You will likely see news reports similar to the one below around the state for a while. To no one’s surprise, a few lazy and shortsighted officials and some connected, big shot citizens are whining about having to go through an extra step to obtain and renew a business license as the result of 2009’s House Bill 2.

All HB 2 did was clarify the 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act (GSICA) of 2006 -SB 529. The goal of each is to cut off taxpayer funded employment and benefits to people who escaped capture at our borders when they crossed illegally . Illegal aliens.

If you see a news article like the one below in your local paper, please send in a letter to the editor with similar sentiment to what I have included in mine here on the bottom. It was published in today’s Rockdale Citizen in Conyers.

To the constant question I get at least ten times a week: “D.A. – what can I do to help fight the crime of illegal immigration…? ” WRITE AND SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

LTEs are very important and make a difference.

News report from Tuesday on top my letter in response published today below it.

Rockdale Citizen

Jan 26, 2010

City business owners must prove citizenship

Filling out an application is not enough anymore. Business owners within the city of Conyers must now confirm they are in the country legally before they can run a business.
Reporter: By Alena Parker, Staff Reporter

CONYERS — Filling out an application is not enough anymore. Business owners within the city of Conyers must now confirm they are in the country legally before they can run a business.

Local government agencies were recently called to verify citizenship and immigration status of business owners through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Conyers City Council voted Jan. 20 to enter into an agreement with the federal agencies though Conyers city attorney Michael Waldrop noted they did not have much choice.

“The Georgia Legislature has required that cities and counties participate in the SAVE program to verify the legality of those who do business and receive benefits from the city,” Waldrop told the council members.

Councilman Marty Jones voiced concerns that paying for notary services every year, in addition to getting a business license, would be inconvenient “on the operations side.”

“People who write the regulations don’t have to live by them,” Jones said.

The new requirement will affect the roughly 1,800 businesses in Conyers.

“Unless you have a notary in your office, the proprietor is going to have to go somewhere — whether it’s the city, the bank, the post office, somewhere — to get someone to notarize this document (affidavit), swearing that he is, in fact, a legal citizen or here legally, whatever the status may be,” Waldrop said.

The new requirement will affect those applying for retirement benefits, health benefits, contracts, alcoholic beverage licenses, occupation tax certificates, taxi cab licenses, insurance company licenses, pawn brokers licenses, massage therapists licenses, billiard room operations licenses, precious metals and gems dealers licenses, conducting flea market licenses and peddlers and itinerant trades licenses, according to the city documents.

HERE

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Rockdale Citizen

Friday January 29, 2010

LETTERS: Common sense to enforce the law

As a politically aware and active Georgian, I read with great amazement of the apparent resentment from Conyers officials and their concerns about compliance with a state law regulating the issuance of business licenses and required proof of eligibility.

Councilman Marty Jones is quoted as lamenting that “paying for notary services every year, in addition to getting a business license, would be inconvenient on the operations side.” City Attorney Michael Waldrop complained, “Unless you have a notary in your office, the proprietor is going to have to go somewhere — whether it’s the city, the bank, the post office, somewhere — to get someone to notarize this document (affidavit), swearing that he is, in fact, a legal citizen or here legally, whatever the status may be.”

Boo hoo, and FYI, there is no such thing as a “legal citizen.” You are either a U.S. citizen or you aren’t. Another legal term for non-citizen is “alien.”

As I type, brave Border Patrol agents are risking their lives to stop illegal, uninspected entries into our nation. The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act originally mandated that Georgia’s “Public Benefits” — including commercial licenses — go only to people who are eligible. It was passed in 2006. Conyers is only now moving toward compliance and apparently will help ensure that the city is not rewarding illegals who escape capture at the border with a license to do business.

Like many other public benefits, illegal aliens are not eligible for business licenses, a.k.a. occupational tax certificates, under 1996 federal law. One must wonder why it required a state law saying that federal law must be obeyed to encourage Conyers and other Georgia cities and counties to do everything possible to discourage the crime of illegal immigration. For most Georgians, it is a “no brainer.”

Jones and any other disgruntled and put-out officials may want to explain to a young Border Patrol agent enduring freezing desert nights on the line how “inconvenient” processing an application and a notarized affidavit for a business license is for “the operations side.”

We desperately need a return to common sense.

— D.A. King
Marietta

King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society which advocates for compliance with immigration laws. He lobbied in favor of the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

HERE