photo: WSB-TV

I hand delivered this letter of complaint to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s office in February. About fifteen minutes later, a staffer called me to say the governor wanted to have a meeting and they would call me in the next few days. I never heard another word from them. DDS still stays far away from the truth to the public and to state lawmakers.

13 February 2017

To: Governor Nathan Deal

Re; Complaint. Request that the record be corrected and that your DDS Legislative Liaison be instructed to stop spreading inaccurate and potentially dangerous information to Georgia legislators

Dear Governor Deal,

Mike Mitchell, Legislative Liaison for DDS, has been inaccurately informing legislators under the Gold Dome for years that Georgia is not issuing drivers licenses or official photo ID cards to illegal aliens. This is easily and demonstrably proven to be untrue and I have made it my self-funded mission to provide accurate information to the lawmakers on immigration.

I have had a meeting with Mitchell, Commissioner Moore and a now very confused House committee Chairman to discuss this verifiable reality. I am quite surprised and outraged to see that Mitchell has used his position to not only spread this misinformation to legislators in private, but last week assured an entire House committee (Motor Vehicles) that illegal aliens are not being issued a drivers license. Further, through Mitchell, the DDS is telling all concerned, including the AJC and other media reporters that illegal aliens who are under the federal deferred action on deportation program have and provide documents to prove “lawful status.”

This is not true. I am writing to respectfully request that you take a personal interest in correcting the inaccurate information being disseminated by DDS and to order that all lawmakers and the public are made aware of the truth on the matter.

From the USCIS website on DACA (italic emphasis mine):

“On June 15, 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced that certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal. They are also eligible for work authorization. Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time. Deferred action does not provide lawful status.”

As I hope you are aware, deferred action on deportation was an enforcement priority program long before former President Obama incorporated it into his 2012 DACA executive amnesty decree.

There are other pages of the USCIS website explaining DACA, all of which reiterate that deferred action on deportation does not provide legal status for the illegal aliens. I have cited another of those web pages from federal authorities on the blog page of my own website, TheDustinInmanSociety.org.

As a result of a Georgia court decision that Georgia did not appeal, I hope that you are also aware that a class of illegal aliens who are already under deportation orders but who have been granted work permits (EADs) and Social Security numbers also have been issued Georgia drivers licenses and official ID cards. These illegal aliens have the code “C-18” on their work permit. C-18 denotes “Deportable alien under order of supervision.”

Federal authorities make it clear that only illegal aliens have a need for deferred action on deportation and that while under that informal program, which I am told is not based in any law passed by congress, they do not accrue “unlawful presence” for purposes of 3-10 year bans on re-admittance to the U.S. The feds label this “lawful presence” – but again, they do not have “legal status” and remain illegal aliens.

Or as the AJC immigration reporter frames it, “immigrants without legal status.”

While the semantics of this aberration in federal policy instituted by the former president can be confusing, it is my educated hope that your office will direct DDS to properly educate the trusting lawmakers who have been misinformed – by DDS.

To illustrate the sometimes amusing depths of the misinformation from DDS, I want to make it clear that the official spokesperson there has told at least one news outlet that DDS policy on issuing drivers licenses “is per the federal DREAM Act.” As you know, the DREAM Act never passed congress.

WSB TV has strived to correct the record on this and as I am, is now the object of misleading and inaccurate emails that have been sent to lawmakers by DDS staffer Michael Mitchell. I attach a copy of that emailed letter.

Including from the AJC, there are countless and credible media reports available that demonstrate to Georgians the truth of the issue. I attach one to this letter from the Associated Press (‘Some Illegal Immigrants Can Get Georgia Driver’s Licenses – August 2012).

While Georgians may have opposing views on the crime of illegal immigration and executive amnesty, I trust that you value the truth and I hope you will help me set the record straight.

Currently, the drivers license given to illegal aliens is identical to the one issued to foreign diplomats and Mercedes Benz executives here on lawful temporary visas. As I hope you are aware, the state Senate passed SB6 last year by a wide margin. That bill’s language was aimed at altering the driving cards given to illegal aliens so as to make their illegal status brilliantly clear to anyone who comes in contact with them.

Right now, Georgia is giving illegal aliens, some of whom have been convicted of serious crimes and who are under deportation orders, drivers licenses that are used to board airliners in Atlanta and around the world.

Respectfully submitted and delivered by hand,

D.A. King
Marietta

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