Gov Brian Kemp. Image: The Resurgent

Marietta Daily Journal

Feb 18, 2020
Kemp must see an amnesty coming

DEAR EDITOR:

A recent MDJ story tells us that the Democrats have introduced a bill under the Gold Dome to allow illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation to access in-state tuition. Long a priority of liberals, this bill treats illegals as if they were somehow as deserving as legal immigrants — like my wife — or U.S. citizens when it comes to public benefits.

The story, produced by Capitol-Beat News Service, refers to the illegal aliens as “undocumented immigrants.” How does anyone verify anything about anybody if they have no documents? The description is nonsense. These illegal aliens with DACA have been granted work permits and Social Security numbers, which they have used to obtain driver’s licenses in Georgia. It is a scandalous and a needless security risk to know that driver’s license document is the exact same credential issued to legal immigrants.

The sad fact is that the Democrat “in-state tuition for illegals” bill is not far off from the ongoing Republican-created practice of rewarding illegal aliens in high school with cost-free public college seats in Georgia’s “dual enrollment” program that has no system of checking immigration status at all. Gov. Kemp is quietly pushing HB444 through the Legislature with the intent of reducing costs to taxpayers in the dual enrollment program, but he refuses to add a badly needed requirement that the University System of Georgia weed out the “undocumented” from admission.

The goal is more workers. Kemp must see an amnesty coming?

To get a view of how far many, if not most, Georgia Republican legislators have strayed from pro-enforcement conservative values, the Atlanta paper reports that “Lindsey Tippins, a Republican from Marietta who is the Senate’s Higher Education Committee chairman, declined comment Thursday, saying he hadn’t seen the (in-state tuition) bill and wanted to wait until the legislation comes to his chamber before discussing it.”

State Senator Lindsey Tippins. Photo: Ga General Assembly.

While real conservatives instantly recognize the Dem attempt to get a foot in the door for equal benefits for illegals (their hoped-for future voting base), Tippins clearly has his finger in the wind and is taking the “let’s wait to see if anyone is looking” attitude on giving illegal aliens in Georgia what we will not give to legal immigrants and U.S. citizens in Chattanooga or any other place in the U.S.A.

At our pro-enforcement house, we have this filed in the now very thick and expanding “why we aren’t Republicans” folder.

John Litland

Marietta