Cobb County courthouse under construction, 2010 photo oxblue.com

Below are letters published in the Marietta Daily Journal recently from voters who want the Cobb BOC and the city of Marietta to require county contractors to apply to become IMAGE certified.

I have not subscribed to the MDJ in more than a year. They have a paywall, so no links to original letters.

You can read about IMAGE certification here.

Cobb government needs to push for IMAGE certification

Dec 27, 2017
DEAR EDITOR:

The Republican-controlled Cobb County Commission split 3-2 in July to keep the current property tax rate but warned us that services may be cut as a result.

Now we see looming added fees for senior services, parks, libraries and zoning.

Taxpayers have helped the Braves build a stadium, but now we are short of money to provide services to our own citizens. Chairman Mike Boyce informs us that services cost money and “in order for us to keep them, we have to fund them.”

I hear that the county is facing a $30 million shortfall in the budget for 2019.

A simple question should be asked: How much of our tax money is going to fund vendors and contractors who are using illegal alien labor?

The state law requires E-Verify for contractors, but there is another federal program that the county itself is using that goes beyond the E-Verify program to seek out use of fake or stolen ID at the hiring process that can and does fool the E-Verify system. The federal IMAGE certification system is a surefire way to eventually insure that no contractor or vendor is using black market labor and takes a huge leap in reducing one of the most widespread criminal enterprises of our time: ID theft.

When Cobb County signed the agreement with federal authorities several years ago and became IMAGE certified, then Chairman Tim Lee boasted of the wisdom and benefits of the hiring records audit that allows the certification “the IMAGE agreement will help prevent possible terror attacks and protect employees against discrimination based on citizenship or national origin … Cobb County takes its responsibility very seriously to make sure that everything possibly that could be done is being done to make sure that our laws are being followed in our county and to make sure that there is an opportunity to equal employment for those who deserve it,” Opposing view? Commissioner Lisa Cupid regarded the idea as “racist.”

Apparently on orders from the Chamber of Commerce bosses, Lee changed his tune after that year’s primary election. He killed the push to require all of Cobb’s contractors to at least apply for the same IMAGE certification Cobb County has. Suddenly, a federal audit of Cobb’s contractor’s hiring records was out of the question.

IMAGE certification should be back on the list of logical steps for responsible government next year.

John Litland
Marietta

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January 11, 2018
Dear editor,

IMAGE is a no-cost tool | Letters to the Editor

IMAGE is a no-cost tool

DEAR EDITOR:
I was happy to read John Litland’s recent letter here concerning the Cobb Commissioners budget woes (“Cobb government needs to push for IMAGE certification,” MDJ, 12/28). Thanks for reminding us about the rejected attempt to require a no-cost tool to insure that our tax dollars are not going to illegal alien workers.

The federal IMAGE program is not widely known, but is easy to understand by going the federal IMAGE website. In 2012, immigration expert D.A. King worked to educate us on the system and to get an ordinance passed that said county contractors must apply to become “certified” as having followed all hiring laws and that none of their employees used fake or stolen ID to get a job. In short, the IMAGE system is very bad if you are an illegal alien worker or an employer who has hired illegals. It is very good for those of us who pay taxes.

The 2012 IMAGE effort was met with an avalanche of misrepresentations from the leaders who are more afraid of the business bosses than we the people. Cobb Commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell were brave enough to sponsor the failed ordinance. They should be thanked. They should also have a do-over.

The hypocrisy involved in the fact that Cobb County and the city of Marietta have been IMAGE certified as employers but the board members, mayor and city council members have not had the collective courage to apply the same logic to taxpayer funded contractors speaks volumes. So does the ridiculous attempt label commonsense as “racism.”

A good way to think about all of this is to imagine a campaign speech from a Republican in which they boast of NOT using all available tools to stop illegal aliens from being paid with tax dollars. We appreciate the 2012 MDJ editorial in support of IMAGE and we hope to see the paper pick the side of the people again soon.

Bill Buckler
Kennesaw

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Cobb needs to get tougher on illegal immigration

10 hrs ago
DEAR EDITOR:

Thanks to John Litland for his recent letter on the need for Cobb government to push for IMAGE certification. I agree that all vendors doing business with Cobb County must be IMAGE certified and have been asking several members of the Cobb BoC to bring the program back up for a vote by the full board of commissioners. I understand that Commissioners Birrell and Ott support the program, but let’s get their position officially on the record, especially with the election coming up next year for two district commissioners.

The pushback to my request for IMAGE certification is that it maybe a burden on (small) businesses. Maybe so, but let’s look at the burden of illegal immigration on American citizens. Per the report, titled “The Fiscal Burden Of Illegal Immigration on U.S. Taxpayers,” the staggering total costs of illegal immigrants and their children outweighs the taxes paid to federal and state governments by a ratio of roughly 7 to 1, with costs at nearly $135 billion compared to tax revenues at nearly $19 billion. The nearly $135 billion paid out by federal and state and local taxpayers to cover the cost of 12.5 million illegal aliens and their 4.2 million citizen children amounts to approximately $8,075 per illegal alien and citizen child prior to taxes paid, or $6,940 per person after taxes are paid. On the federal level, medical ($17.14 billion) is by far the highest cost, with law enforcement coming second ($13.15 billion) and general government services ($8 billion) third. At the state and local level, education ($44.4 billion) was by far the largest expense, followed by general public services ($18.5 billion) and medical ($12.1 billion).

Also, per a recent Homeland Security Report, 94 percent of the confirmed aliens in the federal prison system were in the United States illegally.

Illegal immigration is not only a financial burden on Cobb taxpayers it’s also a public safety issue as the statistics above demonstrate, so I urge the BoC to immediately vote to require all vendors doing business with Cobb government be IMAGE certified.

Jim Astuto
east Cobb