make an appointment to fly directly to airports in the interior of the United States, bypassing the border altogether” through a Freedom of Information Request.

The Biden administration introduced the CBP One mobile app to illegal aliens as a way to schedule an appointment at a port of entry and be illegally paroled into the interior of the United States. (The acronym CBP refers to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.) More at CIS.org

  • ICE quietly planning to issue photo IDs to illegal aliens

The Biden Administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide photo ID cards to illegal aliens it releases into the country. Leaked images show pictures of the proposed ID cards, which include a photo, identifying information, and security details.

The proposed IDs mock interior enforcement efforts and further normalize the existence of illegal aliens in the U.S. ICE launched the pilot program for these ID cards, called the Secure Docket Card Program, last year to provide illegal aliens with an ID card upon release into the U.S.A. See more at FAIRUS.org.

Prediction: It’s only a matter of time before Democrats in state and local governments around the nation concoct justification for accepting the new “illegal ID” as valid for accessing public benefits – or maybe voter ID.

  • Illegal aliens now getting work permits unavailable to legal guest workers on visas created by congress.

As of October 1, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services implemented expedited processing of Employment Authorization Documents (work permits) applications for inadmissible aliens that the Democrats running the White House illegally parole into the country using the CBP One app or through one of their new parole programs that are only available to nationals from certain countries. The agency will also begin issuing EADs with five-year validity periods instead congressionally approved two-year periods. More at CIS.org

Republican radio show host Martha Zoller says illegal immigration has increased so much that Brian Kemp “had to change his tactics” and abandon his campaign promises on “criminal illegals” and ending sanctuary cities.
  • Radio show host explains Kemp’s refusal to honor his 2018 pledge on ‘criminal illegals’

 Republican stalwart and Gainesville radio show host Martha Zoller (WDUN- 9-11 AM weekdays) has repeatedly expressed her displeasure with yours truly for failing to forget Gov Brian Kemp’s many detailed 2018 promises on addressing “criminal illegals.” Zoller, a former Kemp staffer, also offers her audience an ‘expert’ explanation of why Kemp hasn’t moved on any of those promises; It’s because illegal immigration has increased so much since then. “He had to change his tactics” says Zoller who was appointed to the state school board by Kemp. She has promoted this idea more than once on the air and says discussing Kemp’s betrayal is “wasting time.”

Zoller is the Talker’s Magazine 2023 Woman of The Year. For those of us who remember Kemp’s campaign promises, she is advising her audience that Biden’s open borders have apparently made ending illegal sanctuary policies in Georgia, creating a public database of “criminal illegals” and sending legislation (“Brian Kemp’s Track and Deport Plan“) to the General Assembly to “update Georgia law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons” an outdated, non-priority concept. Got it?

You read it here first – unless you have already seen my ‘Martha Zoller’ file at ImmigrationPoliticsGa.com.

 

  • A version of this column is published in the Oct 9, 2023 edition of The Islander newspaper in Glynn Co. GA.

‘Georgia Match’ and the need for factual reporting on Hope

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  • More than 3000 illegals graduate from Georgia high schools every year. Illegal aliens are not eligible for the Hope Scholarship – not “all students” or all graduates. 

 

Gov. Brain Kemp announced the new “Georgia Match” program yesterday and various news outlets are busy reporting on the details of the new system for assuring high school students they have a college seat in the state’s public post secondary schools.

We hope they get it right when they tell people about the Hope Scholarship. And we hope all concerned note that somewhere north of 3000 illegal aliens graduate from Georgia’s high schools each year according to a now six-year-old stats from the New Yorker. 

We assume that number is significantly higher now that Biden has invited 4-5 million illegals into the remains of the Republic.

Gov. Brian Kemp

Here is an example of our concern from reporter Jeff Amy at the Associated Press today in a story headlined “You’re admitted: Georgia to urge high school seniors to apply in streamlined process.”

At the end of Amy’s report is the following information on the Hope Scholarship:

“That’s where Georgia officials say the state’s HOPE Scholarship and HOPE Grant programs can help. The grant program pays for two years of technical college tuition for any high school graduate, as long as the student maintains a C average. There is also enhanced aid for students studying in career fields the state classifies as being in high demand.

The scholarship program pays for four years of college or university tuition for any student who graduates high school with a B average and maintains a B average in college (italics mine).

AP reporter Jeff Amy

Amy and the left wing AP are telling people that Hope pays for “any high school graduate” and “any student.” I’ve seen similar wording in other reports

The Georgia Student Finance Commission has different “facts” on eligibility for the Hope scholarship. It’s first on the list of “basic requirements” – students must “meet U.S. citizenship or eligible non-citizen requirements.”

