Image: Savannah Morning News

A response to the editorial board of the Savannah Morning News. Editor told me to send it, but did not run it.

The next governor should enforce state laws aimed at illegal immigration

 D.A. King

 The board’s recent foray into the politics of immigration enforcement and which gubernatorial candidate would be most careful on the issue seemed to take an overly moderate path of moderation. It hit most of the well-heeled anti-enforcement lobby’s talking points on the dangers of the rule of law to the quarterly profit reports of Georgia’s industry, including the oft-used ‘immigration enforcement is a federal issue.’ It’s not.

That we are told we should not have an excessive amount of enforcement on immigration as it may have negative effects on “children and families” is curious advice.

We can’t help but wonder at the board’s position on enforcement of ID theft and Social Security fraud laws – which are both felonious components of illegal immigration. Should we only punish Americans for these crimes so as to not inconvenience families of illegal aliens?

The crime of illegal employment is primary driver of the crime of illegal immigration. Easily as important as securing our national borders, insuring that “cheap”, taxpayer-subsidized, black market labor is not allowed to take Georgian’s jobs and lower our wages should be high on the list of priorities for everyone concerned. Including editorial boards.

Against the powerful opposition of the business lobby, state lawmakers have twice (2006 and 2011) mandated use of the no-cost federal E-Verify system to head off illegal employment. Unsurprisingly, those laws are treated as optional when it comes to enforcement.

A recent investigative report from Bloomberg Businessweek shows that in the twelve years of the state’s E-Verify statute’s existence, the grand total of prosecutions for violation by employers is…zero. This seems to represent the amount of concern or investigation by the state’s media on the subject – but we do hear the constant approval that “Georgia is number one for business.”

Using data from the Migration Policy Institute, the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute acknowledges in a pie chart that Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders). The feds estimate that we have more illegals than Arizona. We issue drivers licenses and official ID Cards to aliens who are already under deportation orders. It is easy to refer to our beloved but increasingly bewildering state as “Georgiafornia.”

The board’s advice to readers that we “walk a tightrope” on regulations and warnings that we not make waves lest we effect business’s profits is not the common sense it is depicted to be.

The next governor should enforce the laws already passed under the Gold Dome on illegal immigration.

D.A. King of Marietta is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society