Immigration Politics Georgia

looking for a better life • news and pro-enforcement opinion

Blog Page

#AbolishICE? DHS news release: ICE removes Salvadoran fugitive wanted for homicide, terrorist organizations

By

Photo: DHS
News Release
ENFORCEMENT AND REMOVAL

05/27/202HOUSTON — Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Houston, Texas, removed a Salvadoran fugitive Tuesday wanted for aggravated homicide and terrorist organizations.

Digna Del Carmen Medina, 29, a citizen of El Salvador who was unlawfully present in the United States, was escorted from Houston, Texas, to the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Salvador, El Salvador, where she was presented to Salvadoran law enforcement authorities.

Immigration officials first encountered Medina Sept. 15, 2016, after she illegally entered the United States near Hidalgo, Texas. She was released from ICE custody Sept. 28, 2016, while she awaited her immigration proceedings.

On Aug. 12, 2019, ERO Houston received notice that Medina was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice for aggravated homicide and terrorist organizations in El Salvador.

An immigration judge ordered Medina removed from the United States to El Salvador on Aug. 22, 2019, and she was taken into ICE custody. On April 24, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissed her appeal of that decision.

ICE is focused on removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who illegally reentered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges. In FY 2019, ERO Houston removed more than 12,620 aliens with criminal convictions and another 1,699 with pending criminal charges.

Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 1 (866) 347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form.

Here.

Reminder: A whole New DACA Generation Is Waiting in the Wings

By

DACA illegal aliens in a rally for permanent amnesty. Photo: Breitbart.

Center for Immigration Studies

Probably a million children soon enough will be seen and heard

Soon, the nation will know the fate of the so-called “Dreamers”, the 800,000 or so recipients of President Barack Obama’s 2012 DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) work-permit program. As my colleague John Miano discussed earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s revocation of the DACA protections for these hundreds of thousands of illegally present adults who came to the U.S. before age 16.

The DACA generation at issue is all grown now, acculturated to life in America with their DACA work permits and finding fairly broad sympathy, some of it quite bipartisan. About to become front and center again on the national stage are great political, moral, and policy questions as to whether the Dreamers will be cut a special path-to-citizenship break or sent packing to countries some may not remember.

But lost in the discussion of the old DACA generation is the brand new DACA generation, just imported, that almost no one has acknowledged as the spinning political football it is heading fast and hard into Washington. Today’s policy-makers, political candidates, and advocacy groups that don’t appreciate DACA ought to be thinking ahead about what to do about them, while they are still children, if Democrats win power in November. To even start to do that, acknowledgement is the prerequisite.

The mass-migration crisis of 2018-2019, when more than a million mostly Central Americans crashed the southern border, was largely fueled by media-powered mass discovery of the previously obscure “Flores Settlement” loophole, by which adults knew that crossing with at least one child entitled them to be quickly released into the United States, where they could permanently join the nation’s illegal immigrant population.

Children poured in, hundreds of thousands of them. No one seems to have measured the parameters of this next DACA generation. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehension data shows that, at the very least, 722,700 children crossed into the United States in fiscal years 2018, 2019, and through April 2020.

I say “at the very least” because that 722,700 number is the sum of unaccompanied minor aliens sent over the border and family units. CBP defines family units as “the number of individuals (either a child under 18 years old, parent or legal guardian) apprehended with a family member by the U.S. Border Patrol”. I’m only counting one minor per family. So the 722,700 figure would balloon considerably if, say, half of the 622,692 families came in with a second child. Many more came through at ports of entry as “inadmissibles”, for example 53,430 family units in just 2019.

It’s safe to say that the next DACA generation is well over one million.

Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor endorses former board member of anti-immigration enforcement corporation for state senate – Jason Anavitarte

By

Georgia’s Lt. Governor, Geoff Duncan. Photo: LtGov.ga.gov

GALEO infamous in state politics for its extreme positions on immigration and radical leadership

Jason Anavitarte registered to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.

Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan office phone – 404-656-5030

Republican Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan has endorsed a candidate for state senate who is a former board member of a leftist organization that lobbies against immigration enforcement, voter ID, ICE holds and official English for government.

State Senate District 31 hopeful Jason Anavitarte served on the board of directors of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) from 2006 to 2009. During that time, GALEO lobbied against passage of the nationally noted SB529, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act which established a requirement that public employers and their contractors sort out newly hired blackmarket labor with use of the federal employment verification system now known as E-Verify.