What are those requirements?

“DACA recipients and undocumented students are ineligible for state and federal financial aid including the Pell Grant, loans and the Zell Miller & HOPE Scholarships” says the University of North Georgia resources page. We note the redundancy of their “DACA recipients and undocumented students.”

Shorter: Illegal aliens are not eligible for the Hope Scholarship. That includes the more than 3000 illegals graduate from Georgia high schools every year. Regardless of grades, not all high school graduates are eligible for Hope. Somebody his wrong here or we are missing something not at all obvious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martha Zoller on politician’s campaign promises

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I was able to listen to Martha’s show for about 15 minutes this morning. She did not disappoint. Yowsa.

In a discussion apparently revolving around the un-doing of the U.S. House Speaker yesterday, I heard Martha tell a caller, ( I think she framed it in a reference to Gov Kemp and his abandoned pledge on ending sanctuary cities in GA and creating a public database of criminal illegals and to “update Ga law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons” passing legislation to ) that “No politician ever keeps all of their promises. You have to look at their whole body of work.”

Gov. Brian Kemp

I winced at her obvious effort to convince her loyal and trusting listeners to ignore the fact that in addition to not keeping his word on illegal aliens in our state, Kemp is in violation of his oath office when he refuses to enforce the existing state laws on the above, one of which he passed out of his Senate Public safety Committee when he was chairman as a state senator in 2006 (SB 529).

A few minutes later I heard Martha end a conversation with a caller who was upset about broken promises by elected officials by saying “we gotta start keeping (maybe she said “making”) people accountable.”

In the next segment, I heard part of a segment in which Martha was interviewing GA Congressman Andrew Clyde, again pertaining to the Speaker issue in Washington. Clyde, a strong conservative, made it clear that in his mind (dealing Kevin McCarthy in the House) that “trust is a series of promises kept…” Unlike her own remarks made between guests, that quote is available in Zoller’s show clips. Clyde’s observation on promises is at 4:44 on the SoundCloud bar.

 

 

Martha Zoller on Gov Brian Kemp: “…he had to change his tactics”

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“…he had to change his tactics…” (due to the massive increase of illegal immigration at the border).

Republican radio show host and former Kemp staffer Martha Zoller on why Gov. Brian Kemp has ignored his 2018 campaign promise on illegal immigration in Georgia and the “criminal illegals” he focussed on then. – On the air, 10:55 AM Monday, August 28, 2023

Eric Erickson and an amnesty trial balloon

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About halfway through pecking out this post it occurred to me that Erick Erickson could well be on an appointed, long-term mission to set up acceptance of a “it’s not amnesty!” future senate floor vote or a pro-legalization plank in a 2026 GOP Senate campaign for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. That’s how things are done here. If so, we suspect that the occasional, softer, less direct points from Kemp ally Martha Zoller on her Georgia radio show are part of the same plan.

Martha Zoller

Legalization for illegal aliens is amnesty for illegal aliens.

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Original audio and transcript below.

In a September 28, 2023 (hour 2) broadcast (access entire show podcast here), Republican radio talker Erick Erickson broached the topic of legalization for illegal aliens and said he would support it. For experienced amnesty opponents who remember the 1986 debacle and the talking points from the many attempts at a repeat since then, there wasn’t much new in the Erick Erickson amnesty balloon.

Top of the list for Erickson amnesty are what the anti-enforcement mob has labeled “dreamers.” He put a “whose parents dragged them here 30 years ago…” qualification on it to get the sympathy ball rolling. We assume the “why not support amnesty for the children when many of the millions of illegal border crossers are bringing dreamer replacement children over the border literally every day now?” push will come after the 2026 Senate election.

Next in line for Erickson amnesty it’s (you may have seen this coming)…the parents. In Erickson’s amnesty balloon the eligibility period of avoiding enforcement of immigration law for consideration is 40 years.

Essentially, Erickson is promoting the now worn and ridiculous concept that there are somehow illegal aliens in the U.S. who have not violated any other American laws other than “existing” here. And that amnesty for the illegals who have easily managed to be “undocumented workers” for a long period of time a viable solution to the problem.

Erickson threw in the worn and ridiculous concept that amnesty-again would be a demonstration of “humanity” if the border was secured and somehow “the number of illegal crossings go down to zero” (which is impossible – note to Erickson: run, don’t walk to arrange a trip to the southern border with expert guidance). Again, the early eligibility period example in his amnesty float is for illegals who dodged enforcement for 40 years – and apparently who produced kids.

