Cherokee Tribune

Former illegal alien lobbyist not right fit for federal judge

January 20, 2016

OPINION

D.A. King 

With the illegal alien lobby and the donor-class Republicans on one side, and Georgia’s conservative voter base on the other, the battle over the Obama nomination of Dax Lopez for federal judge in the state is proving the adage that “politics makes strange bedfellows.”

Atlanta’s WSB radio talk-show host, blogger and Fox News personality Erick Erickson recently shocked his listeners with an endorsement of Lopez for federal judge — while assuring his audience that Lopez is the best nominee Republicans can hope for.

Erickson also actually told his listeners that Lopez would have no role on immigration as a federal judge. “No spin,” pledged Erickson, although WSB is owned by Cox Enterprises, which is regularly listed as a sponsor of the pro-amnesty Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials Inc. fundraisers.

Dax Lopez joined the board of directors of GALEO in 2004. In 2010, former Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed Lopez to a state court judge seat in metro-Atlanta. In July 2015, the Obama White House submitted his name to the U.S. Senate for confirmation as a federal judge. Lopez resigned from GALEO a month later after heated public opposition to his confirmation.

Federal judges are appointed for life. Lopez is in his early 40s.

GALEO boasts of actively lobbying against immigration enforcement and voter ID — and has done so since Lopez became adviser and served as treasurer and keynote speaker for at least one fundraiser.

Lopez’s public statement that he “agrees with their mission” should always be viewed with the knowledge that since its inception, the corporate-funded GALEO Inc. has viciously attacked law enforcement officers who dare to help enforce immigration laws. GALEO has marched in the streets of Atlanta for another amnesty, lobbied against state E-Verify laws designed to protect legal workers, against local jails honoring ICE holds for criminal aliens and vehemently opposed English as our official language.

GALEO’s website lists Jane Fonda as one of its “founding friends.” GALEO executive director, Jerry Gonzalez, has been a regularly invited guest at the Obama White House for strategy sessions on amnesty.

A recent Atlanta re-election fundraiser for “Republican” Lopez was made up of a “who’s who” of Democrat sponsors and attendees.

Right now, either one or both of Georgia’s Republican U.S. senators can end consideration of Lopez’s confirmation through what is known as the traditional “blue-slip” veto process. All they need do is say he is not federal judge material.

We think political expert Erickson has overlooked the hundreds of immigration-related cases federal judges have ruled on in the recent past. Including the federal lawsuit filed against Georgia’s “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” by the ACLU, the SPLC, and a host of other leftist open borders groups … including GALEO Inc. That lawsuit was heard in the same federal court that Lopez would serve if confirmed.

Among the lawyers suing to stop enforcement of the 2011 state law aimed at saving jobs for legal workers was Lopez’s then fellow GALEO board member, Charles Kuck.

Erickson also informed listeners of a secret deal between the Republican Establishment and the Democrats in the Senate on confirming Obama’s federal judicial nominees.

The political danger for pro-enforcement conservatives here is that Georgia’s Republican senators could ‘OK’ Lopez for advancement to the next step on confirmation, then vote “NO” on Lopez on the final vote — knowing that he would be confirmed by Democrats and enough Republicans who figure their constituents back home will never be the wiser.

Georgia’s senators could then come home to plead “not guilty” and point to a “no” vote on GALEO’s anti-enforcement Dax Lopez for federal judge.

Georgians should pay attention and speak up.

HERE

D.A. King is president of the Dustin Inman Society.