FAST FACT: 500,000 foreigners overstayed their visas last year.

The below is from Insider advantage Georgia today on Georgia’s Senator David Perdue. This is in addition to the fact that he stepped up to end consideration of GALEO’s Dax Lopez for federal judge!

Insider Advantage Georgia:

“In another Perdue-related development yesterday, Georgia’s junior senator spoke out forcefully on the state of the nation’s broken exit-entry visa system. He said:
“A visa entry-exit tracking system has been required by law for 20 years, yet it still does not exist. That is unacceptable. Today, (the Department of Homeland Security) cannot even tell us how many people in our country have overstayed their visas. One of the first inquiries I made of the DHS was about its progress in collecting data on this very issue. Nearly eight months later, DHS finally released a shocking report that shows more than half a million individuals unlawfully overstayed their visas in 2015. Equally as shocking, the federal government is only investigating roughly 3,000 of those individuals who are here illegally. This number of overstayed visas includes hundreds of people from countries with significant Islamic extremist movements and confirms that our immigration system is broken and presents a dire threat to our national security.” During a Senate Judiciary hearing in April 2015, Senator Perdue asked DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to provide the committee with data on visa overstays. This week DHS released its visa overstay report that showed nearly 527,127 people overstayed their visas which expired in 2015, including: 1,435 individuals from Pakistan; 681 from Iraq; 564 from Iran; 440 from Syria; and 219 from Yemen.”

Hooray for Senator Perdue! More, please!

All on Politics
January 17, 2016

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION – The left joins the Republican Establishment against conservatives: Battle raging in Georgia on Obama’s illegal alien activist nominee for federal judge

“There is a battle raging in Georgia over an Obama nominee for federal judge in the state’s northern district. But many conservative Georgians are unaware of the consequences of losing. The leftist illegal alien lobby, working with the Establishment Republicans, have challenged the voter base on confirming Obama’s choice for a federal judge who would oversee federal cases in the state. Including immigration cases.

Aware members of the GOP’s conservative base are strongly opposed to the nomination of Dax Lopez, who is now a state court judge in metro-Atlanta, largely because he was a prominent political advocate against the enforcement of immigration law. That’s a confrontational pick during an election year that is dominated by talk of amnesty, illegal immigration and black-market labor….” READ THE REST HERE

Led by the corporate-funded GALEO, activist, anti-English groups in Georgia are threatening a federal lawsuit against at least two Georgia counties if November ballots are not printed in a foreign language.

GALEO has been active in pushing for Spanish language ballots for at least two years and lobbies in the Georgia Capitol against English as Georgia’s official language. A 1996 law designates English as the state’s official language, but many government services are still provided in multiple foreign languages. The written exam for a Georgia drivers license is offered in eleven languages.

“No county in Georgia offers ballots or voting materials in a language other than English. But the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) and New York-based Latino Justice have asked Gwinnett and Hall counties to provide Spanish ballots, voter guides, poll workers and website information, citing a provision of the federal Voting Rights Act” reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

A recently resigned GALEO board member and one-time treasurer and fund-raiser, Dax Lopez, 

has been nominated for a federal judgeship in Georgia. Neither of Georgia’s Republican senators have announced their decision on allowing the nomination to move forward.

The Atlanta NPR affiliate, WABE News reports

“The organization’s (GALEO) executive director, Jerry Gonzalez, has written to Gwinnett and Hall counties, both with large Spanish-speaking communities, asking that bilingual voting materials be provided.

“We have had to provide, at our own expense, language access to voters. However, it is the county’s responsibility to do that,” Gonzalez said.

His organization is pointing to a provision in the Voting Rights Act that guarantees bilingual voting materials for Puerto Ricans.

GALEO executive director, “Angry Jerry” Gonzalez

The AJC also reports that GALEO’s executive director has threatened a lawsuit if Hall and Gwinnett counties do not cede to the demands.

If GALEO and other groups pushing for foreign language ballots were to file a lawsuit against the Georgia county governments the case would go to the Northern District federal court where GALEO’s former board member Lopez has been nominated to serve as judge.

