I have said it a hundred times…enforcement works.

If we actually enforce existing laws here, illegal aliens will leave Georgia. If we were to find a President who would allow federal law enforcement to do their jobs illegals would leave the United States. If he would secure our borders, they could not come to look for a better life here. Radical concept, I know.

Below is part of a Saturday ajc report on the succesful effort in Cherokee County [ WE WIN! ]to discourage landlords from harboring illegals…which is a federal crime. What is not made clear in the article is that Cherokee also has begun the process of using the SAVE program to verify eligibility of applicants for public benefits, and the Basic Pilot Program to verify the eligibilty of job applicants for employment in the U.S. – and that the county will begin to require that its contractors do the same.

This is the same thing that Cobb County has done and represents considerable work from here.

Congratulations to the Cherokee Board of Commissioners and many thanks to all of the Dustin Inman Society supporters who helped with educating all concerned on SAVE, Basic Pilot and 287 g.

Neal Warren, the Cobb County Sheriff has applied for 287 g training for some of his deputies. The sheriff in Cherokee is reportedly not as anxious to take advantage of the available federal training.

We think he will see the error in this soon.

Illegal immigration crackdown heightens debate in Cherokee
By Yolanda Rodriguez, Aixa Pascual
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

12/09/06

Leticia Torres stirred rice and beans the other day at the Super Taco she manages in Acworth, chatting at a sunlit table covered with a checkered red-and-white vinyl cloth. She gasped when the talk turned to the Cherokee County commissioners’ crackdown on illegal immigrants.

“

People are moving to other states,” said Torres, the restaurant’s manager. “It’s very bad.”

About 15 miles away, at the R&M Sandwich Shoppe in Canton, which bills itself as the oldest restaurant in Cherokee County, diners applauded the commissioners’ stance. One ordinance they passed would prevent landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. Another declares English the county’s official language.

“If people want to speak their own language, that’s fine, but they need to learn English,” said Pete Hughes, as the smell of sizzling cheese steaks wafted down the lunch counter. “We need to verify that everybody’s here legally. . . . I think it’s a good idea for the whole nation.”

The ordinances that the county commissioners approved Tuesday stirred fierce debate this week in Cherokee County, which until the last dozen or so years had little significant history of foreign-born settlement.
Then a building boom started to transform the county, particularly the southern part, from rural to suburban. The county population went up 103 percent from 1990 to 2005, when the federal government counted nearly 183,000 people in Cherokee County.

Thousands of immigrants —- including an unknown number in the county illegally —- have helped build subdivisions and strip shopping centers that supplanted fields and forests in Cherokee County. Immigrants also have gravitated to jobs on landscaping crews and in poultry plants and restaurants.

In 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau counted 1,419 foreign-born residents of Cherokee County —- about 1.5 percent of all people in the county. In 2005, the Census Bureau said 17,715 people in Cherokee County were born abroad —- nearly 10 percent of the county population.

About a third of Cherokee County’s foreign-born population are U.S. citizens. An unknown number are in the United States without permission.

Their arrival has stirred strong feelings among county residents such as Charles Martin, who ordered a cheeseburger the other day at the R&M Sandwich Shoppe.

Martin said he has mixed emotions about the ordinances that commissioners approved even though opponents promise to challenge them in court. Immigrant advocates say the landlord ordinance violates federal law by assigning to local authorities a duty of the federal government —- enforcement of the nation’s immigration law.

The landlord ordinance is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. It applies in unincorporated parts of Cherokee County, though most rental units in Cherokee are in the cities of Woodstock and Canton and so are unaffected. The English-language ordinance is largely symbolic.

The Cherokee County commissioners approved both ordinances unanimously.

“Local government, I think, does have to step up and fill the void left by the complete failure of the federal government,” Commissioner Harry Johnston said then.

[ Note from D.A. – it is not a “failure”…it is a refusal]

Martin said he sees both sides of the argument.

“I understand why they feel concerned about the influx of non-taxpaying residents and why they want to reduce numbers,” said Martin, a retiree who serves in the National Guard, “but I also understand Mexicans coming to work here legally or illegally. . . . The concern I have is, if it becomes a costly legal battle, would it be worth it to make that decision?”

Martin said it costs a lot to provide services to those who are here in violation of federal law.

“Most of them are not taxpayers because they’re here illegally,” Martin said. “Can we afford to support all these people who aren’t paying taxes?”

Read the rest of the AJC piece here…

We will now move on to other counties. We need help. The open borders/illegal alien lobby with Jerry Gonzalez at Sam Zamaripa’s GALEO outfit as point – man is very well funded and they are not taking all of this very well.