Bill Torpy, photo AJC

AJC
November 9, 2017

Torpy at Large: The real reason Casey Cagle is on Decatur’s case

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle this week again tore into Decatur, alleging that the liberal bastion is a hideaway — no, more like a sanctuary — for immigrants who have entered this country without legal permission.

–> Cagle filed a complaint with something called the Immigration Enforcement Review Board, a kangaroo court created by the state to give anti-immigration activist D.A. King something to do.

The Lt. Gov’s beef with the city is a Decatur police manual that says the cops aren’t supposed to turn over people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless there’s a judicial warrant to hold them.

In essence, Decatur is saying police will hang onto people they stop if they are wanted for something — an active warrant for fraud, burglary, not showing up to traffic court, etc. — but they won’t throw the person into the slammer on behalf of ICE simply if there’s a suspicion that they sneaked across the border without U.S. blessing.

Last year, Candidate Trump said he wanted to get rid of the “bad hombres” coming to our country, and Old Casey is deputizing himself in that roundup. In his correspondence, Cagle goes all law-and-order on this matter, talking about murders and dope dealing, and even sex cases.

Cagle’s complaint states that “sanctuary policies create sanctuaries for criminals,” and that he wants to “ensure that every criminal illegal alien encountered by our law enforcement officers is arrested, transferred to federal custody and deported.”

“Criminal illegal alien” might mean that an immigrant is peddling meth or gang banging. Or it might mean he’s a dude who waded across the Rio Grande, cuts your lawn and has his paperwork messed up.

In his complaint, Cagle notes that Georgia prisons house 1,316 convicts whom ICE wants to see after they get released. Sounds bad, right?

But let’s do some math. There are an estimated 400,000 unauthorized immigrants in Georgia. Divide that number into 1,316 and you’ll find that 0.33 of 1 percent of such immigrants are “bad hombres.”

Compare that to the criminality of our local yokels. Georgia has a population of 10.3 million, of which 52,847 are prisoners (after subtracting the 1,316). That means that 0.51 of 1 percent of Georgia’s residents are muy malo. Or, put another way, Americans are more likely to be convicts than the border jumpers.

+ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in action in metro Atlanta: ICE Atlanta deputy field office director Joe Sifuentez (left) and photo JOHN SPINK/THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in action in metro Atlanta: ICE Atlanta deputy field office director Joe Sifuentez (left) and … Read More
In fact, a study by the libertarian Cato Institute says native-born Americans are three times as likely to be locked up for crimes as illegal immigrants.

It makes sense. If you sneak over here to improve your life, then you’ll want to walk quietly and not stir up too much trouble.

Decatur is a safe city, in the top 10 for mid-sized Georgia towns last year. So I’m not sure that Casey was worried about the population there.

My guess is he’s more worried about the population who will be voting next year in the Republican primary. Cagle is running to remove the Lt. from his title and is up against a few other rough political hombres in the race.

One of them, state Sen. Michael Williams, is crazy-desperado tough. At any given moment Williams is likely to be cradling a firearm for the cameras or extolling the virtues of weaponry. I’m hearing his bumper stickers will say: “A bump stock in every glove box.”Candidates like Williams frighten Cagle, who is the front-runner and heir apparent. Williams isn’t frightening because he can win. No, he’s scary because he can make Cagle appear weak and allow one of the other candidates, such as former state Sen. Hunter Hill or Secretary of State Brian Kemp, to pass him by.

Therefore, there’s dependable Decatur, the brightest blue dot on the Georgia map, which hangs there like a piñata waiting to get whacked by Candidate Casey.

The Republican base loves it when the Libs get smacked around, and Cagle is no doubt thinking, “Why not me?”

Why not, indeed? These days, if a GOP front-runner seems to be a bit mild, then he becomes Jeb Bush, dazed and flattened by the angry hordes who come to the polls. Casey’s not going to let that happen, hence his campaign against Decatur.

Cagle also lets Decatur know there’s some funding that could get cut — a little friendly threat.

According to his office, Decatur got $143,389 in state funds during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016. Also, in that same fiscal year, Decatur got $1,329,853 in federal awards administered by the state. That’s a lot of bike lanes!

