In early January the sad prediction from this long-time denizen of the Gold Dome was that it would be after the November mid-term elections before pro-enforcement immigration conservatives would be put on the full-time defense in Republican/Chamber of Commerce-ruled Georgia.
I was very, very wrong. That change is already here.
The adventures of legislators on immigration and common sense will likely come as a surprise to many voters.
Four examples that I know of:
• The leadership of Republican super-majority Georgia Senate refused to allow SB 404 out of the Rules Committee for a vote by the full body. The bill was aimed at ending the practice of issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who have been rewarded with “deferred action” on their deportation proceedings by President Barack Obama. As the White House acknowledges, these illegal aliens who have been promised an exclusion from the same rule of law governing Americans are still illegal aliens. They do not have “lawful status.”
Note to all concerned: The “war on terror” is not over: Virtually anyone with a driver’s license can board an airliner in 21st century America. The 9/11 terrorists had U.S.-issued drivers licenses. There were 30 driver’s licenses between 19 hijackers. By definition, illegal border crossers enter the USA without inspection. Do we really want to “document” them with the defacto national ID in the name of “cheap labor?” If so, who decides which illegals are rewarded? Why not all of them, including those escaping capture at the border right now?
When finally given a chance to vote on allowing an amendment with the common sense attachment language of SB 404 to another bill (SB 392) only eight state Senators voted “YEA.” Why? The business community and the far-left ethnic lobby opposed the action.
There was no legislation offered in the Georgia House aimed at keeping driver’s licenses from illegal aliens.
• Under orders from the Metro Area Chamber of Commerce, the leadership of the Republican state Senate refused to allow SR 1031 out of the Rules Committee for a vote. Offered by Sen. Don Balfour, the resolution would have simply allowed the people of Georgia to vote on a November ballot question on amending the state constitution to make English the constitutional official language of government in the Peach state. If approved, it would also have ended the dangerous practice of offering the written driver’s license exam in eleven foreign languages.
A similar ballot question passed in Oklahoma in 2010 by a 76 percent margin. Nobody in the Capitol believed the result would have been much different in Georgia.
Despite having been educated on the appointment, the state Senate confirmed Gov. Deal’s shocking appointment of a radical anti-enforcement immigration activist, Rocio Del Milagro Woody, to the Board of Corrections.
• The Republican Georgia House passed a bill (HB 1051) that would have removed safeguards from public benefits protection law and allowed the illegal aliens with Georgia driver’s licenses to more easily renew those benefits. The vote was 167-3.
After HB 1051 passed the House, it was amended and made even more illegal alien-friendly by a Senate committee before public pressure finally killed it. The vote count was 19” YEA” and 34 “NAY.”
It has been clear for years that the various business interests who demand “cheap” foreign workers were becoming more and more brazen in their statewide efforts against protecting American workers.
The hopeful assumption was that the pressure of the looming election for all state legislators, the fact that Georgia suffers more illegal victims of borders than Arizona and that Republican Gov. Nathan Deal’s re-election campaign would be sensitive to the values of the conservative base — at least until fall.
The above is going on while many past state immigration laws are treated as “compliance optional” and while Border Patrol Agents risk their lives daily.
And while President Obama is considering the expansion of the number of illegals he is illegally rewarding with “deferred action” on deportation.
Welcome to Georgiafornia.
King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. He is not a member of any political party. Follow him on Twitter at: @DAKDIS.