Image: Gwinnett Daily Post

This below is from a newspaper that happily published my immigration columns for more than a decade.

Archiving two Gwinnett Daily Post articles here in which that newspaper helps pass along the lies and smears from the discredited SPLC et al and one in which it helps a race-baiting politician get more signatures on a hate petition intended to discredit a law and order sheriff and to neuter my pro-enforcement efforts here in Georgia where we have more illegal aliens than green card holders. The Gwinnett illegal alien population is estimated by MPI to be about 72,000 – or about 8% of its total population.

Nobody, including the reporter, Isabel Hughes (“emerging journalist”) and the longtime editor, Todd Cline has ever contacted me in any way for comment on either of these articles. The kicker is that for eleven years I wrote pro-enforcement columns for the Gwinnett Daily Post, and they were published by the same editor, Todd Cline. All of those columns can be seen here.

Contact the GDP here.

Sparks fly at community meeting to discuss Gwinnett jail’s 287(g) immigration program

By Isabel Hughes isabel.hughes

@gwinnettdailypost.com

Jul 31, 2019

“You’re a white supremacist!” one woman shouted from the back left side of the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center auditorium.

“You’re a coward and a sorry little…” a man yelled several minutes later from the opposite back corner, leaving his sentence unfinished.

The comments, which were directed at two separate panelists, gave voice to tensions that, at times, ran high through GJAC’s auditorium Wednesday night during a “community engagement discussion” about the Gwinnett County Jail’s 287(g) program.

A partnership between state or local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that allows local jurisdictions to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement, 287(g) has been a controversial issue in Gwinnett in recent months, largely sparked by Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway’s anticipated renewal — and then official one-year reinstatement — of the program.

Wednesday’s discussion about 287(g), which was organized by Gwinnett County District 4 Commissioner Marlene Fosque and featured six panelists — three from what Fosque called the “benefits,” or pro-287(g) side, and three from the “impact,” or anti-287(g) side — was intended to foster a dialogue between the program’s supporters and opponents, the commissioner said.

“Our sheriff’s department has participated in the 287(g) program for about 10 years, yet no one has brought the two sides together to decide what are the benefits of 287(g) and decide what is the impact,” Fosque said. “I’m a newly elected commissioner, so I’m trying to do new things. I pray at the end of this discussion, (attendees) walk away with a different perspective, or at least a new perspective.”

While Fosque said it remains to be seen whether attendees’ perspectives were ultimately changed, it certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying.

With businesswoman Andrea Rivera, District 99 State Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero and local attorney Antonio Molina on the anti-287(g) side and Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Deputy Shannon Volkodav, ICE Southern Region Communications Director Bryan Cox and D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society, which pushes for tougher immigration laws but has been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-immigrant hate group, on the pro-287(g) side, the discussion ranged from quotations of bible verses to racial profiling to what ICE’s presence in Gwinnett will be if 287(g) goes away.

The two sides did agree on one thing, however: fear plays a large role in immigration discussions, though for different reasons.

“This is a conversation about fear,” Rivera said. “People have had encounters that (contribute) to that, but it’s also a fear (of immigrants) that’s been imposed on all of us by politicians and others. But one of the reasons that most our parents and grandparents or great grandparents came here is because they were looking for a different life and for a different way of living.”

For many immigrants, especially ones who are undocumented, their fear is different than what Rivera spoke of — it’s a fear of being targeted because of their skin color or immigration status.

But Cox said much of the immigration-related fear, especially when it pertains to 287(g), is unfounded.

“There is a lot of fear in the community; of that, we agree. Both sides speak to fear in the community,” Cox said. “However, that is based on a significant amount of misinformation. ICE does not do any type of random, indiscriminate enforcement in Gwinnett County, or anywhere.

“When our officers go out for the day to make arrests, they quite literally have in hand a target list. They’re going to a specific place, looking for a specific person.”

Similarly, Volkodav said, 287(g)-trained deputies, or any other law enforcement in Gwinnett, are not asking residents about their immigration status — the only place a county law enforcement officer can question someone’s immigration status is when he or she has been brought to the jail and is charged with a crime.