Decatur, population 22,000, is currently a hot town, a place with a bustling downtown that other areas envy. City Commission meetings are well attended and cordial, even when they discuss using eminent domain to expand a park….Read more here.

UPDATED with my reply to Torpy here.

In the below rant in which he invents a scenario, liberal AJC writer Bill Torpy refers to me as an “anti-immigration activist.” I have asked for a correction. I think Torpy is a flake…

Bill Torpy, photo AJC

AJC – front page of the Metro news section

June 4, 2018

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/torpy-large-casey-the-bat-swinging-illegals-decatur/gcrziEgzwr2BzcpZ7ZzA7O/

Torpy at Large: Casey at the bat, swinging at ‘illegals’ in Decatur

And we don’t mean immigrants who’ve come here without authorization

May 25, 2018

The GOP gubernatorial primary runoff is underway and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle can return to the important work of beating up on illegals.

I can almost see the ad where he borrows from the catchy TV commercial of his opponent, Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

After the requisite shotgun blast, Casey manfully ambles over to his monster truck and drawls, “Ah’ve got a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ‘em home myself.”

The camera cuts away to the pickup truck bed, but it’s not filled with Latino laborers. It’s filled with Casey’s other version of illegals — tie-dyed, rainbow-coalitioned Decaturites.

“I’m gonna bring ‘em back to New York City,” he says. “Yup, I just said that.”

Gov Lite’s war with the city of Decatur will continue to amp up, as there are two more long months of campaigning to endure.

–>Last fall, with election year looming, Candidate Cagle took issue with Decatur and filed a complaint with the Immigration Enforcement Review Board, which I’ve described as an entity created by the state in 2011 to give anti-immigration activist D.A. King somewhere to file complaints.

Decatur Police Chief Mike Booker had issued a directive saying his officers were not to turn over people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless there was a valid judicial warrant to hold them — such as an active warrant for burglary or missing traffic court. The chief said it was a Fourth Amendment thing.

Casey, a veteran pol, chortled and rubbed his hands together in glee upon hearing this. He had himself a two-fer: He could appear tough on illegal immigration (hey, it worked for Trump) AND he could beat up on Decatur, the bluest burg in Georgia.

Cagle said Decatur was creating “sanctuaries for criminals.” If found “guilty” by the immigration panel, the city could be fined and lose state and federal funding, maybe a million dollars.

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On the GOP side, candidates Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp will face a July runoff as they continue their push to become the Republican nominee for governor.

The city has fired back, calling Cagle a bully, a panderer and even a bit of a girly man, which is a real dig because the GOP primary with all its guns and trucks is a real machismo rodeo.

“He wasn’t man enough to come here today and make these allegations and maybe even put his hand up and swear under oath to answer questions,” said Decatur’s attorney, Bryan Downs, at the immigration board hearing last month.

Team Casey said he was busy that day. Besides, he had a couple of state employees man the room during the hours of testimony. A Decatur resident and attorney named Tom Stubbs took issue with that and filed an ethics complaint against Casey. He said Cagle is having state employees work on his campaign, “which is like having taxpayers paint your house or cut your grass.”

State law says complaints may be filed by any “legally registered voter.” So who filed it? Was it Citizen Casey? Gov Lite Casey? Candidate Casey?

“Trying to parse whether he acted as an official or a citizen is silliness,” Cagle campaign official Brian Robinson told me. “Of course, Casey’s campaign is going to talk about his record in office and how he has kept his promises to fight illegal immigration.

“It’s what a campaign is,” Robinson continued. “Casey isn’t just talk. He’s going to take action on illegal immigration — and the examples go back years, not months.”

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, the leading conservative Republican for governor, and his wife Nita thank supporters at his election night watch party on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in his hometown of Gainesville. (ccompton@ajc.com/Curtis Compton)
Another Cagle operative said ICE detainers aren’t issued for Mickey Mouse crimes: “The reality is we’re talking about homicide, armed robbery, child molestation and kidnapping and similar offenses.”