We cannot find Georgia media reports of this potential conflict.

Breitbart is covering the on the Lopez nomination controversy in Georgia….

Opponents of Lopez nomination make their case  

Jay Bookman blog
January 13, 2016

NOTE (from jay Bookman): In a recent column, I criticized Georgia anti-immigration activists who are trying to block the confirmation of DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez to the federal bench. Below is the response to that column by D.A. King of Cobb County.

By D.A. King

Writing on the Obama judicial nomination of GALEO’s Dax Lopez, Jay Bookman’s smear attack on me and my friend Phil Kent in the AJC serves as a brilliant reminder of the mindset of most liberals on immigration and politics.

Bookman makes it clear that he looks at the world through the lens of race, skin color and ethnicity. Not only does he intentionally muddle those categories, he assumes that the rest of us suffer from the same disability. We don’t.

“Hispanic” is not the opposite of “white” (or black) and is not a race. Neither is “illegal.” Nor am I “anti-immigrant.” Like most of the mainstream, this proud American supports legal, sustainable and reasonable levels of immigration that benefits the United States and protects Americans. Including immigrants. My adopted sister is an immigrant. That sacred term legally describes someone who entered the U.S. lawfully.

Like the late Barbara Jordan, it is my long-held – and public – position that we cannot honor real immigrants or our immigration system unless and until we adhere to a policy of an equal application of our immigration laws. Bookman provides useful insight by labeling that view “extremist.”

Since it seems to matter, as a political independent, I am also a member of the Federalist Society. So is Phil Kent. I expect that more than a few of the many Republican legislators and sheriffs who have written to our U.S. senators in opposition to Lopez are as well.

Bookman’s attack is yet another attempt from the far-left to blur the lines between immigrants and what the federal government, including the Supreme Court, refers to as “illegal aliens.” I personally target illegal employers more than illegal aliens. It would be helpful if Jay Bookman did the same.

The panels from which Georgia’s U.S. senators accepted vetting information on Lopez mostly failed to include information easily accessed on the GALEO website. I am proud to have provided both senate offices with facts and statements taken directly from that source after President Obama nominated Lopez for a lifetime seat on the federal bench.

The confirmation of Dax Lopez is not being opposed because of his ethnicity, and also contrary to what Bookman writes, opposition is directly connected to what Lopez has said and done. As a director of the GALEO corporation for eleven years, state court judge Dax Lopez’s position as treasurer there and his willingness to not only help form and advance the agenda of that group while assisting in raising operating funds does not a “conservative” make. It should be enough to drive most conservatives -including Republicans – away from silent acceptance of his confirmation.

Since 2003, the corporate-funded GALEO has viciously condemned any law enforcement office that dares to enforce immigration laws. Dax Lopez’s statement that he “agrees with their mission” must always be viewed with the knowledge that GALEO Inc. has marched in the streets of Georgia in opposition to enforcement, lobbied against state E-Verify laws designed to protect legal workers, lobbied against local jails honoring ICE holds for criminal aliens and vehemently opposed voter ID. And they lobby against English as our official language.

No wonder activist Lopez is not speaking to the press.

Note, the added links are all mine…dak

The Atlanta Journal Constitution 

Letters to the editor

January 13, 2016

Pro-enforcement is not “anti-immigrant”

Jay Bookman (“Snub of judge will echo,” Opinion, Jan. 10) seems to look at the world through the lens of race, skin color and ethnicity. Apparently he assumes that the rest of us suffer from the same disability. We don’t.

Like the late Barbara Jordan, it is my long-held position that we cannot honor real immigrants unless we adhere to a policy of an equal application of our immigration laws. It is not “anti-immigrant” to demand immigration enforcement.

Bookman provides useful insight by labeling that view “extremist.

Confirmation of GALEO’s Dax Lopez for federal judge is not being opposed because of his ethnicity, but because of what he has said and done as a director of the GALEO corporation for 11 years.

Dax Lopez’s statement that he “agrees with their mission” must always be viewed with the knowledge that, since 2003, the corporate-funded GALEO Inc. has viciously condemned law enforcement officers who dare to enforce immigration laws. GALEO has marched in the streets of Georgia 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 voter ID. And they lobby against English as our official language.

