Federation for American Immigration Reform sc

Study: Illegals cost Georgia $1.6 billion annually

A new report by FAIR demonstrates why Georgia has taken a lead in adopting state-based policies to control the costs of illegal immigration. According to the new study, The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Georgians, the state currently spends about $1.6 billion a year to provide three basic services to illegal aliens and their dependents…

HERE

KTAR — Phoenix

Officer killed by suspected illegal alien drunk driver

A 25-year-old police officer is dead at the hands of a suspected drunk driver in the country illegally. — Officer Shane Figueroa was responding to a shots fired call at approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday when 50-year-old Jose Gonzalez slammed his pickup truck into the officer’s car near 19th Avenue and Roeser Road…

“As we were interviewing him last night, he advised us that he was an undocumented worker from Mexico,” said Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris.

“There are four warrants for Gonzalez’s arrest under a different name, two of which are for DUI. He was booked on charges including manslaughter and assault. Read it here if you want…

Nunez, 32, is from the Dominican Republic and was deported in 1998 by an immigration judge after a drug arrest in New York. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say they’re investigating how he got back into the country ( Note from D.A. – maybe he walked over the Southwest border like most of the rest of the illegals?)Associated Press

Illegal alien: ‘I would have kept shooting’ police

New York — A man accused of shooting two police officers in the New York City subway said he would have kept firing had he not been shot by another officer, according to court documents released Thursday. — Raul Nunez was arraigned at his bed at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital by a Queens judge…

the rest HERE

Patrick J. Buchanan — Human Events

Camp followers

Perhaps the only institution in America whose approval rating is beneath that of Congress is the media.

Both have won their reputations the hard way. They earned them.

Consider the fawning indulgence shown insider Joe Biden with the dripping contempt visited on outsider Sarah Palin.

Twice last weekend, Biden grimly warned at closed-door meetings that a great crisis is coming early in the term of President Obama:

“Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. … Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said … we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

A “generated crisis”? By whom? Moscow? Beijing? Teheran?

This is an astonishing statement from a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee who has access to the same intelligence as George Bush. Joe was warning of a crisis like the Berlin Wall of July 1961, where JFK called for a tripling of the draft and ordered a call-up of reserves, or the missile crisis where U.S. pilots like John McCain were minutes away from bombing nuclear missile sites in Cuba and killing the Russians manning them.

Is Russia about to move on the Crimea? Is Israel about to launch air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites? What is Joe talking about?

If one assumes Joe is a serious man, we have a right to know.

Instead, what we got was Obama’s airy dismissal of Joe’s words as a “rhetorical flourish” and a media — rather than demanding that Joe hold a press conference — acting as Obama surrogates parroting the talking points that Joe was just saying that new presidents always face tests.

Had John McCain made that hair-raising statement, he would have been accused of fear mongering about a new 9/11. The media would have run with the story rather than have smothered it.

Contrasting McCain with his hero, Joe declared a few weeks back, “When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and … said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.'”

Nice historical reference. Except when the market crashed in 1929, Hoover was president, and there was no television… MORE HERE

My column in today’s Gwinnett Daily Post

Gwinnett Daily Post
Friday, October 24, 2008
HERE

Immigration law vs. politics
By D.A. King

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” – Plato

You have to wonder about Gwinnett Chairman Charles Bannister’s appreciation for the mission of the brave Americans who risk their lives every day trying to secure our borders.

If illegal aliens make it here, Bannister is intentionally rewarding them with a business license.

For the reader who is not aware of the mockery involved in the county policy set by Bannister regarding illegal immigration, a quick tutorial: In 2006, with the intention of reducing the illegal population and its devastating effects on Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

Authored by state Sen. Chip Rogers, GSICA went into effect July 1, 2007. It requires the state and all local governments to comply with and help enforce existing federal immigration and employment law using tools provided by the federal government.

All concerned with the debate on the bill’s passage understood one fact very clearly: Making life less comfortable for illegal aliens and illegal employers results in fewer of both.

Section 9 of GSICA requires all government agencies in the state that administer “Public Benefits” – including commercial licenses – to verify eligibility of non-citizen applicants using a federal online database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.

Gwinnett County did not obtain authority to use the SAVE system for almost a year after the mandate. Even then, commercial license applicant immigration status was not verified.

The latest county policy concerning the law is to verify the eligibility of an applicant for a commercial license – if he is a “sole proprietor.” If he has a business partner or has successfully formed a corporation, the chairman’s policy is to not verify eligibility of the applicants.

Simply put: One illegal alien will now – finally – have a more difficult time getting a business license in Gwinnett. Two or more illegal aliens working together as a corporation? No problemo.