Then, too, it’s only one of the specially trained 287(g) deputies who can do the questioning.

“The reality is, 287(g) focuses solely on criminal offenders. The only way you’re going to encounter 287(g) is if you’re charged with a crime,” Cox said. “Currently, ICE goes to the jail and takes custody of a criminal offender, and only that criminal offender. The reality is, in the jurisdictions that don’t work with ICE, this agency has no choice but to send ICE officers into the community to find those criminals. With 287(g), we go to the jail, arrest the target and only the target. Without 287(g), you will see an increased ICE presence; the agency will have no choice but to send more officers onto the streets of Gwinnett County to find those same persons.

“The result of that is, when you’re looking for that target, we also would be more likely to encounter other persons in the country who are in violation of federal immigration law,” Cox continued. “So, if your position is that you don’t like ICE and you don’t want ICE enforcement, the reality is, 287(g) is your best friend, because this is a program that focuses exclusively on the subset of (undocumented) individuals who commit criminal offenses.”

While Cox’s words likely didn’t do much to dissuade fear of ICE, Fosque told the Daily Post she felt confident the evening opened the eyes of both pro- and anti-287(g) attendees.

“I think it accomplished an opening up of perspectives on how 287(g) operates, as well as the emotions about the impact,” Fosque said. “That was my whole point — for both sides, the benefits as well as the impacts, to really understand each other. That’s what I think it did, and I think it accomplished that goal. It didn’t necessarily change minds, but it (offered) the opportunity just to listen to different viewpoints and educate people.”

Entire report with photos here.

_ More below

Image: Dustin Inman Society

Gwinnett Daily Post
August 6, 2019

LETTER: Sheriff Butch Conway deserves praise, not condemnation

By Ernest Wade

Duluth Councilman Kirkland Carden recently condemned Sheriff Butch Conway for including D.A. King, president of the Dustin Society, as a panelist in a recent meeting regarding the Gwinnett County jail’s 287(g) program (“Duluth councilman calls for condemnation of sheriff,” Aug. 4, A1.)

This federal/county joint program simply identifies the immigration status of criminals already housed in the Gwinnett jail.

Carden called King “a bigot” simply because King opposes the massive illegal immigration abuses of our country. I have met Mr. King on several occasions in the past and consider him to be knowledgeable and concerned, but certainly not a bigot.

As a former immigration inspector with the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), I find King to have great knowledge about our broken immigration system so perhaps that is why those who desire open borders actually hate him.

I find it ludicrous that this article claimed the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) lists the Dustin Inman Society as an “anti-immigration hate group.” The SPLC has received a grade of “F” from Charity Watch, has been de-listed by the FBI as a reliable information source and has been widely called “essentially a fraud.”

I applaud the efforts by Sheriff Butch Conway for having a diverse panel and applaud D.A. King for his valuable advice and information. I criticize Duluth councilman Kirkland Carden for his own bigotry, and would only wish that he would stop protecting criminal illegal aliens and put the legal residents and citizens before his narrow, selfish political goals.

— Ernest Wade,

Loganville

Here.

Image: GoldenAgeofGaia

Note: What I did not include in my letter was the fact that the GDP reporter never at any time contacted me or came to me in the event. Also, for 11 years, I placed pro-enforcement columns in this newspaper. Same editor. 

Gwinnett Daily Post
August 6, 2019
OPINION
Letters to the editor

DEAR EDITOR: In coverage of a public panel discussion on the 287(g) program in Gwinnett in which I participated “Sparks fly at meeting on Gwinnett jail immigration program) the Daily Post added in the fact that the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the Dustin Inman Society as an “anti-immigrant hate group.”

This ridiculous 2018 smear from the far-left SPLC came as a laughable surprise to the proud immigrants who support our donation-driven effort to see American immigration laws enforced. That includes the immigrants on our board — and my adopted sister.

