February 10, 2017

Macon Telegraph

Opinion columns and blogs

Photo, DDS website

Department of Driver Services legislative liaison goes full Pinocchio on official video at Gold Dome

BY D.A. KING
Special to The Telegraph

Illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation are still illegal aliens — but current state law loophole gives them official photo ID cards and drivers licenses.

Before you begin reading please note: You can easily contact DDS here.

Georgia’s Department of Driver Services employee and liaison to the Legislature, Michael Mitchell, has been telling state legislators for years that illegal aliens are not getting Georgia drivers licenses.

That is not true. It has been happening since mid-2012. More than 26,000 illegals now have an official photo ID card or a drivers license in the Peach State.

Legislation (SB 6) passed in the state Senate last year to alter the license given to illegals so that it does not look exactly like the license given to foreign diplomats, legal visa holders like Mercedes Benz executives and real, legal immigrants, as they do now. Macon state Senator John F. Kennedy voted for it.

The proposed new driving card could only be used for driving purposes. Not to board an airliner or to purchase explosives.

Even the liberal AJC covered it. Yesterday, an Atlanta TV station aired a correction to a story based on DDS’s Mitchell misinformation published in the AJC.

Now you can see video from a Feb. 7, 2017 Georgia House Motor Vehicles Committee hearing on a DDS bill in which Mitchell not only allows Rep. Alan Powell, R- Hartwell to move on legislation with wildly inaccurate assumptions, but then comes right out and tells the committee that “we do not issue to illegals.” START AT 36:49 on the official House video archive.

You can also see that Mitchell is going full Pinocchio on this — and because of a recent meeting with the DDS commissioner on it, I can see that it is likely by directive — with info listed here.

Other examples of DDS employee misleading legislators can be seen here and here in official email.

FYI: The DDS commissioner is appointed by and works at the pleasure of Gov. Nathan Deal. No matter what anyone thinks about victims of borders getting a Georgia drivers license, is there anyone out there who approves of this example of the Gold Dome swamp?

As a public service, we also post the phone number in Gov. Deal’s Capitol office ( 404-656-1776 ) to use in case you want to leave a polite message about this caper with one of the governor’s hard working young staffers. They will forward your thoughts on to him.

2015 polling ( question 4 ) shows that most Georgians oppose giving any illegal aliens any drivers license.

And, by the way: How many illegal aliens can legally obtain a drivers license in Mexico? Zero. Nada. We hope you will read all about that part of this saga here.

dak

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article132079474.html#storylink=cpy