No wonder Lopez is not speaking to the press.

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

 AJC LIBERAL ENDORSES ANTI-ENFORCEMENT OBAMA NOMINEE FOR FEDERAL JUDGE – ATTACKS ALL RULE OF LAW CONSERVATIVES!

The liberal, anti-borders AJC propagandist, Jay Bookman, endorses GALEO’s Dax Lopez for lifetime seat on the federal bench in Georgia, while smearing yours truly and Phil Kent. Letters on the attack and Dax Lopez as a federal judge should be sent to letters@AJC.com. 150 words or less. Silence is consent.

Snub of judge will echo
Sunday edition, Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Jay Bookman

State Court Judge Dax Lopez, nominated to the federal bench by President Obama, is by almost all accounts a conservative Republican, appointed to his current job by a conservative governor. Before joining the judiciary he worked in Republican causes, and is a member of the Federalist Society, viewed as a pipeline of sorts for ambitious conservative lawyers.

“As conservatives, we recognize that the constitutional obligation of a judge is to decide cases based on the text of the law and not policy preferences,” many of the state’s most prominent conservative lawyers said in a recent letter endorsing Lopez. “We know that Judge Lopez views the law the same way.”

Yet at the behest of people such as Phil Kent, a man with a long history of racist writings, and D.A. King, a well-known anti-immigrant extremist, the nomination of Lopez as a federal judge is being blocked. U.S. senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue have refused to allow the Lopez nomination to be considered by their Senate colleagues, although late this week Isakson showed signs of possibly relenting.

It’s a remarkable situation, and unless reversed it stands as a stark illustration of who really runs the Republican Party these days and how short-sighted they have become.

To justify their opposition, his critics don’t take issue with anything that the judge has ever said or written. They cite no problem with his legal training at Vanderbilt, nor with his record as a state court judge since 2010. They point to one thing: his former membership on the board of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, a group that has advocated on behalf of Latinos.

For example, when King condemns Lopez as “yet another Obama-appointed activist judge,” as he did in a recent radio interview with Tim Bryant with WGAU in Athens, the GALEO membership is the sole piece of evidence offered in defense of that charge. (Interestingly, conservative lawyers appointed by both Isakson and Perdue to vet judicial nominees reached a very different conclusion, enthusiastically recommending Lopez.)

The world is changing; Georgia is changing. White Georgians comprised 68 percent of registered voters in 2004, 59 percent in 2012 and at that rate will be 55 percent of this year’s electorate. Hispanic-American children make up roughly 15 percent of pubic school students in Georgia, double the percentage in 2003-04, and white students make up roughly 42 percent, down from 51 percent. The change those children represent is inexorable.

And the Dax Lopez story is the type of story that has legs. If his nomination is blocked, either by Georgia senators or their Republican colleagues in Washington, it would be the sort of story that gets told and retold. Imagine yourself as an ambitious Georgian of Hispanic descent looking for a party in which to make your mark. You look at Lopez, a man who worked hard, got an education, played by the rules and did all the right things. And this is what happens to him.
People would remember. They would remember that GOP leaders ignored the pleadings even of their party’s most influential lawyers, their own advisers, and allowed their actions to be dictated by the likes of King and Kent.

They would remember.

GOOD NEWS!

Dustin Inman Society end of year alert – We need your help, please consider a contribution if you are able

As we all take time to reflect on the past year, we offer our sincere wishes for a happy and healthy new year, 2016 for you and your family!

WE NEED HELP PLEASE!
Please consider an end-of-year donation. We will put your tax-deductible gift to good use in 2016. You can click HERE to see how to help us stay active for another year – if you are able. Instructions on how to donate also HERE and (scroll to bottom) HERE.

GOOD NEWS!
While 2015 was a rough year for Americans who take a pro-enforcement position on immigration and border security, we are happy and proud to let you know of an apparent and very important victory.