The Daily Post did not note that the SPLC made the decision for this false and hate-mongering categorization in the same time frame it began lobbying against legislation aimed at illegal immigration that we support in the Georgia Capitol, 15 years after we began our fight and after the SPLC told the Associated Press they disliked our activism in favor of that legislation. What a handy way to oppress political opposition.

For responsible news coverage, spreading the SPLC’s smears should come with information on their agenda and the fact that they are being sued by more than 60 groups for these false, but profitable, accusations of “hate.”

Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders and more than Arizona. Gwinnett County is the illegal home to about 72,000 victims of borders – about 8% of the total population.

We proudly support the 287(g) program, Sheriff Conway and the brave ICE Agents who risk their lives to fight the crime of illegal immigration. For people who cannot discern the difference between immigrants and illegal aliens, it is important to remember that real immigrants do not require amnesty and have no reason to fear enforcement.

— D.A. King

Here.

Image: AJC

The Atlanta Journal Constitution strikes again. Twice. In less than forty-eight hours.

After constantly correcting them – for sixteen years – on the fact that being pro-enforcement on immigration doesn’t qualify anyone, including me, as “anti-immigrant” or “anti-immigration” – and that I am neither – they have again labeled me as “anti-immigrant” And “anti-immigration.” Did I mention it was twice in less than forty-eight hours?

Oh, and BTW: They seem to not approve of the concept of nationalism. 

The morning after my late-night phone call/voice mail to an AJC reporter twenty minutes after his story on a Gwinnett County 287(g) panel discussion in which I participated hit the internet, the AJC changed their “anti-immigrant” description of me in the online version of the story to “anti-undocumented immigrant…,” then, in the same story for the next day’s print version ran a photo of me with the caption describing me as “a controversial anti-immigration activist.”

Without exaggeration, by phone, email and letters, I have told these people about fifty times that I fight for enforcement of immigration and employment laws and for sanity in immigration levels. That my adopted sister is an immigrant.  As are many donors and some members of the board of the Dustin Inman Society, which I founded in 2005.

The most recent example is a letter to the editor that was sent – and published – last June in response to another inaccurate and libelous depiction of yours truly as “anti-immigration” that was also changed after I complained:

“A recent column by the AJC’s Bill Torpy on the front of the Metro section falsely referred to me as an “anti-immigration activist.” The widely known truth is that for the last 15 years I have proudly fought for sanity in immigration and enforcement of American immigration laws. That effort is easily and succinctly described as “pro-enforcement.”

For the record – yet again – I am not “anti-immigration” any more than the folks at Mothers Against Drunk Driving are “anti-driving.” Neither is my adopted sister, who is an immigrant.

The reporters and leadership of the Georgia’s largest newspaper should be regarded as an organ of, and for, the illegal alien lobby from here on. I have asked for another correction and retraction.

–>*Update: Too funny: They corrected the whole cloth fabrication that I was somehow on the panel as a representative of the Sheriff, here. But the “credible”, “compelling”, “complete” coverage AJC editor Kevin Riley constantly tries to sell on radio ads never corrected the fake news that I am an “anti-immigration activist” – while they portrayed the anti-enforcement mob as “immigrant advocates.” Note to the propagandists at the AJC: Even the New York Times has made that correction on my motivation.

The editor of the AJC is Kevin Riley. Despite the fact that the shrinking AJC has no public editor, neither he or most of his editors respond to my emails or phone calls. *Notable exception: Editorial Editor Andre Jackson, who I believe to be an honorable journalist in every sense of the word. Andre Jackson is the only employee I know at the AJC that I trust.

The story is too long to tell at one time here, so only a little expansion for now.

On a panel discussion in Gwinnett County focused on 287(g) an AJC reporter filed this story late on the same night as the event (they don’t seem to like the self-description of “proud American nationalist” at all). The 1996 federal tool, 287(g) is designed to locate illegal aliens who land in local jails. Note that the anti-287(g) participants (some who dropped out) are referred to as “immigrant advocate groups.”

