UPDATE – September 3, 2012: I received a reply from the enforcement board! HOORAY! See the date of the reply and the text of the two letters HERE
In July I filed three separate complaints with the Georgia Immigration Enforcement Review Board. As of today’s date, I have received no official response or notification of receipt from the board. Because I phoned the agency appointed to handle administrative duties for the board (the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts – GDDA), I am aware that all of the complaints have been received.
I did not retain copies of the completed formal pre-printed complaint form provided by the GDAA. The blank version can be viewed here. I post below the attachments to the complaint forms with my explanation of the grounds for the complaints.
Readers should note that complaint #1 dated July 3, 2012 involves more than 1200 official governments, agencies and departments in Georgia that have not filed required reports on use of the no-cost E-Verify system for their own offices or those of their contractors. I miscalculated the number and entered my own estimate of “1170” agencies in the complaint. That estimate is in error and low.
Complaint # 2 is aimed at Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for violation of Georgia law intended to help ascertain the number and titles of agencies that administer “public benefits” as listed in state law and whether or not these agencies are in compliance with 2009 state law focused on use of the federal SAVE program and preventing ineligible applicants from obtaining taxpayer funded public benefits. My contention is that DCA has failed to collect and report required information from the various agencies affected by state law.
Complaint # 3 is against an uncounted number of official agencies – a list that entails forty-six pages – for violation of the Georgia law requiring them to report the information mentioned in complaint #2.
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COMPLAINT # 1
July 3, 2012 Attachment to formal complaint form – D.A. King
Please regard this attachment as part of my formal complaint against the attached list of entities for non-compliance with Georgia law (OCGA 13-10-91 – relevant language quoted below) designed to protect jobs and tax dollars. The attached list of agencies in violation is taken from the official Dept. of Audits and Reports website. It numbers approximately 1170 official taxpayer funded agencies.
I lack the time or resources to find all of the addresses and phone numbers of these agencies or names of the many department heads. I trust and request that the Immigration Enforcement Review Board will obtain that information and use its subpoena authority to obtain any pertinent information relevant to my lawful complaint.
OCGA 13-10-91
“(7)(A) Not later than December 31 of each year, a public employer shall submit a compliance report to the state auditor certifying compliance with the provisions of this subsection. Such compliance report shall contain the public employer’s federal work authorization program verification user number and date of authorization and the legal name, address, and federal work authorization program user number of the contractor and the date of the contract between the contractor and public employer…”
Thank you,
D.A. King
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COMPLAINT # 2
Attachment to DCA complaint of 23 July 2012 – D.A. King
Please regard this as my official complaint against the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for violation of OCGA 50-36-1.
50-36-1 requires DCA to collect specific information from official agencies that administer public benefits. That being: to list all of those public benefits and to report if there any of those benefits for which the respective agencies do not have authority from the federal government to use the Systematic Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) eligibility verification database.
By law, this information is supposed to be collected in an annual report due on or before January 1st of each year.
Text of the relevant code from 50-36-1
(i) It shall be unlawful for any agency or political subdivision to provide or administer any public benefit in violation of this Code section. On or before January 1 of each year, each agency or political subdivision which administers any public benefit shall provide an annual report to the Department of Community Affairs that identifies each public benefit, as defined in subparagraph (a)(3)(A) of this Code section, administered by the agency or political subdivision and a listing of each public benefit for which SAVE authorization for verification has not been received.
In my effort to obtain the information legally required to be collected, I have had several conversations with Mr. Jonathan Sharp at DCA who was kind enough to forward to me the information ( HERE and HERE ) – his office has collected regarding the above mandate. Apparently what is being collected and filed is not what Georgia law requires. Mr. Sharp has told me that his office is collecting information submitted by various agencies that identifies public benefits they deal with and then information on “unverified applicants” with a column in the report created for that purpose.
The word “applicants” does not appear anywhere in the code paragraph above and is not the intention of this part of the law. Further, Mr. Sharp informed me that his office was aware of the widespread practice of agencies reporting for a single day in the year and chose as the reporting day one that either had zero applications for public benefits of had no negative responses on queries to the federal SAVE program.