Since the day Barack Obama nominated the anti-borders GALEO’s Dax Lopez for a lifetime seat in Georgia as a federal judge, we have been fighting to educate the public and both of our U.S. Senators on the many reasons that Dax Lopez’s position on the board of directors of GALEO should disqualify him from any consideration to become a federal judge.

We have been in constant contact with our U.S. Senators, as they both have the power to stop the confirmation process. I have personally travelled to Washington DC and spoken with several very earnest and helpful senior staffers for Senator David Perdue both in Washington and here in Atlanta. Please see our “The Illegal Alien Lobby: A Beginners Guide to GALEO” that we shared with both U.S. Senator’s offices and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. HERE

Thank you to all of you who helped us by contacting our U.S. Senators offices with a “NO TO DAX LOPEZ!” message!

We are proud to announce that it appears we have won. Inside sources and several news outlets – including the AJC – are confirming the same impressions we have from our contact with senate offices: it looks like GALEO’s Dax Lopez will not be confirmed as a federal judge. This is a direct result of Americans like you speaking up with constant pressure! THANK YOU! We have been doing the happy dance for weeks! The illegal alien lobby is furious!

2016
Our projects for 2016 are to provide a continuous education on the efforts here in Georgia to stop the practice of rewarding illegal aliens with a drivers license that looks almost exactly like what you use to vote, to insure that information on criminal aliens released onto the streets of Georgia by the federal government is made public (SB 6), to stop the Georgia state senate practice of unrecorded votes (SR674) and to allow Georgians the ability to vote on amending our state constitution to make English the official language of government in Georgia (SR675).

**** UPDATE, January, 20, 2016: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED Dax Lopez nomination process for federal judge is eneded- see here and here.

This entry is dedicated to Dustin Inman and to Kate Steinle and the uncounted thousands of Americans who have been killed by criminal aliens released by local jails.

The activist GALEO works in partnership with the ACLU

GALEO: “Since Fulton County is the first jurisdiction in the state with such a recommendation, GALEO would also like to encourage other jurisdictions in the state to adopt similar policies and stop honoring the hold requests from ICE.”

Below is a GALEO press release boasting of their (successful)

lobbying effort in Fulton County, Georgia against the sheriff honoring ICE detainers.

Dax Lopez had been on the GALEO board for ten years at the time. 

From the GALEO website:

GALEO Commends Fulton County Commissioners for urging Sheriff to decline ICE hold requests
2014-09-03 12.41.43

GALEO Commends Fulton County Commissioners for urging Sheriff to decline ICE hold requests

PRESS Statement: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Media Contact: Jerry González, GALEO Executive Director Tel.: (404) 745-2580 / Email: Jerry@galeo.org

September 3, 2014 (ATLANTA, GA)- Fulton County Commission scheduled a vote today on a Resolution urging the Fulton County Sheriff to “implement a policy to decline detainer requests from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of GALEO, testified today before the Fulton County Commission urging them to adopt the proposed resolution which was co-sponsored by four County Commissioners and led by Commissioner Joan Gardner. The Fulton County Commission had heard from community members of SONG, GLAHR and 9 to 5, in previous weeks of public comment period educating the commissioners on the issue and why the immigration holds were bad public policy and bad for our communities.

Gonzalez, issued the following statement after the Fulton County Commission passed a resolution, 6-0, today urging the Fulton County Sheriff to decline ICE hold requests:

“On behalf of GALEO, I would like to commend Fulton County Commissioners’ leadership and resolution urging the Fulton County Sheriff to stop honoring the ICE hold requests in order to keep families together but to also enhance public safety. We urge the Fulton County Sheriff to move forward quickly and implement the recommendation.

Since Fulton County is the first jurisdiction in the state with such a recommendation, GALEO would also like to encourage other jurisdictions in the state to adopt similar policies and stop honoring the hold requests from ICE.”

About Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO)

GALEO’s mission is to increase civic engagement and leadership of the Latino/Hispanic community across Georgia.

CORE BELIEFS: Inclusive, Non-Partisan, Diversity, Responsive

 

More? Here is the 2006 page from the GALEO website on which the anti-enforcement corporation passes along information on how to defeat ICE hold requests (note, April 15, 2020: original GALEO site link now broken, we have replaced it with a link to the same “toolkit” from another anti-enforcement group):

“The All-in-One Guide to Defeating ICE Hold Requests (aka Detainers)“

Federal judge nominee Dax Lopez had been on th GALEO board for two years by then.

GALEO TRANSPORT OF ILLEGAL ALIENS? – *THAT IS A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW:

In March of 2010, GALEO joined with other illegal alien advocacy groups and organized bus transportation for 2,200 people – including many self-described illegal aliens – from Atlanta to Washington DC for a larger protest march against immigration enforcement. The demand then and now was for an end to immigration enforcement and a repeat of the 1986 amnesty. A revealing Atlanta TV station news video of the stated agenda of the trip as the busses were being boarded for departure can be seen here – including an interview with Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO’s only Executive Director since it’s incorporation in 2003. By then, Dax Lopez had been on the GALEO board for six years.

GALEO boasts of involvement in organizing this trip on its website:

“In March 2010, GALEO was one of three groups that organized travel to the historic March on DC for immigration reform. Over 2,200 people from Georgia joined over 200,000 people in Washington D.C. urging for immigration reform.”

It is a violation of federal law to transport an illegal alien.

8USC1324:

Bringing in and harboring certain aliens
(a) Criminal penalties
(1)
(A) Any person who—
(i) knowing that a person is an alien, brings to or attempts to bring to the United States in any manner whatsoever such person at a place other than a designated port of entry or place other than as designated by the Commissioner, regardless of whether such alien has received prior official authorization to come to, enter, or reside in the United States and regardless of any future official action which may be taken with respect to such alien;
*(ii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law;
(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;
(iv) encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law; or
(v)
(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or
(II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,…

WITH DAX LOPEZ ON ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS, GALEO ESCORTS SELF-PROCLAIMED ILLEGAL ALIENS INTO THE GEORGIA STATE SENATE CHAMBER TO OPPOSE PASSAGE OF SB 529 – March 2006 

GALEO’s Executive Director Jerry Gonzalez says legislators should consider illegal aliens “constituents.”

*Note from D.A. King: I was sitting in the senate gallery watching this happen. I knew it was coming from emails shared with me and from the event organizing posting on the GALEO website. Note from DA: GALEO has removed the original event post from the internet. May 4, 2020

Hispanics flood Capitol to protest immigration bill
By Carlos Campos, Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 8, 2006

Dozens of Hispanic immigrants flooded the halls of the state Capitol today to voice their concerns over a bill under debate in the Senate that seeks to crack down on undocumented workers in Georgia.

Organizers of a morning rally on the Capitol steps urged the crowd of about 100 – mostly Hispanic men – to go inside to urge legislators to vote against Senate Bill 529, known as the “Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.”

About half of the crowd lingered outside, in part because a photo identification is required to enter the Capitol building.

Inside, many of the immigrants – some of them whom acknowledged they are undocumented – crowded hallways outside of the Senate chamber. Many of them wore blue jeans, t-shirts, stained painter’s pants, cowboy hats and ball caps, standing out from the suit-and-tie Capitol crowd that usually gathers in the halls.

Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials guided several men through a legislative phone-and-photo directory, helping them pick out certain legislators with whom to speak. Many busily filled out message forms for legislators in hopes of getting them to come out of the Senate to hear them out.

Gonzalez said some of the men in the crowd who speak English were helping the Spanish-speakers to communicate with legislators.

“We want to put a face with immigrants,” Gonzalez said. “Many of these immigrants live in their districts. Legislators should consider them their constituents.”

About 1 p.m., when debate over Sen. Chip Rogers’ (R-Woodstock) bill began, the majority of the immigrants moved up to the public gallery overlooking the floor of the Senate to watch the debate. Pablo Lopez, 28, of Gwinnett County, took a day off from his landscaping job to watch the debate in person.

Lopez, who acknowledged that he is an undocumented worker from Mexico, said he thought it was important to let legislators know immigrants are disturbed by the bill…

Read the complete article.