In the first try, I am described in this paragraph with

“King spoke first and audience members opposed to 287(g) greeted him with signs filled with his previous anti-immigrant rhetoric. His opening statement riled them further.”

After my phone call complaint, it was changed to:

“King spoke first and audience members opposed to 287(g) greeted him with signs filled with his past comments regarding undocumented immigrants. His opening statement riled them further.”

In the print version (that is also sent out electronically) of the same story that ran on August 2, the AJC editors reversed the reporters previous correction and inserted a photo of me with the caption:

“D.A. King, a controversial anti-immigration activist, represented the sheriff’s office on a panel discussion of the 287(g) program.” (All emphasis mine)

Image: AJC

Not only is the “anti-immigration” activist description wrong. but the AJC has invented out of thin air the notion that I was somehow representing the sheriff’s office. I would have been very proud to do that, but I was asked to speak on 287(g) as president of the Dustin Inman Society.

So, questions for the AJC team – if I was supposedly representing the sheriff, who were the three anti-enforcement characters representing? How did it happen that only D.A. King was supposedly representing somebody else in your story?

Image: AJC

The young AJC reporter asked me one or two questions – and that was clearly a formality on his way out the door. His lead query to me?

“Do you think you inflamed this event? …by being here, I mean.”

Contact info for the AJC leadership here. The columns the AJC editorial page team has published from me listed here. Did they inflame anyone by printing them?

I have sent them a letter to the editor about the fact they use the disgraced SPLC as an arbiter of “hate…” I will post it tomorrow if they don’t run it.

–>*Update: An edited and shortened version of my letter finally ran. Many thanks to Mr. Andre Jackson.

Pee-uuuu.

Constitution

GA Congressman Tom Graves. Image: GovTrack.com

Dalton Daily Citizen
August 6, 2019
OPINION

Letter: Graves votes for globalism

Thanks very much to the newspaper for the letter from immigration expert D.A. King on my congressman’s yes vote on what has become known as the “India First” bill. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, voted to change our immigration system for tech workers and where they come from. This was not to provide badly needed reforms, but instead to lend a hand to the billionaires of big tech. It is dirty, globalist business as usual in Washington, D.C.

As King pointed out, American tech workers are being cast aside and replaced by cheaper — and less talented — foreigners who will work for much less money. Imagine being told you must train your replacement in a job you love or you will not get your severance pay. It’s despicable.

Tech companies may be celebrating that they can now more easily lay off American workers. Under the provisions of HR 1044, India would get more than 90% of the professional employment green cards for at least the next 10 years.

This is the direct opposite of the goals President Trump voiced during his campaign of “America First,” which requires a deference to domestic employment. These tech jobs are not the low-skilled jobs that Americans supposedly “will not do.”

While on the topic of Graves, let me also note that he has refused to sign the official English first bill, HR 997, which would make English our official national language. Does anyone remember him telling us he would be like this when he ran for office? Again, quite the opposite.

Voters paying attention will surely enjoy the explanations to these matters during the long August break, if Rep. Graves actually holds town hall meetings to hear from his curious constituents. That’s a big if.

Denise Burns

Ringgold

Here.

GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez – photo, DIS

smear

There is a difference between immigrants and illegal aliens. Opposition to illegal immigration is not “anti-immigrant” (for the 1000098888th time).

Many anti-enforcement race-hustlers, including the SPLC, George Chidi and GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez are again spreading various versions of the lie that in 2007 I went to Covington, Ga. and told a room full of curious people that immigrants are here to “blow up your buildings and kill your children, and you, and me.”

This is an intentional lie and uses the common practice of the left of redefining the English language, and taking a few words out of context to wield as a smear weapon to silence pro-enforcement advocates.

At a 2007 GOP meeting where I was invited to speak on illegal immigration I was in a segment of my presentation that mentioned what the MSM or the illegal alien lobby will never allow the public to know: Individuals from countries with known ties to terrorism are coming over our borders illegally. It was true then and it is true now. Here is a quick link from 2016.