I suspect that Erickson promotes the idea of legalization without a path to citizenship being fully aware that about ten minutes after any such legalization legislation was signed into law the corporate-funded leftists would be back to screaming in the streets of the remains of the Republic carrying pre-printed placards demanding “citizenship for all!” yada-yada. But, omitting this idea does likely help serve to keep the fact that amnestied illegal aliens do not vote for Republicans and legalization does not produce many new GOP votes out of the equation for a while.

I would go on Erickson’s show and offer a fact-filled, pro-enforcement response  but he has my phone number blocked and will not put me on the air when I do get through to his call screener using another number.

A few more pesky and very basic facts Erickson has so far kept from his easily-led Republican listeners – most of whom in Georgia are trusting and immigration-ignorant, “we’ll follow you anywhere” Kemp Republicans. Note to new readers, this is not a complimentary term.

  • The “never-broke-the-law-except-for-immigration-law is an old hustle. It is mostly impossible for an “undocumented worker” to get and keep a job/employment in the U.S. without committing a crime because eventually, the employer will need a Social Security Number.
  • Use of a false Social Security Number is a felony.
  • Use of a stolen Social Security Number (Aggravated Identity Theft) is a felony.
  • See also: Fraud and False Statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001). It is common for illegal aliens to make false statements to the government or on official documents. An illegal alien violates this law when claiming to be a U.S. citizen on an I-9 Employment Eligibility form and faces a fine and up to five years imprisonment.
  • Even if it were within the realm of reality to cut illegal border crossings to zero, that alone would not end the organized crime of illegal immigration. Because Erickson doesn’t do it, we note that until the Biden administration illegally opened the southern border, about half of all illegal aliens in the nation did not come over the border illegally. They came on temporary visas and then refused to leave. We have made this point to Erickson before.

Related: DHS Reports Record Number of Visa Overstays in 2022

Erickson’s amnesty balloon is aimed at the most willingly ignorant amongst the Republicans and is apparently the beginning of the beginning of what we suspect is the long-haul effort to have Republicans (especially Kemp Republicans in Georgia) warmed up for a future amnesty push.

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The below transcript was done by Rev.com.
Original audio on the bottom.

Erick Erickson, Sept 28, 2023 on WSB radio in Atlanta (hour 2)

Erick Erickson:

“… for those of you who take that position, you need at an intellectually honest level to say, “What about the kids whose parents dragged them here 30 years ago when they were one or two years old and now they’re in their thirties, do we deport them or do we find a way to keep them here?” That’s one of the big immigration arguments. And I’m… I’m all about… Look, if you’ve been in this country for 30 years, your parents brought you here, and your parents themselves have not broken the law since they’ve been here other than by existing here, I’m okay letting you stay if you’ve been contributing, but… I mean i-if you’re not a lawbreaker, but I don’t want to give you citizenship.

On… I… I think before we can have those conversations though, you got to build a very high wall with a very big moat and fill it with alligators and… and… and stop the rest of… of the… the… the wave of illegal immigrants from coming over. I… I… I… I think we’ve got to secure our border.

And I actually am one of the people, [inaudible 00:00:51] optimistic in humanity, but I am one of those people that does believe if you secure the border and the number of illegals crossing goes down to zero, I think a lot of the people who were very reticent about deporting everybody might actually say, “Okay, since nobody else can get in here, let’s… let’s talk about the people who’ve been here for 40 years illegally.” And I think they need to be treated [inaudible 00:01:20] the people who have been here for a year or two.

I… We… We have the ability to exercise some discretion. If you’ve been here for 40 years a-and you… y-you now have kids, some of whom were born here, they’re American citizens and you haven’t broken the law, maybe we don’t give you citizenship, but we just let you stay. But if you’re a criminal or you’ve only been here for the last five years or so, well, okay, you’ve got to go. Go home, get in line like everybody else, like the legal aliens who came here and took the time to do it, but…

Audio

 

 

Left wing AJC misleads readers yet again on immigration facts in an homage to retiring anti-enforcement restaurant lobbyist

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Endless effort to describe illegal aliens as “immigrants” 

The  leftist AJC put out a story this week on the retirement of Karen Bremer, president and CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association and managed to omit an important component of Bremer’s agenda while misleading (yet again) readers on “immigrants” and immigration law. So..not much new here.

You can read it for yourself on the bottom but the part I refer to is midway through the piece in which the reporter, Yvonne Zusel and/or her editors describes Bremmer’s “restaurant advocacy” and “a federal worker visa program and a path to citizenship for immigrants who had been in the country for a long time.”

Here I need to interject my own knowledge of that advocacy. Karen Bremer led the business lobby’s anti-enforcement charge in 2011 against passage of HB 87 because of the obvious effects it would have on blackmarket labor that her industry uses.

