Pro-amnesty Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) loses in primary — open borders stance finally catches him

DEAR FRIENDS,

One of Pres. Bush’s most stalwart allies for illegal-alien amnesties was punished by voters yesterday, losing his Republican primary in a landslide.

First-time candidate Jason Chaffetz, 41, a former chief of staff for Utah’s governor, crushed Cannon by 60% to 40%.

Cannon’s immigration stance was virtually the only real policy difference in the race, and Chaffetz hammered him repeatedly on it. Go to our Candidate Comparison Page to view the many immigration policy differences between the two.

For a decade, Rep. Cannon’s open-borders friends at the Wall Street Journal, the White House and Grover Norquist’s conservative circles provided last-minute endorsements, visits, money and questionable advertising that enabled him to keep his congressional seat in the face of spirited but underfunded opposition from anti-amnesty Republican opponents.

His passionate embrace of illegal aliens won him honors from the National Council of La Raza and love notes from open-borders newspaper editorial writers across the nation.

But Cannon’s pro-amnesty crown finally became an albatross. No amount of advertising claiming that blue is red and that amnesties are not amnesties apparently could fool the voters this time.

Soon after Pres. Bush declared that passing an amnesty for illegal aliens was one of his top priorities, Cannon bragged to the press that he was the White House’s amnesty point man in the U.S. House.

He repeatedly sponsored and co-sponsored amnesties.

Whenever any of us on the Sensible Immigration side testified before the House Judiciary Committee, Cannon assumed the role of prosecutor and did his best Joseph McCarthy imitation demanding to know if we were now or had ever been friends with a list of people that he and the SPLC deemed unfit company. In his “cross-examinations” of me, he always avoided the policy issues of immigration and engaged in attempts at character assassination and innuendo.

Campaign help from Pres. Bush in the past helped save him when forced into Primary run-offs. But not this time.

Cannon’s immigration-reduction grades of C (overall career) and C (overall recent) are higher than might be expected because of an A-minus on Border issues and a B on Interior Enforcement. Nonetheless, he was still in the bottom 23 of House Republicans on Interior Enforcement.

And his overall grade placed him in the bottom 16 of House Republicans.

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Background HERE

25 June, 2008

Ms. Jane Osetkowski Financial Services Dept.
Gwinnett County, Georgia

Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center
75 Langley Drive
Lawrenceville, GA 30045

Re; OPEN RECORDS REQUEST

Ms. Osetkowski,

Thank you very much for your prompt response to my phone inquiry today.

According to the language of the 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB 529), as of July 1, 2007 all local governments in Georgia are required to verify the eligibility of all applicants for public benefits using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.

According to federal definitions used in the law, public benefits include all commercial and professional (business) licenses.

Also section nine of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act requires that all applicants for public benefits execute an affidavit attesting to citizenship, lawful qualified alien – or non immigrant – status.

Under language of the law, in the case of any applicant who has executed an affidavit reflecting lawful alien status, eligibility for public benefits for that alien must be verified using the (SAVE) program.

Please consider this letter my formal open records request for copies of all documents relevant to your application (including the application itself) to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a Memorandum of Understanding with that department to use SAVE. Also, all affidavits recorded from applicants for public benefits – including all professional/commercial (business) licenses/certificates issued by Gwinnett County from 2 July, 2007 to 20 June, 2008.

I also ask for the total number of professional and commercial (business) licenses issued during the same period.

I thank you in advance for your prompt reply.

Please feel free to call me with any questions.

Respectfully,

D.A. King
President, the Dustin Inman Society

Marietta, Ga.

Via E-mail, fax and USPS

Marietta Daily Journal

Cobb, cities turn blind eye to new law on illegal immigration

Published: 06/25/2008

By D. A. King
Guest Columnist

It’s impossible to say how many illegal aliens – including potential terrorists – have been enabled, encouraged and rewarded with business licenses by Cobb County and its six cities since last July.

The tools provided for keeping exactly that from happening are not being used here, and we may never know – but even one is too many.

What we do know is that these governments are among the huge majority of local governments in Georgia that have failed to comply with state Senator Chip Rogers’ (R- Cobb) 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB 529).

SB 529 requires that local governments – municipalities and counties – obtain a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) with the federal government to use a federal data-base called the “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements” (SAVE) system to screen non-citizen applicants who have sworn that they are in the U.S. lawfully and are eligible for what the feds call “public benefits.”

Of the 535 municipalities and 159 counties in the state, a June 23 list provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows that a grand total of nine entities in Georgia are authorized to use the SAVE program – which is designed to verify that public benefits go to those who are eligible.

While the term “public benefits” brings to mind welfare and social benefits, according to the law, they also include all “professional licenses, or commercial licenses provided by an agency of a State or local government or by appropriated funds of a State or local government.” That includes issuing and renewing these little local revenue enhancing permits.