Hmm. My BS detector dinged on this one. If the bad hombres were wanted for homicide, molestation or aggravated assault, there’d be something more than an ICE detainer out for them. There’d be criminal warrants.

I called immigration attorney Dustin Baxter, who said the vast majority of ICE detainer cases he sees are for driving without a licence.

“The gang bangers and murderers are not being released,” Baxter said. “That is dog whistle politics.”

Decatur’s immigration review board hearing finally was held Tuesday, May 15 — a full six months after the complaint was filed. Four days later, and just 72 hours before the polls opened, the review board released a proposed opinion saying Decatur violated Georgia code and is a “sanctuary city.”

Three times the ruling mentioned that Decatur would even let suspected terrorists walk free.

Candidate Gov Lite cheered, saying Decatur and other cities need to clean up their act, “or else there will be serious consequences.”

Decatur attorney Downs growled, “Ridiculous!” when asked about the references to terrorism. “They stretched and twisted what the (police chief’s) memo said.” Read more here. 

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Who was Dustin Inman?

• Letter below sent November 20, 2017 – it was not published.

Dear editor,

The AJC’s Bill Torpy has apparently chosen the crime of illegal immigration as a pet topic and constantly describes illegal aliens as “immigrants.” He also says illegals are ‘voiceless’ and is clearly against locking them up once they are captured.

 Not for the first time, I urge Mr. Torpy to come OTP to Woodstock and visit with what remains of our American family.

 In 2000, on Father’s Day weekend, an illegal alien killed our only child Dustin Inman and put my wife, Kathy, in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. That person had previous run-ins with Georgia police and was allowed to go free. He is hiding out in Mexico, unpunished, having escaped before local law enforcement could lock him up after killing our son.

 We can tell Mr. Torpy about being voiceless and who we think the victims really are in the illegal immigration mess.

Billy and Kathy Inman

Woodstock, Ga.

Atlanta Journal Constitution
November 20, 2017

Torpy at Large: Too bad Atlanta’s immigration hypocrisy isn’t illegal

Bill Torpy, photo AJC

Earlier this month, Mayor Kasim Reed boasted on his very active Twitter account that his town is immigrant friendly.

“Atlanta is proud to be a welcoming city,” he wrote. “Pleased to be a part of the Safe Cities Network offering legal representation for those individuals facing deportation.”

Fighting for the rights of immigrants is now an important battleground for Dems and progressives. Families are being torn apart through deportation. People who’ve lived and worked here for years suddenly disappear one day into a murky system that affords them few rights. And it’s President Donald Trump’s pet issue!

From a liberal standpoint, resistance is a noble fight. It’s standing up for the powerless.

So, it might come as a surprise that the city of Atlanta, that beacon of civil rights, that Sanctuary City Lite, is profiting greatly from Señor Trump’s roundup. (As it did from President Barack Obama’s roundup, as well.)

At any given time, the Atlanta City Detention Center in south downtown holds about 250 immigrants waiting to be booted from U.S. soil. The city receives $78 per each detained soul per night from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Multiply those numbers and that human suffering amounts to some real cash… MORE HERE

Bill Torpy, photo AJC

The liberal AJC posted a head-shaker column (it was in the hard copy too) by a writer named Bill Torpy at 6:00 AM today. We love the part where Torpy suggests that if an illegal alien waded across the Rio Grande, it might mean “his paperwork is messed up.” The AJC crew turned off comment ability about noon and you can see from the small box at the top that there were three comments already made. I breezed through reading two of them this morning.

This is the liberal AJC norm. Advocating for immigration enforcement is “anti-immigration.” How original.

Torpy clearly doesn’t know much about immigration, but he can Goggle the open borders Cato Institute. This isn’t his first try at anti-enforcement immigration commentary, his first one that I know of was even better. Via Twitter I have strongly urged the caring and oh-so-tolerant Mr. Torpy to go talk to Billy and Kathy Inman about immigration enforcement several times.

My friend Billy Inman posted a Tweet aimed at Torpy today too.

So far – no interest in American families that are forever separated by the crime of illegal immigration.

