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Illegal immigration in Georgia & SB 448 – perhaps the most, um… ‘incomplete’ bill for 2022 in the Georgia state senate #ButchMiller

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Sen. Butch Miller, SB 448 sponsor. Photo: Ga General Assembly

We like the concept! But SB 448 looks like a campaign bill to me. While it calls for a “citizenship status” check to determine if a “detained” and/or arrested individual is “lawfully present” in this country, it doesn’t go any further in explaining exactly how the law enforcement officer would go about that status check. Not even by saying the documents on the subject’s person should be used. I struggle not to type “poorly written.” Oops.

Maybe the sponsors could refer to this? See also 8 USC 1304

We again feel compelled to remind all concerned that “lawfully present” is a term that is not defined by congress in the INA.

The 11th circuit court of appeals of appeals weighed in on that in 2019.

But…what, exactly does the LEO do with the information if it looks like the subject is an illegal alien? Maybe nothing?

And why would we watch as yet another law like this is even discussed when OCGA 42-4-14 is ignored? 

Progress would be to actually add a written penalty to OCGA 42-4-14.

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“SB 448  ( LC 28 0368 )

Law Enforcement Officers and Agencies; peace officer in this state who lawfully arrests an individual with or without a warrant or as the result of a traffic stop shall check such individual’s citizenship status; provide”

“First Reader Summary

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 1 of Title 35 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions regarding law enforcement officers and agencies, so as to provide that each peace officer in this state who lawfully arrests or detains an individual with or without a warrant or as the result of a traffic stop shall check such individual’s citizenship status to determine if such individual is lawfully present in this country; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
“BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:  
SECTION 1.  
Chapter 1 of Title 35 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to general provisions regarding law enforcement officers and agencies, is amended by adding a new Code section to read as follows:  
  
“35-1-24.  
Each peace officer, as such term is defined in Code Section 35-8-2, in this state who  
lawfully arrests or detains an individual with or without a warrant or as the result of a  
traffic stop shall check such individual’s citizenship status to determine if such individual  
is lawfully present in this country.“

Sponsors

No.Number in list Name District
1. Miller, Butch 49th
2. Mullis, Jeff 53rd
3. Gooch, Steve 51st
4. McNeill, Sheila 3rd
5. Payne, Chuck 54th
6. Hickman, Billy 4th
7. Burns, Max 23rd

Gallup: 58 percent of all Americans are dissatisfied with current immigration levels.

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Image: Wikimedia Commons

”Level is the highest ever recorded by Gallup, and a significant jump from 2021, when only 19 percent of Republicans said they were dissatisfied with current immigration levels.”

The Hill

Feb 14, 2022

Dissatisfaction with current immigration levels spiked in January as dissatisfaction among Republican respondents surged in Gallup’s periodic Mood of the Nation poll.

According to the poll, 58 percent of all Americans are dissatisfied with current immigration levels.

Of that group, 35 percent of respondents want immigration levels decreased, 9 percent say they want levels increased and 14 percent say they are dissatisfied with current levels but they don’t want immigration levels to increase or decrease.

The number of respondents who said they want decreased immigration rose sharply from 2021, when only 19 percent of respondents said they wanted reduced immigration, the lowest level since Gallup started asking the question in 2001.

January’s 35 percent number is the highest since 2017, which followed a peak in anti-immigration sentiment in 2016.

The rise in immigration dissatisfaction was almost entirely driven by Republican respondents, 87 percent of whom said they are dissatisfied with current levels of immigration.

That level is the highest ever recorded by Gallup, and a significant jump from 2021, when only 19 percent of Republicans said they were dissatisfied with current immigration levels.

Among Democrats, 40 percent said they’re dissatisfied with current levels, a drop from 47 percent in 2021; 55 percent of independents said they’re dissatisfied, up from 49 percent in 2021.

The partisan split is also clear in the number of dissatisfied respondents who say immigration should increase, decrease or remain the same.

Among Republicans, only 3 percent are dissatisfied and say immigration levels should increase, while 69 percent say levels should decrease, a significant jump from 2021, when only 40 percent Republicans called for immigration reductions.

Democrats saw a similar shift, with 15 percent saying they are dissatisfied and want higher levels of immigration, down from 28 percent the two years prior.

Still, 52 percent of Democrats said they’re satisfied with current levels, and only 11 percent said they want to see reduced immigration.

And nearly a third of independents, 32 percent, say they are dissatisfied with current levels and want to see less immigration, while 34 percent say they are content with current levels.

While dissatisfaction with current levels of immigration surged, it’s unclear whether Americans by and large know how many people enter the country — legally or illegally — every year.

Still, immigration news during President Biden‘s first year in office was driven by images and reports of encounters with migrants at the border.

Last year saw record numbers of encounters between U.S. officials and migrants at the southern border, but most researchers agree that the number of undocumented migrants making it into the country is at a historical low.

Research by the Migration Policy Institute found that in fiscal 2021, around half a million migrants successfully entered the United States, despite the 1.7 million encounters between migrants and officials at the border and ports of entry.

In 2000, a comparable year for unauthorized border crossing attempts, more than 2 million people are estimated to have successfully made their way into the United States.

And while legal immigration numbers for 2021 have not yet been released, immigration to the United States took a dip with the pandemic in 2020 and most likely did not recover the following year.

In 2018 and 2019, the U.S. government issued about 1 million legal permanent resident permits — also known as green cards — and only issued slightly more than 700,000 in 2020.

The trend likely continued in 2021, as the Biden administration failed to deliver more than 200,000 green cards authorized by Congress due to slowdowns caused by the pandemic and restructuring after the Trump administration.