Karen Bremer

I’ll stop here for any doubters and offer up a quote from the 2010 version of the New York Times with a quote from “a Manhattan chef and restaurateur who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he does not want to draw attention to his TriBeCa restaurant.

“Out of a total of about 12.7 million workers in the restaurant industry, an estimated 1.4 million — both legal and illegal immigrants — are foreign born, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to 2008 estimates from the Pew Hispanic Center, about 20 percent of the nearly 2.6 million chefs, head cooks and cooks are illegal immigrants. Among the 360,000 dishwashers, 28 percent are undocumented, according to the estimates.

Those numbers sounded low to a Manhattan chef and restaurateur who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he does not want to draw attention to his TriBeCa restaurant.

“We always, always hire the undocumented workers,” he said. “It’s not just me, it’s everybody in the industry. First, they are willing to do the work. Second, they are willing to learn. Third, they are not paid as well. It’s an economic decision. It’s less expensive to hire an undocumented person.”

You can read that entire NY Times report at “Immigration Crackdown Steps Into the Kitchen.”

Back to Bremer and the the subtle but constant misdirection in the AJC agenda. Bremmer was determined to stop HB 87, the”Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” largely because of the E-Verify requirement for private employers component. Our goal was to make Georgia as inhospitable to illegal employenmtj as possible. The bill eventually passed with a mandate that private employers with more than ten employees must swear they are using E-Verify. That would be the no cost, online, federal database that verifies work eligibility of newly hired employees.

Bremer and her accomplices at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce concocted and distributed objections to the bill that included the goop that it would somehow cost E-Verify users $128.00 per employee to use.They sent out a letter to GRA members begging for action aimed at killing the bill – or at least removal of the E-Verify component. They failed. We archived that letter here.

But that is not what the AJC reported. According to the AJC editors, Bremer had “…dabbled in restaurant advocacy years earlier as part of the Georgia Hospitality and Travel Association, and also had worked in the early 2000s on pushing for a federal worker visa program and a path to citizenship for immigrants who had been in the country for a long time.”

AJC senior editors

 

 

 

 

On the “pushing for a federal visa program” point, the fact is that the U.S. has multiple guest worker visa programs in place.

On the latter reference the AJC makes it appear that “immigrants” don’t already have a path to citizenship. They do. The truth is that legal immigrants (green card holders -aka – LPRs) can become U.S. citizens after they have lived in the U.S. for five years. General eligibility points here from the feds. We suspect Bremer was pushing for one of the many failed congressional amnesty schemes ( my own absolute favorite here) that would have put millions of illegal aliens in a legalized condition that allowed them to have the same privilege.

  • Related: See here and here for just two examples of the countless times the AJC editors have pulled the shameless “illegal aliens are immigrants” switcheroo on readers.

Read it yourself:

The Atlanta Journal Constitution, September, 24, 2023

Retiring Georgia Restaurant Association chief optimistic about industry’s future – here.

 

GOP Rep. Biggs Predicts 10 Million Illegal Aliens Will Have Entered U.S. by End of Biden Admin

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Justthenews.com

Sept. 24, 2023

Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs on Thursday backed former President Donald Trump’s calls to conduct a mass deportation of illegal immigrants over the age of 14.

Addressing supporters in Iowa at a recent rally, Trump vowed to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to enable the widespread deportation effort.

“[I]t’s actually gonna have to be necessary,” he said on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show. “Because by the time Trump gets back in office, you will have had over 10 million, in my opinion, over 10 million illegal aliens cross our border and come into the country, under the Biden regime.”

More than 6 million people have illegally entered the United States since President Joe Biden took office in January of 2021. Immigration remains one of Biden’s worst issues in terms of public opinion, with 33.6% of Americans approving of his performance in the RealClearPolitics polling average. By contrast, 62.8% disapprove of his efforts. Should Trump win the 2024 presidential election, he would take office in January of 2025.

“And so when you start deporting people, and removing them from this country, what that does is that disincentivizes the tens of thousands of people who are coming,” he went on. “And by the way, everyday down in Darién Gap, which is in Panama… over 5,000 people a day… here.

GA Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Chris Clark on the Martha Zoller radio show Sept. 22, 2023 – Transcript & audio

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Chris Clark: “We have to differently about immigration, uh, and how we work with these other countries over the longterm to get the skilled talent, healthcare professionals that we’re gonna need.”

Transcript by Rev.com

My cost: $12.00 and about 1.5 hours.

We note that the usual interview at Zoller’s show is 10 minutes. This one was the entire show hour.