You may get a paywall, but here is the headline, link and first several paragraphs:

Torpy at Large: The real reason Casey Cagle is on Decatur’s case

by Bill Torpy – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Lt. Governor Casey Cagle this week again tore into Decatur, alleging that the liberal bastion is a hideaway — no, more like a sanctuary — for immigrants who have entered this country without legal permission.

Cagle filed a complaint with something called the Immigration Enforcement Review Board, a kangaroo court created by the state to give anti-immigration activist D.A. King something to do.

The Lt. Gov’s beef with the city is a Decatur police manual that says the cops aren’t supposed to turn over people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless there’s a judicial warrant to hold them.

In essence, Decatur is saying police will hang onto people they stop if they are wanted for something — an active warrant for fraud, burglary, not showing up to traffic court, etc. — but they won’t throw the person into the slammer on behalf of ICE simply if there’s a suspicion that they sneaked across the border without U.S. blessing.

Last year, Candidate Trump said he wanted to get rid of the “bad hombres” coming to our country, and Old Casey is deputizing himself in that roundup. In his correspondence, Cagle goes all law-and-order on this matter, talking about murders and dope dealing, and even sex cases.

Cagle’s complaint states that “sanctuary policies create sanctuaries for criminals,” and that he wants to “ensure that every criminal illegal alien encountered by our law enforcement officers is arrested, transferred to federal custody and deported.”

“Criminal illegal alien” might mean that an immigrant is peddling meth or gang banging. Or it might mean he’s a dude who waded across the Rio Grande, cuts your lawn and has his paperwork messed up…” HERE

Bill Torpy, photo AJC

AJC

Letters

June 8, 2018

Torpy dead wrong on his immigration conclusion

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.

In today’s media, the angry leftists who scream in American streets waving placards that literally demand an end of immigration enforcement are usually described as “civil rights” or “immigrant rights” groups. Never the obvious “anti-enforcement” groups.

A majority of Americans – including millions of immigrants – support honoring our rich tradition of immigration with the unapologetic enforcement of our very liberal immigration laws. The fact that media writers intentionally and deceptively depict us as being “anti-immigration” is an illustration of the inherent liberal bias and eagerness to smear honest Americans on the most critical issue of our time.

AJC writer Torpy seems to be “anti-accuracy.”

D.A. KING, MARIETTA, PRESIDENT, THE DUSTIN INMAN SOCIETY

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

Photo: AJC

The liberal AJC gang changed my letter before they printed it. I don’t write “illegal immigrant” – I call illegal aliens “illegal aliens” and used that term in my letter to the editor. So does the SCOTUS, IRS, federal law, state law, federal appellate courts…you get the picture. What is really amusing, is that the AJC writer, Bill Torpy, mentioned in the below letter had used the term “illegal aliens” in the AJC column I wrote about.

You can send a letter to the editor : Letters@AJC.com 

I wrote a short note of discontent and received a response with an explanation and apology. For which I am grateful.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Readers Write: July 16 (2017)

Torpy’s column suffers from bad timing

Bill Torpy’s recent foray into the topic of immigration enforcement and amnesty met with some excruciatingly bad timing “Nuanced views on immigration? No way!,” News, July 9.

He wrote three more-noble-than-thou tear-jerkers about a Marietta illegal immigrant church deacon and his illegal immigrant wife (both apparently with 19-year-old deportation orders) being taken into custody by ICE for deportation. Before the ink was dry, we saw news stories about an illegal immigrant being captured and charged after an attack that involved the rape of a mother while her young son looked on. The attackers also threw boiling water on the helpless woman. Then an obviously deranged illegal immigrant in Gwinnett has been charged with stabbing her husband and her children to death.

Then it was illegal immigrant prostitutes in Canton. And then it was illegal immigrant meth dealers with illegal weapons in Gainesville. A busy two weeks in “looking for a better life.”

Torpy also takes note of the 1986 “one-time” Republican immigration amnesty and pushes for a repeat. We can’t help but wonder how often he thinks we should conduct “one-time” amnesties for victims of borders. Or if American borders and immigration laws will be allowed to apply to “church deacons.”

D.A. KING, MARIETTA

HERE