The legislation also required state use of the federal 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to screen jail inmates for immigration status and report illegal alien prisoners to ICE for deportation proceedings. The bill, now law, that GALEO vehemently opposed also requires that local and county governments verify the legal status of people applying for local, state and federal public benefits.

GALEO Executive Director and former Democrat fundraiser, Jerry Gonzalez, drew much attention during the lobbying frenzy against the 2006 state immigration enforcement measure when he escorted self-described illegal aliens into the gold-domed state Capitol telling legislators they should regard the illegal aliens  as “constituents.” Gonzalez described the illegals as merely “immigrants.” The staged and pre-announced GALEO transporting and encouragement of the illegals made a memorable note for pro-enforcement groups and news in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

As has been reported elsewhere, GALEO was established in 2003. Along with Jane Fonda, Anavitarte is also listed as a GALEO “Founding Friend.”

A February Twitter post from Lt. Governor Duncan describes Anavitarte as a “proven conservative…”

Photo: @GeoffDuncanGA Twitter feed

 

The endorsement from Duncan has raised eyebrows in conservative quarters of the state’s Republican Party not only because GALEO is well known for its corporate-funded opposition to immigration enforcement, but because candidate Anavitarte, now running as a Republican, filed to run for state House in 2006 as a Democrat.

The Lt. Governor also serves as president of the state senate.

Jason Anavitarte. Photo: Rome-News Tribune

Perhaps the most jarring surprise for pro-enforcement voters in Duncan’s endorsement is the fact that in 2016, U.S. Senator David Perdue terminated the Judiciary Committee’s confirmation process of another former GALEO board member and State Court Judge, Dax Lopez, who was nominated for a federal judgeship by former President Barack Obama. Perdue made it clear that his office investigated the nominee’s ties to the controversial GALEO and ended the chances of confirmation because of that relationship.

“After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his longstanding participation in a controversial organization including his service on its board of directors” Perdue wrote in his statement on the matter.

The obvious – and many say troubling – difference in judgment between Georgia’s Republican Lt. Governor and its senior U.S. Senator is not going un-noticed by grassroots GOP voters.

According to the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders.

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, snared a primary endorsement from President Donald Trump in 2018 due in large part to Kemp’s tough talk and campaign promises on illegal immigration. Kemp has not mentioned immigration since the November, 2018 election.

Ballotpedia lists four Republican candidates for Georgia’s senate District 31.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAST FACT: A majority of H-1B employers use the program to pay migrant workers well below market wages

By

Photo: New Indian Express

H-1B visas and prevailing wage level

Key takeaways

H-1B is a flawed visa program:

  • DOL lets H-1B employers undercut local wages. Sixty percent of H-1B positions certified by the U.S. Department of Labor are assigned wage levels well below the local median wage for the occupation. While H-1B program rules allow this, DOL has the authority to change it—but hasn’t.
  • A small number of employers dominate the program. While over 53,000 employers used the H-1B program in 2019, the top 30 H-1B employers accounted for more than one in four of all 389,000 H-1B petitions approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2019.
  • Outsourcing firms make heavy use of the H-1B program. Half of the top 30 H-1B employers use an outsourcing business model to provide staff for third-party clients, rather than employing H-1B workers directly to fill a special need at the company that applies for the visa.
  • Major U.S. firms use the H-1B program to pay low wages. Among the top 30 H-1B employers are major U.S. firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Google, Apple, and Facebook. All of them take advantage of program rules in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage for the jobs they fill.

Read much more here from the Economic Policy Institute.

 

Radio Show Recommendation: Learn from Pro-Enforcement Immigration Experts on The El Conservador Radio Show with George Rodriquez

By

George Rodriguez, El Conservador. Photo: 930AMThe Answer.com

 

I am not aware of an educated, fearless, pro-enforcement immigration voice in the extremely slim pickings of conservative Georgia radio. But I have only been fighting illegal immigration here since 2003.

For readers who want to hear interviews and news on America’s illegal immigration crisis that is not filtered by the anti-enforcement establishment, we proudly recommend the El Conservador Radio Show with George Rodriquez from 930 AM The Answer from Antonio, Texas, USA. You can listen online anytime you choose. While all George’s shows are interesting and educational, we hope you will start online listening with his April 25, 2020 show on which George hosts a very impressive list of expert voices including former ICE Director Tom Homan (Tom’s new book here), Dan Lyman from Info-Wars/Europe, Dave Ray from FAIR in D.C., and Todd Bensman from Center for Immigration Studies. 