 

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

So, hey, we, we- Don’t get me wrong, we still have alphas that are in our schools, but, as I said, the schools are getting smaller, we have to think differently ’bout how we train the kids that are here. We have to (do?) differently about immigration, uh, and how we work with these other countries over the longterm to get the skilled talent, healthcare professionals that we’re gonna need.

Chris Clark

radio show host Martha Zoller:

And, um, l- like what you said about we have to work differently about immigration, and I certainly think that, um, you know, we, we focus a lot on the illegal immigration. And I think rightfully so right now because there is a problem at our border right now because we have immigrated legally over the last three years about 1.1 million a year, but it looks like the number we know of is about 2.8 million coming across the border each year in the last three years. So that’s, like, 7% of the population in three years. It’s, it’s a lot to deal with.

But I think the answer to that is fixing our legal immigration system, which is a mess right now. Um, and they’re, you know, I liked the RAISE Act, okay? Uh, it didn’t go anywhere but I think it was focused on merit and it was focused on what we needed, and it was focused on clearly the backlog of people that were waiting in line the right way and getting people into skills. So what’s your vision on that?

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Yeah, listen, I, I don’t disagree that you have to secure the border, but we also, a- and this maybe goes back to, to safe a little bit more, Martha, than anything else. You gotta stop demonizing those people that come from other countries that are different. Um, we’ve got to fix the federal system, and this was, you know, this was a two administration, Republican and Democrat’s, problem.

But the system during COVID, probably if you went back to 2014 or 15, you would bring through either Permanent Worker’s, Green Card Worker’s, Temporary Worker’s at about 3 million a year. They’ve skilled trades, our farmers needing them, our tech co- tech companies needing them, our, uh, hospitality, retail needing them. Uh, and here’s the statistics to keep in mind longterm f- for those of you that, that struggle with this – 24% of all nurses in America are immigrants. That’s your caregiver population that is so vitally needed right now.

So, yeah, uh, we need to have more judges to processes them. Uh, the Biden administration has drug their feet, they’ve been unwilling to hire, um, the judges and the additional staff that they need to process those men and women that are trying to get here legally. I- I’ll give you a great example. Um, there’s a hospital in south Georgia that has traditionally brought in foreign nurses on a temporary basis, rotating them in and out. Some stay, get their permanent legal residence. They, they found a couple, husband and wife from Central America that, uh, you know, have their master’s degree in nursing, they were fantastic. Uh, the hospital did all the recruitment, moved them up here, and then the w- the, the wife was able to get her documentation, everything she needed. She’s working in that hospital right now, providing incredible care, but the husband is still waiting for the federal government to process his paperwork.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

Oh, I- You know, we could-

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Unbelievable.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

If we started telling those stories, Chris, we’ll be here all day.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

(laughs)

radio show host Martha Zoller:

I’ll tell you one. A girl that worked for me in a, as a intern about 10 years ago who was from Rwa- Rwanda. She finished her degree in, uh, at Cornell and got her master’s degree at Texas. She is a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda. It’s her and her sister, the only two people that are left. The rest of her family were killed, okay? Uh, her father made it through a little bit but has since died. But, but, you know, she went here, her sister has a Green Card and is living in Atlanta and s- at the e- after she got her master’s degree she got sent home and she has not been able to get back in.

When her u- You know, we talk about asylum seekers, this is a legitimate-

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris clark:

Yeah.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

… Survivor of, (laughs) you know, of a genocide.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Right.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

Okay?

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Yeah.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

And her only living relative is living and working as an accountant in Atlanta, and she has a master’s degree from a United States college and she can’t back into the country.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris clark:

Yeah.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

So there, there are a million stories like that.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Right.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

And it gets frustrating for people who are trying to either bring workers in, or bring peop- or people coming in, like, on H-1B visas.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Yeah.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

I mean, I had meetings all the time when I was at Senator Perdue’s office with these families that are in limbo because things are moving so slowly.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

Well, I didn’t- And, and when you were in that-

radio show host Martha Zoller:

Well, I’m sure you’d beat him too.

GA Chamber of Commerce leader Chris Clark:

That- We do and, and the other part of that is you still have farmers who have problems bringing the crops in from the fields, three years later now. Um, and so it, it does impact every section of the economy and it, and it will continue. I mean, right now we expect the immigrant workforce population in Georgia to be about 12.5% by 2028. That number should probably be 15 to 16%. Um, and, a we said before, longterm, 10, 20 years from now, it’s gonna need to be higher than that.

radio show host Martha Zoller:

Right. Right. We got a lot of work to do. Hey, we’re gonna take one final break and then we’re gonna wrap things up when we come back and just give- Uh, we’ll talk about what are the opportunities going forward and how we can take this information o-