Applicants to renew their business license? Again – no problemo. No sworn statement, no verification. Bannister has apparently set his own immigration policy in Gwinnett, complete with a grandfather clause.

This is the same Chairman Bannister who during a May candidate forum said hiring illegals should be a reason to take away business licenses.

In part, GSICA reads “every agency or a political subdivision of this state shall verify the lawful presence in the United States of any natural person 18 years of age or older who has applied for state or local public benefits …”

With reasoning that not many 2-year olds could hope to get away with, Deputy County Attorney Melinda Wells offered this explanation for the county’s very curious and illegal policy: “The county’s policy of verifying individual applicants and sole member LLCs was carefully crafted to comply with the requirement … that public agencies verify the lawful presence of ‘any natural person.’ As you know, corporations and other business entities are not natural persons.”

“I don’t know if that’s the law. I don’t know if it’s not the law,” Bannister said. For him and his staff, it seems there is no immigration law – only immigration politics.

GSICA is not written in a foreign language or in some secret code. It can be easily read from a link – “SB 529/Enforcement works!” – online at www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org. See if Section 9 is as confusing to you as it is to the chairman, who has spent much of a lifetime making and reading laws, including 18 years as a state representative.

Bannister also says he has heard no complaints about his policy.

Remember what Plato said.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, which is opposed to illegal immigration and illegal employment.
——–
And Charles Bannister’s response…in the same edition

10/24/2008 12:01:00 AM
Gwinnett leads the fight against illegal immigration
Editor’s note: In response to the accompanying column, Chairman Charles Bannister re-submitted the following press release, which was first sent out Oct. 17.Gwinnett County is a leader in its endeavor to combat illegal immigration by taking advantage of programs and services offered by the state and federal governments, such as tools for verifying immigration status.

Commission Chairman Charles Bannister in July directed county government to beef up its compliance with the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (SB 529). The result: Gwinnett County now checks the immigration status of all sole owner and sole-member limited liability corporation applicants for occupation tax certificates. These applicants are required to sign one of two affidavits.

The first is for U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. The other, for qualified aliens and non-immigrants, triggers verification through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program operated by the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The County is limiting verification to sole-owner businesses and not to corporations based on the fact that state law states the requirement to verify “any natural person,” which would not include corporations. The county also uses SAVE to verify the immigration status of applicants for housing assistance.

Bannister has encouraged the efforts and said, “I feel strongly that tax dollars should not be used for the benefit of people who have entered our country illegally. It’s not only a matter of protecting the taxpayer, but we’re also talking about our community’s security.”

Gwinnett has been using the federal online E-Verify system to confirm information submitted by potential new hires for county government jobs since July 2007, and the Board of Commissioners amended the purchasing ordinance to require its primary contractors and subcontractors to do so as well. In order to ensure that these contractors are following the rules, the county periodically conducts random compliance audits.

In another move to mitigate the effects of illegal immigration on the community, the Board of Commissioners last spring approved hiring 18 new deputies in the Sheriff’s Department to boost that agency’s eligibility to participate in the 287(g) program through the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. ICE’s approval of the application is pending. The program would authorize trained sheriff’s deputies to check the immigration status of all non-U.S. born detainees with the intent of starting deportation proceedings on those who are here illegally.

Finally, the Board of Commissioners will consider an item of business Tuesday that would allow the county to accept a $152,247 grant from the Department of Justice for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The majority of the funds would go to the Sheriff’s Department, with a small percentage going to the Corrections Department, to help reimburse the expense of housing illegal aliens who have been convicted of certain types of crimes listed within the grant’s guidelines.

“I am proud that Gwinnett County government is leading the state in looking for ways to mitigate the effects that illegal immigration has on our society, and we will continue to push ahead,” Bannister said. “That being said, local governments must also be careful not to extend enforcement beyond the intent of state or federal laws. There is a real cost to taxpayers arising from enforcement challenges.”
——————————————————————————–

Illegal Immigration Costs Georgia $1.6 Billion Annually, Finds New Report by FAIR

Press Release for Immediate Distribution

October 24, 2008

(Washington, D.C.) A new report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) demonstrates why Georgia has taken a lead in adopting state-based policies to control the costs of illegal immigration. According to the new study, The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Georgians, the state currently spends about $1.6 billion a year to provide three basic services to illegal aliens and their dependents – K-12 education, public health care, and incarceration of criminals. These costs associated with the estimated 495,000 illegal aliens residing in the state amount to a $523 a year burden for every Georgia household headed by a native-born American.