Mr. Sharp informed that his department regarded the laws as difficult to understand. For the record: I do not agree and the code is the product of an extensive vetting process by various legislative committees in the 2009 legislative session as included in HB2.
To be clear: DCA is not collecting the information required by law, nor is it collecting an annual report on the information it is gathering. I do not believe that Mr. Sharp is responsible for the alleged violation.
Background:
The Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act of 2006 (SB 529) created the requirement that all official Georgia agencies administering public benefits apply to obtain written federal authority to use the SAVE program and to verify the benefit eligibility of most applicants for public benefits. Those benefits were defined in the law with references to federal code (8USC1611 & 8USC1621) definitions of public benefits. In the interest of additional clarity and certainty, HB 2 of 2009 further defined public benefits by inserting a list of those benefits into state law.
Because it was obvious that most official agencies dealing with public benefits (such as municipalities, counties and others) were ignoring the law and there was no readily available official list of offices that administer public benefits to monitor compliance, HB 2 created the mandate that all administering agencies report the benefits they work with and if they have not obtained authority to use the SAVE system from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to use the SAVE database.
It is important to know that the SAVE office requires separate listings in agreements for each public in agreements to use the database. (Example: if the agency administers business licenses, housing loans and community transportation, each benefit must be listed in the official DHS MOU).
As it is currently being done, the DCA system provides no information on authority to use SAVE and is reporting information that is not required, apparently as the result of one day’s activity of an agencies work and leaving off the information for which the section of code was created.
DCA is in violation. The language above went into effect on January 1, 2010. With the correct institution of reporting requirements, DCA should have a 2010 and a 2011 report filed from each agency that administers public benefits as per the list in 50-36-1 and anyone who asks should be able to see if there are agencies administering public benefits for which they lack applicant verification authority.
I believe the current systems is not only illegal, but is also costing Georgia taxpayers money and further straining the state budget by likely rewarding illegal aliens who have escaped capture at our borders with public benefits.
Note: I do not believe that every agency that actually administers public benefits is even in compliance with the actual law or the illegal reporting system the DCA has put into place.
I ask that the Immigration Enforcement Review Board use its authority and subpoena power to investigate the above educated allegations.
Please find attached a report obtained from DCA last week that shows the information being collected and the agencies that are reporting. Please note the columns on the top and the heading on the right that reads: “Had Unverified Applicants.” Again, this is not the required information in Georgia law.
dak
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COMPLAINT # 3
Attachment to additional compliant of 23 July 2012
Please regard this as part of my official complaint against the agencies listed (and other official agencies as yet unknown) on the enclosed report (HERE) received from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) regarding violation of OCGA 50-36-1. My compliant also is aimed at the various department heads responsible.
The official agencies listed are in violation of 50-36-1 in that they are not submitting required information.
OCGA 50-36-1
(i) It shall be unlawful for any agency or political subdivision to provide or administer any public benefit in violation of this Code section. On or before January 1 of each year, each agency or political subdivision which administers any public benefit shall provide an annual report to the Department of Community Affairs that identifies each public benefit, as defined in subparagraph (a)(3)(A) of this Code section, administered by the agency or political subdivision and a listing of each public benefit for which SAVE authorization for verification has not been received.
Agencies are required to file an annual report which public benefits they administer and then to list any relevant public benefits for which they do not have authority to use the federal SAVE program to verify applicant eligibility. This is not happening.
They are instead reporting on public benefits administered and whether they have “Ineligible Applicants.” Information provided to me by DCA reflects that many of these agencies are using a one-day sample of information on whether they have applicants who are ineligible, with days selected on which to report that do not have any applicants for public benefits or any negative quires to SAVE.
I also request that the Board use its power to subpoena information on a complete list of official agencies administering public benefits in Georgia as I have reason to believe that there are agencies that are not using SAVE as required by state law of even filing a report to DCA with the incorrect request for information (please see other complaint with today’s date).
I ask that the Board obtain official reports for 2010 and 2011 containing data as intended by law from department heads to compare to current information as well as to replace the reports on file that were submitted in violation of requirements in 50-36-1.
dak