The Gallup poll interviewed 811 adults in all 50 states, with a margin of error or plus minus 4 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.  Here.

TAGS JOE BIDEN IMMIGRATION

 

Enforcement on the southern border is a total farce

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The Biden administration has told ICE not to deport anyone if being here illegally is their only crime.
REUTERS

New York Post Editorial board

“The southern border of the United States has become a suggestion, a line that vanishes a little more each day.

“I spent three days on the front lines of the Biden administration’s illegal-immigration crisis and found a Border Patrol that has changed from an enforcement agency to a concierge service,” Angie Wong reports in The Post.

Worse: “The southern border of the United States has become a suggestion, a line that vanishes a little more each day.”

Migrants are streaming into the country in droves, assisted by cartel coyotes and left-leaning nonprofits; US Custom and Border Protection officers do next to no enforcing. There’s not enough of them.

So they’ve resorted to working with the cartels and coyotes, coordinating on “when and where drop-offs will happen.” That’s right: Uncle Sam has effectively handed control of the border to the criminals profiting off of moving people across it.

It’s the direct result of President Joe Biden’s hot mess of a border policy.

From Feb. 1 to Dec. 31, 2021, officers apprehended 1,956,596 illegal immigrants on the southern border, vs. 511,192 under President Donald Trump a year earlier. That figure went up a record 283%. And countless more migrants, even in large groups, manage to cross into America without getting spotted, let alone caught, to add to those stats.

“Border Patrol pretends to patrol the border. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pretends to keep tabs on people coming in,” Wong notes. “President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris pretend to say, ‘Don’t come here,’ but every signal — from the wide open borders to the NGO welcome mat — says, ‘Come on in!’ … More here.

 

Who lobbies for Rep Wes Cantrell’s “Americans last” HB 999 & HB 932 (and HB 120 from Rep Kasey Carpenter)? Connecting the dots *Updated

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Rep Wes Cantrell, Republican, Woodstock

If you don’t hit the links, you will not learn much.

Correction made on bill numbers in the copy below and the headline: 7:40 PM, Feb 10. My fault. I apologize for the typos.

Note to all concerned: The model language for HB 60 & HB 999 came from the Federation for Children. The flyers attacking Republicans who didn’t immediately swoon and support the bills came from…the Federation for Children.

More info on HB 932 here & HB 999 here , here and here.

Info on HB 120 here.

Related: A Breitbart news report on the entire train wreck: Georgia Republicans draft legal giveaways to illegals.

Mark Zuckerburg’s FWD.us is lobbying for Rep Wes Cantrell’s “Americans Last” (HB 932 here.)

It may help people to “get it” if they realize that the corporate-funded FWD.us lobbyist under the Gold Dome lobbying against immigration enforcement is an illegal alien.

Former Gwinnett Republican state Rep Buzz Brockway at the Georgia Center for Opportunity is pushing hard for HB 999. So is state Rep Chuck Eftrastion (R). See also Erick Erickson.

The Coalition of Refugee Services (CRSA) put on a large lobbying event in the Georgia Capitol today for HB 932 & HB 120. It was also available online. CRSA is part of the “BIG” partnership and works closely with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.*

Info on the CRSA (part of the refugee resettlement industry) Capitol lobbying event for Rep Wes Cantrell’s HB 932 & Kasey Carpenter’s HB 120. (click on “view details” on top)

HB 932 is a product of a special House committee chaired by Rep Wes Cantrell

A “Progressive” woman named Darlene C. Lynch works for both CRSA and the “BIG Partnership” and organized and ran the Georgia House Special Committee “Innovative ways to Maximize Global Talent” that saw three 2021 Summer and Fall meetings – with two in Georgia’s public colleges. HB 932 is a product of those committee hearings. The special committee was created by a resolution that passed unanimously in the House at the end of the 2021 session. Rep Wes Cantrell was the sponsor of the resolution (be sure to see all cosponsors) and served as the chairman of the agenda-driven committee that took zero pubic comment and arranged the witnesses.

*Updated, 5:25: PM Some of the agenda items from the hand-picked, pre-screened witnesses at the special committee mentioned above:

 

  • Changing state law so as to allow foreigners to be law enforcement officers in Georgia
  • Reciprocal agreements on occupational licensing rules with other states and foreign nations.
  • “Relaxing” state law that requires immigration verification of applicants for occupational and professional licensing.
  • Lower tuition rates in public colleges for illegal aliens living in Georgia with DACA  status than the rate Americans and legal immigrants fro other states pay.
  • Removing the existing 12 month residency waiting period before new Georgia residents can access instate tuition in public colleges for refugees – but not for Americans moving here from other states.
  • Reducing the educational period to become a medical doctor by two years, student loan forgiveness for foreign medical students and “relaxing the immigration issues for foreign medical graduates.”
  • Creating a new state bureaucracy to accommodate “an office or a division of cultural and linguistic responsiveness.”

I lost track of the number of times “…the number one state for business” was tossed out.

I covered the meetings extensively here.

Darlene C. Lynch

Related: Where do refugees resettle in the U.S.?

Related: The Libertarian Cato Institute is pushing the “school choice” concept in Cantrell’s HB 99 & HB 60  (see Corey DeAngelis). What is the Cato Institute and what else do they push? Open borders, that’s what. Bonus info: The liberal AJC on open borders.

No public comment allowed on HB 60 committee substitute in the House Education Committee – at Rep Cantrell’s request.

 

 

More on Rep Wes Cantrell’s HB 60 & HB 999 – his secret verification system will not work *School choice

By

Rep Wes Cantrell, Republican, Woodstock

 

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.”

Screen shot from Facebook

It doesn’t.

The term “lawfully present” which, as noted by the 11th 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 4th 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?