K-12 education for the children of illegal aliens constitutes the largest share of Georgia’s cost burden, finds the report. The annual price tag for schooling an estimated 64,100 children who are themselves illegal aliens, and an estimated 89,700 U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, runs to about $1.38 billion. Unreimbursed health care costs add an additional $210 million to the taxpayers’ tab, while another $22.6 million is spent incarcerating illegal aliens who have committed other crimes in Georgia. All of these costs compound an already difficult fiscal situation, as state officials estimate a current budget shortfall of about $2 billion.

“At a time when governments at every level are struggling with huge deficits, slashing vital programs and services, and US-workers are losing their jobs, we see repeated examples of how illegal immigration is adding to already significant fiscal worries,” said Dan Stein, president of FAIR. “As Georgia businesses have padded their profit margins in recent years by using illegal aliens to undercut American workers, the true costs for this low wage labor force have been passed along to the taxpayers.”

In response to the spiraling costs associated with illegal immigration, Georgia adopted workable state-based enforcement policies in 2007, which have begun to have a positive impact. “Georgia provides a case study in how a state can respond effectively to crushing cost burdens associated with illegal immigration, and provides a model for other state governments,” said Stein.

The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Georgians is the latest in a series of studies FAIR has produced examining the impact of illegal immigration on state governments and local taxpayers. “Until fairly recently, regions like the South had been largely unaffected by the phenomenon of mass illegal immigration. The findings of this report, that illegal immigration now costs Georgia $1.6 billion a year, is evidence that mass illegal immigration is truly a national problem that demands real enforcement solutions at the federal, state and local level,” concluded Stein.

The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Georgians is available on FAIR’s website, www.fairus.org.

Contact: Jack Martin (202) 328-7004

MORE HERE

About FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country’s largest and oldest immigration reform group. With over 250,000 members nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

Bob Dane

Press Secretary/Communications Director

Federation for American Immigration Reform

25 Massachusetts Avenue – Suite 300

Washington DC, 20001

Office 202-328-7004

HERE

Additional info HERE

What is an MOU? HERE

The Chattanoogan — Chattanooga, Tennessee sc

Another suspected illegal alien involved in deadly DUI crash

A witness said he and five others had been drinking at the Macarena bar before a crash on Interstate 24 on Oct. 11 that killed three of the men. — Charges against Mario Lopez, 23, of 7618 Bishop Dr., were bound to the Grand Jury on Tuesday by General Sessions Court Judge Christie Sell….

HERE

Prosecutors say Gonzalez also was required to forfeit more than $310,000 of profits he made while employing the undocumented workers.

WXVT-TV — Greenville, Mississippi

Man sentenced for employing illegals

Greenville, Miss. — The owner of Tarrasco Steel Co. has been sentenced for employing [illegal aliens]. — Jose S. Gonzalez pleaded guilty earlier this month in federal court in Greenville to charges of harboring aliens and unlawful employment of aliens. He was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and fined $10,000…

HERE

Mortgage Prospects Dim for Illegal Immigrants By MIRIAM JORDANArticle

Jose Luis Hernandez rose from vegetable chopper to sous chef at an exclusive New York restaurant — and saved $100,000 along the way. Recently, the illegal immigrant from Mexico contacted real-estate agents in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he currently rents an apartment.

“I wanted to use my money as a down payment on a house,” says Mr. Hernandez, 32 years old. In doing so, he sought to join thousands of undocumented workers who in recent years have purchased homes using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, instead of a Social Security number. The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t give Social Security numbers to illegal immigrants; it issues ITINs, which enable them to open bank accounts and report their income to the government for tax purposes.

But Mr. Hernandez quickly learned that things have changed. He says he was told that, “unfortunately, if you don’t have a Social Security number, you cannot buy property.”

Dubbed ITIN mortgages, the loans that made homeownership a reality for thousands of undocumented workers have withered — although not because they underperformed.

The loan program highlights contradictions in U.S. polices toward illegal immigrants. Even as the Department of Homeland Security sought to deport them, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. goaded banks and credit unions to bring undocumented immigrants into mainstream banking if they could prove they had steady income and were creditworthy. Beginning in 2003, when banks and credit unions first offered mortgages to undocumented immigrants, the small segment blossomed. The mortgages performed better than some others, partly because of stringent lending criteria and because they usually had fixed rates over a period of time.

But amid the crackdown on illegal immigration and the economic slowdown, the market for immigrants who boast the alternative nine-digit taxpayer ID is dying.

“If you want to buy a house and you’re here without papers, now you can forget it,” say

MORE HERE