From his bio:
“George Rodriguez is a nationally known blogger and commentator who has served the South Texas State coordinator for the national Tea Party Patriots, is regular guest on Fox News, Univision and various state and national news outlets. He has also spoken around the nation at many rallies.
George was born in Laredo, Texas, and raised in San Antonio. He has dedicated his life to sharing conservative values with Hispanics and all Americans. As a Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush appointee, George worked with the Department of Justice in community relations and immigration outreach. He also worked with the White House Office of Public Liaison on community outreach, with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on judiciary legislation including civil rights and immigration, and with Congressman Tom Delay on Hispanic outreach.”
Please see the rest of the very impressive bio here.

We also note that along with Mr. Homan and a list of other immigration authorities, George was kind enough to travel from South Texas to speak at the ‘Honoring Immigrants, an Expert, Pro-Enforcement Discussion on Immigration‘ event held by the Dustin Inman Society on February 8 here in the Atlanta area. We posted photos of that surprise snow-day program on the Dustin Inman Society blog page.

The great ‘El Conservador’ has even hosted yours truly on his show several times.

You can bookmark the El Conservador radio show and archived shows here (Facebook here) and contact George and listen to the terrific April 25, 2020 show mentioned above here or use the embedded image below. George Rodriguez is a Great American!

Poll: Eighty-one percent of people in the United States view mass migration as a “threat” because of the coronavirus

By

 

From a recent report in Washington Examiner:

Eighty-one percent of people in the United States view mass migration as a “threat” because of the coronavirus, according to a recent poll.

Roughly 42% call mass migration a “major threat” to the U.S., while 39% say mass migration is a “minor threat” to the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

The survey corroborates a USA Today/Ipsos poll released earlier this week showing that 8 out of 10 people believe the country should implement an immigration pause during the coronavirus outbreak.

Polling last year indicated that more people than ever believe that immigration is the most important problem facing the U.S.

President Trump suspended travel from China into the U.S. on Jan. 31 and temporarily banned travel from Europe shortly thereafter.

Many on the Left criticized Trump for his decision to ban travel from China, including former Vice President Joe Biden, who called the president “xenophobic” for the implementing the ban.

“Stop the xenophobic fear-mongering,” Biden tweeted in mid-March. “Be honest. Take responsibility. Do your job.” The entire report can be read here.

Coca-Cola supported illegal alien lobby (GALEO) sues Gwinnett County, GA for foreign language mail-in ballots

By

 

Image: Bklyner

 

Including the corporate-funded Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), a collection of leftist groups has filed suit in federal court “demanding that Gwinnett County provide bilingual absentee ballot applications to Spanish speaking voters.”

“Sending English-only absentee ballot applications in a diverse county covered under Section 203 is yet another attempt at voter suppression, which is a direct violation of the constitutional rights,” said Kristen Clarke, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee. “With Georgia’s primary election looming, it is imperative that Gwinnett County and other Georgia counties comply with their obligations under the Voting Rights Act and permit Spanish-speaking voters an equal opportunity to cast their ballot and have their voice heard.”

Section 203 is the Language Provisions of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) which requires that certain states and political subdivisions provide language assistance during elections for certain language minority groups who are unable to speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process.

It is illegal for an alien to vote and one of the requirements for naturalization is the ability to read, write, and speak basic English.

The entire press release from the group of advocates for foreign language voting can be read here on the GALEO website.

The emergency lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia which is the court for which a then-GALEO board member, Dax Lopez, was nominated to serve a lifetime appointment by then President Barack Obama in 2015. Lopez currently serves as a state court judge in metro-Atlanta’s DeKalb County and was active on the GALEO board as a sitting judge. The road to the federal court seat was blocked in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee by Georgia Senator David Perdue after he was educated on the GALEO agenda and it’s anti-enforcement and anti-official English advocacy. Senator Perdue declined to return the traditional “blue slip” which would have signaled his approval of the nominee.

2015 Dustin Inman Society online educational flyer on GALEO and Dax Lopez

The Dustin Inman Society (this writer is president of the Dustin Inman Society) is proud to have organized and led the fight to expose GALEO and Lopez’ association with the group.  GALEO, led by former Democrat fundraiser and MALDEF lobbyist Jerry Gonzalez is  known for marching in the streets of Atlanta in opposition of enforcement of immigration law. GALEO is widely supported by corporate Georgia, including well-known companies such as Coca-Cola, Georgia Power, State Farm Ins. Co., Telemundo, Western Union, Univision and a range of immigration lawyers. Gonzalez was recently quoted in an Atlanta area newspaper as opposing employment record verification as a “white nationalist agenda.”

Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO. Image, DIS files, D.A. King

Several Georgia Republicans who then held state level elected office including now Governor Brian Kemp, former state Rep and now U.S. Attorney for the Northern District Court, ‘BJay’ Pak, and then Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens have also helped GALEO with fundraising with attendance at at least one 2015 funder.

The Dustin Inman Society will follow up on the foreign language voting lawsuit as information becomes available.

BONUS: Beginner’s guide to GALEO here.

Updated 9:18 PM

Updated to glaring correct typos (sorry), 8:08 AM April 15.

dak

 

 

 

While American families struggle: Push on for Corona virus bail-out for illegal aliens

By

Photo: AP/Breitbart

“Progressives are also joining with business groups to call for a bailout of the businesses that hired illegals instead of hiring educated, healthy, and trained Americans…”,

Breitbart News

April 8, 2020

Progressives Want Coronavirus Bailout for Illegal Immigration

Neil Munro

Many progressives who welcomed poor illegal migrants are now complaining that millions of illegal migrants are unprotected in the nation’s epidemic and economic crash, according to press reports and activists’ demands.

“This is one result of illegal immigration that the apologists for illegal immigration don’t like to acknowledge,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies. She continued:

“You can call this an ideological bailout of the progressives,” she added. “They facilitated the arrival of these illegal migrants, and now they are demanding that taxpayers foot the bill.”

Progressives are also joining with business groups to call for a bailout of the businesses that hired illegals instead of hiring educated, healthy, and trained Americans, she said:

The businesses don’t have to pay the full [societal] cost of their cheap labor, so the true cost of supporting this low-wage, vulnerable population is to be born by taxpayers … because taxpayers and [state and local] government are picking up the tab for the social, health, and safety networks that these exploited illegal workers now need.

For example, Breitbart News reported April 8:

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued an order Tuesday ensuring illegal aliens have access to the city’s coronavirus relief benefits.

The order essentially guarantees those residing in her city unlawfully will be able to access aid programs offered by the city. Those include housing assistance grants, providing grants of $1,000 to go toward a mortgage or rent, access to the Small Business Resiliency Fund, which provides low-interest loans to small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and access to “online enrichment learning resources, including more than 100,000 devices for families who lack access to technology for remote learning,” according to CBS Chicago.

“Undocumented immigrants and their families, including more than 5 million children who are U.S. citizens, were left out of the disaster relief package enacted last month,” said a Washington Post April 8 op-ed by Laurene Powell Jobs, the very wealthy former wife of Apple founder Steve Jobs. She continued:…

Read the rest here.

 

Fast Fact: Refugees Are Being Resettled Despite the Chinese Coronavirus Pandemic

By

Image: WSJ.com

More than 3,000 resettled since late January, when pandemic task force was created

“Rush, the Center’s senior researcher and author of the analysis, said, “I am concerned that these refugees were not tested for the coronavirus before their arrival. I couldn’t find any indication they were anywhere. Let’s assume they were, and the results came back negative (we are told that even if one is tested negative it doesn’t mean one is not carrying the virus), were they quarantined upon arrival? Were there any follow-ups to make sure they were fine? Were governors of the states they were placed in (such as California, Washington, Texas, New York, etc.) made aware of such arrivals and risks?”

Read much more here while you are sheltered in place…

 

 

Republican House Higher Education Chairman on instate tuition for illegal aliens: “We’re going to work toward something in the next legislative session…”

By

GA State rep Chuck Martin, Chairman, House Higher Education Committee. Photo: Ga General Assembly.

 

Georgia state Rep Chuck Martin, Chairman of the House Higher education Committee is quoted in the liberal AJC as saying that the legislature will work on rewarding illegal aliens with instate tuition next year.

From the liberal AJC: “Chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, did not motion for the committee to vote on the bill, and he said it could conflict with federal immigration law. He said he wants to wait for a U.S. Supreme Court decision on DACA that’s expected later this year.”

“We’re going to work toward something in the next legislative session” is the quote from Rep Chuck Martin concerning changing state law so that illegal aliens could access the lower tuition rate that is not available to Americans from other states like Michigan or Ohio, for example.

Martin was commenting on his committee’s lack of a vote to advance a bill from Dalton Republican Kasey Carpenter (HB 997) and several Democrat cosponsors that would have changed state law so that illegal aliens would be eligible for the much lower instate tuition rate from which they are now excluded. The story from the liberal AJC can be read here. 

My recent Dalton Daily Citizen column on Carpenter’s bill and instate tuition here.