Alone among the Cobb governments, the county is the only one to have bothered to obey the law and enroll in SAVE – but it is not using the system to verify applicants for business licenses.

I know. As the president of an unincorporated Cobb-based corporation, the nonprofit Dustin Inman Society, last week, I (belatedly) applied for and received a “Cobb County Business License, Business Registration, Occupational Tax Certificate.”

Ours is marked “Regular License.”

SB 529 is essentially a state law saying that in Georgia, we must obey and help enforce long standing federal law. What a concept.

Under that law, what is supposed to happen when someone applies for a public benefit is that he or she must sign an affidavit swearing that they are either a U.S. citizen or a “qualified alien” lawfully present in the United States. If it is the latter, the applicant’s eligibility (using immigration status) for public benefits must be verified using the SAVE system.

When I made my application, I was not required to show any ID and was never asked to complete or sign the mandated affidavit.

On issuing business licenses, Cobb County is in clear violation of the law. As is Marietta and every other city in Cobb.

Because this longtime American studies immigration and the laws that are meant to regulate that process, I know how dry and boringly “political” all of this can sound to people who don’t spend all day monitoring the crimes of illegal immigration, illegal employment and illegally obtaining – and dispensing – public benefits.

Think about it this way: Right now, brave Border Patrol agents are risking their lives to do what they can to stop illegal immigration into our children’s nation.

Those illegal aliens who escape apprehension at our borders and make it to Cobb County can go get a business license and begin to look for a better life – courtesy of our local governments. The same governments we count on to protect us from the costly realities of illegal immigration and the same governments charged with implementing key parts of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

Feel safer?

If the gravity of this state of affairs still does not hit the reader, think about this: How loud would the howls be if the same governments were to refuse to enforce the laws that grant taxpayer-funded education and medical care to illegals?

SB 529 was signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue more than two years ago and went into effect almost exactly a year ago. Sadly, there is much more to this story of government non-compliance.

Stay tuned.

A widely recognized authority on illegal immigration, D.A. King is president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society, named after a Georgia youth who lost his life to illegal immigration.

Original column and comments HERE

Associated Press

Good News!: RINO Cannon ousted

U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon, one of the nation’s most [illegal alien-pandering] congressmen, lost his bid for a seventh term Tuesday in a Republican primary that focused on whether he was conservative enough for Utah’s 3rd District. — Cannon was defeated by first-time candidate Jason Chaffetz, a former Brigham Young University football player…

In the congressional race, Chaffetz, 41, claimed Cannon was soft on immigration, saying his votes amounted to offering amnesty to people in the country illegally.

In 2003, Cannon sponsored a bill that would have allowed states to charge in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants.

Rather than deporting all illegal immigrants, Cannon has called for a guest-worker program that doesn’t punish businesses and allows immigrants to travel freely across the border.

Chaffetz said he wants the U.S. to deport all illegal immigrants and stop granting automatic citizenship to children born here if their parents aren’t legal residents.

HERE… and I am doing my happy dance!

ABC News

More grief for McCain on secret meeting with Hispanics

Sen. John McCain took some grief from the Left for keeping a tight handle on who he invited to his secret meeting with Hispanics in Chicago last week. And he took some grief from the Right for apparently promising at that meeting to pursue a pathway to citizenship for some illegal [aliens]. HERE

Numbers USA

Appropriations Committee needs calls NOW!

The House Appropriations Committee today (Tues. 6/24) will be deciding how the federal government enforces immigration laws. — See the story on how Chairman Price >( NOTE FROM D.A.- THIS DEMOCRAT DAVID PRICE OF N.C. – NOT TOM PRICE ((R- 6th OF GEORGIA!)) hopes to largely stop ICE and local governments from bothering illegal aliens who haven’t committed felonies… HERE

23 June 2008

Mr. Robert Quigley Director of Communications
Mr. Sam Olens, Chairman – Board of Commissioners
Cobb County Georgia

Re; OPEN RECORDS REQUEST

Mr. Quigley, Chairman Olens

According to the language of the 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB 529), as of July 1, 2007 all local governments in Georgia are required to verify the eligibility of all applicants for public benefits.

As you know, according to federal definitions used in the law, public benefits include all commercial and professional (business) licenses. Additionally, definitions in various sections of Cobb ordinances make clear that all commercial enterprises in Cobb are required to apply for and obtain a license/certificate from the county.

Occupational tax certificates are business licenses designed for the stated group of professionals listed below and are public benefits under federal and state law.
Architect
Attorney
Certified Public Accountant
Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine
Doctor of Optometry
Doctor of Osteopathy
Doctor of Podiatry
Doctor of Psychology
Electrical Engineer Embalmer
Family Therapist
Funeral Director
Hydraulic Engineer
Mechanical Engineer
Physical Therapist
Social Worker
Surveyor
Veterinarian

Section nine of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act of 2006 requires that as of 1 July, 2007 all applicants for public benefits execute an affidavit attesting to being a U.S. citizen, qualified alien or non immigrant lawfully present in our nation .

Under language of the law, in the case of any applicant who has executed an affidavit reflecting lawful alien status, eligibility for public benefits for that alien must be verified using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

Please consider this letter my formal open records request for copies of all affidavits, SAVE inquiries and results of all SAVE verification requests pertaining to all public benefits – including all business licenses/certificates issued by Cobb County from 2 July, 2007 to 20 June, 2008.

Thank you,
D.A. King
President, The Dustin Inman Society

Marietta, Ga. 30066

Rosanna Pulido — Immigration Watchdog

Juan McCain and Illinois Hispanics

I was one of the 150 people at the Drake Hotel in Downtown Chicago Wednesday night who came to hear John McCain speak to Illinois Hispanics. — Personally, as an Original Minuteman who attended the Historic Minuteman Border Watch in 2005 on the Arizona/ Mexico border, and returning 2 more times…

HERE

HERE

Main Entry: 1li·cense

Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French licence, from Latin licentia, from licent-, licens, present participle of licēre to be permitted
Date: 14th century

1 a: permission to act b: freedom of action
2 a: a permission granted by competent authority to engage in a business or occupation or in an activity otherwise unlawful b: a document, plate, or tag evidencing a license granted c: a grant by the holder of a copyright or patent to another of any of the rights embodied in the copyright or patent short of an assignment of all rights

3 a: freedom that allows or is used with irresponsibility b: disregard for standards of personal conduct : licentiousness
4: deviation from fact, form, or rule by an artist or writer for the sake of the effect gained

Gwinnett Daily Post 6/22/2008

Governments fail to follow law, verify their employees
By D.A. King

A December 2005 Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Zogby poll showed that about 80 percent of Georgia citizens were fed up with the illegal immigration and illegal employment crisis and wanted the state government to address the issue.

Happily for most Georgians, in April 2006, State Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, was successful in seeing his comprehensive reform bill, the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (Senate Bill 529) signed into law.

On July 1, 2007, the law went into effect.

No one – including Sen. Rogers and those who lobbied for the bill – imagined that the elected officials of nearly all of the state’s local governments would fail to comply with the language of the law.

But that is exactly what is happening.

SB 529 requires local governments – municipalities and counties – to obtain a Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government to use a database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system to screen applicants who have sworn that they are in the U.S. lawfully and are eligible for what the feds call “public benefits.”

Of the 535 municipalities and 159 counties in the state, an April list provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows that a grand total of nine entities are either enrolled in SAVE or have applied for the system designed to verify that public benefits go to those who are eligible.

Gwinnett County and all of its cities are among the governments absent from the list.

While the term “public benefits” brings to mind welfare and social benefits, according to the law, they also include all “professional licenses, or commercial licenses provided by an agency of a State or local government or by appropriated funds of a State or local government” (8 USC 1621).

Each time a Georgia city or county issues or renews a business or commercial license without obtaining a sworn affidavit of citizenship or lawful presence in the U.S. from the applicant – and then verifying that status using the SAVE program – that local government is in clear violation of the law.

Sadly, violating laws aimed at illegal employment and illegal immigration is not a rarity these days.

In a war on terror and with brave border patrol agents risking their lives to apprehend illegal border crossers from all over the world, the concept that we would reward those who elude apprehension with a business license seems unproductive.

Not to mention illegal.

SB 529 also requires all public employers – the state itself and local governments are employers – to use the no-cost federal E-Verify database to be sure that newly hired employees have legal immigration status and are eligible to work in our nation.

On that, the local governments aren’t doing so well, either.

Nearly half of Georgia’s county governments have not obtained authority to use E-Verify. When it comes to the Georgia municipalities, the numbers get even worse: The Atlanta Business Chronicle recently reported that “only about one-quarter of Georgia cities had signed up for the program.”

Georgians should be asking how many illegals are being paid with taxpayer funds because of the non-compliance.

Some contractors doing business with government are also required to use E-Verify and on July 1, many more will come under the rule.

One can only imagine the howls were the same governments to refuse to enforce the laws that grant taxpayer-funded education and medical care to those who have no legal right to live or work in our nation.

While some who profit from continued non-compliance will likely vehemently come out against enforcing Sen. Rogers’ law, most Americans should be asking why their own local governments are not obeying it. After all, it is an election year.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which is opposed to illegal immigration and illegal employment. HERE

Related news item below ( the dog ate Gwinnett County government’s homework)