To be clear for the slow: I am saying that some illegal aliens – both illegal border crossers and visa violation or overstays – come from terrorist countries and they are not all here to work on the cheap. I am not talking about legal immigrants. The leftist media and the corporate-funded illegal alien lobby constantly try to blur the line between the two. 

I had recently returned from one of my many trips to the Arizona/Mexico border where Border Patrol Agents confirmed that fact for us.

A reporter from the local newspaper was present for my speech and wrote the meeting up. Here is a part of his story in which he quotes me:

“The porous border with Mexico is especially dangerous, he added, saying that it has been an entrance point for people from countries with known ties to terrorism.

“They’re not here to mow your lawn — they’re here to blow up your buildings and kill your children, and you, and me,” he said.

To prove his point, he flaunted two authentic Mexican government-issued photo ID cards — called matriculas consulares — that he said he was able to get using fake Mexican birth certificates. One of them lists his name; the other is under the name “Al Qada Gonzalez.” ( Note from D.A. – no, mine, like many, are fake)Current enforcement is so lax, he said, that the cards can be used in some states to obtain valid drivers licenses and board airplanes.

Georgia, which has seen a large influx of illegal immigration in recent years, should also be prepared to become a new front for problems with employment and crime that have been seen in border states, he said.”

The entire report can seen here – I pasted it into my blog.

I also have had a congressional report on the terrorost/border angle plainly posted on the DIS homepage since it was issued in 2006.

“Members of Hezbollah have already entered the United States across the Southwest border”. “A Line In the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border” U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security report, 2006.

This is not the first time this fabrication has come up. Several months after the Covington speech, GALEO’s Jerry Gonzalez began his campaign to convince people I made the statement about “immigrants.” That lie was passed on by the AJC’s Jim Galloway in his Political Insider blog – using the term “reportedly.” When I saw it, I called Galloway and explained GALEO’s intent to create fake news, sent him the Covington news report reflecting what I actually said and asked him to run a correction and explanation of the out-of-context smear he had helped perpetuate.

I never heard another word about it from Jim Galloway and it was never corrected to my knowledge.

This is just one example of how the media helps pass on lies about honest Americans who fight for immigration enforcement and secure borders. I have to spend time correcting lies and defending my reputation because the “watchdog media” is anything but.

Below Democrat politician explains the “wrap up smear.”

meanwhile at the dsa pic.twitter.com/Ht87uWI6Re

— Pavel (@Osama_BongLaden) August 4, 2019

The below letter was received here this afternoon. Mr. Trent has been a welcomed source of support for years here.
—
1 August 2019.

Dear D.A.,

We are following the absurd reaction to your helping with education on the life-saving 287(g) program in Gwinnett as best we can from here in coastal Georgia. I send this note to express my own appreciation and respect for the professional way you are handling the race-baiting name calling from the people who make it clear they want no immigration enforcement in Georgia or the U.S.

Having watched your work and dealt with you for the last six years I know you to be dedicated to an equal application of the law and praise your support for law enforcement officers, including ICE. I admire you work in the Georgia Capitol and I hope that you will continue to fight the fight to preserve the concept of American borders and honoring the legal immigrants who obey our laws.

Removing criminal aliens from our communities makes us safer. It appears your opponents fear you, because you expose their lies. I have never seen a reputable study showing immigrants won’t report crime because we enforce our immigration laws.

As you know, I have a professional lifetime dedicated to immigration enforcement and I do not take kindly to the intentional lies and character attacks on you I am seeing online. The ad hominem assaults on you and Sheriff Conway in Gwinnett County over the use of the 287(g) is in fact an assault on all law enforcement officers and serves to provide great insight into the lack of integrity of the desperate characters who hide behind cries of “racism” while they project their own anti-American hatred and anger in those baseless attacks.

If I can help you with any part of this with my own reflections on your work, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Robert Trent

Senior Special Agent, Ret.

U.S. Immigration Service

Saint Mary’s, GA

NOTE: Currently serving as the Secretary/Treasurer for the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO)