Immigration politics are shaping primary races for two state Senate seats in Georgia, allowing local voters to impose their priorities on their politicians until the polls close on June 9.
In State Senate District 54, GOP voters can choose between newcomer Dan McEntire or incumbent Sen. Chuck Payne, who voted with Democrats to block a law that would make it easier for people to recognize the illegal migrants who get state-approved drivers’ licenses.
In State Senate District 31, west of Atlanta, voters can pick between a local former mayor, Boyd Austin, and Jason Anavitarte, a “founding friend” of the Latino pressure group, GALEO, and a favorite of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
AnavitArte dismissed his member of the GALEO group, which has long opposed curbs on migration into Georgia. “As a Latino officeholder, I was once a member, but disagreed with them on many of the policy positions like outlined above and left that organization because of that,” he told Breitbart News.
But AnavitArte’s membership in GALEO is a problem, in part because it has opposed immigration updates pushed by reformers, including Sen. David Perdue. In 2016, Perdue blocked President Barack Obama’s appointment of another GALEO member, Dax Lopez, to a lifetime judgeship.
In May, Anavitarte did not mention illegal migration on his website. After responding to questions in late May from Breitbart News, however, he added a section, saying, “I believe in curbing illegal immigration through any and all means necessary.”
Anaviterte has endorsed several federal anti-migration proposals but has declined to identify any recent or new state-level measure that would curb migration into Georgia. He told Breitbart News:
I do not support open borders. I oppose amnesty and illegal immigration. I even believe there are serious loopholes in legal immigration that can be improved to strengthen the American workforce. Most of these are federal issues and we have limited options to remedy on a state level.
He told Breitbart News that he “would support that type of legislation if elected,” referring to the 2009 HB2 law.
That law was pushed by D.A. King, the founder of the Dustin Inman Society, which champions the enforcement of existing migration laws that help Americans to earn decent wages. “It is easy enough to say you support a bill after it has passed: The question is, will you support enforcement of the bills?” responded King responded to AnavitArte’s statement. “These laws are not being enforced,” he added.
“As a state legislator, we are very limited in the things we can do” about immigration, said rival Boyd Austin, a former mayor who is running for the open 31st district seat. So, he said, “one of the primary areas we should focus our attention on is sanctuary cities.” He explained:
“We’ve had several, large and small [sanctuary cities], in Georgia … [The legislature should] get rid of the magnets [for illegal aliens] and the ability for them to hide in plain sight, start taking away their state funding, and hit them in the pocketbook where it hurts.”
“I am not the establishment’s candidate,” Austin said. “The Georgia chamber [of commerce] has endorsed my opponent. He has powerful people who want to continue his [migration] process, with a lot of money coming from out of state,” said Austin, who is a former president of the Georgia Municipal Association. Read more here.
“We cannot, honor the rich tradition of immigration in this country. We cannot honor, real, legal immigrants, unless we enforce the law that says “You just can’t come here when you want to.”
D.A. King
Transcript from Rev.com. D.A. King speech to Carroll County Tea Party, Sept. 10, 2011. Carrollton, GA.
Announcer:
If their voices crack, if their hearts get filled with emotion, understand that it’s because we’re heartbroken about what is happening to our great nation and why we are so passionate about restoring her to our founding principles.
Announcer:
Our next speaker is a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration. He has appeared on numerous radio and TV programs such as Fox News and CNN. As a subject matter expert, he has testified before a congressional committee on education and the American workforce, and has been a guest lecturer at several Georgia universities. He is the founder and president of the Dustin Inman Society, which was named in memory of Dustin Inman, a 16 year old boy from Woodstock, Georgia, who was killed by an illegal immigrant on Father’s Day weekend of the year 2000. The society is a coalition that is dedicated to educating the American public, the media, and elected officials on the consequences of illegal immigration, illegal employment, illegal administration of public benefits, our unsecured borders, and the breakdown of the rule of law in our Republic. Please note the emphasis on the word illegal. Please join with me and give a Carroll County, Tea Party welcome to Marine Corps veteran, Mister D.A. King.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
Thank you for the [inaudible 00:02:01]. Thank you very much, everybody. I- i, is this on?
Announcer:
It is now.
Audience:
It is now.
D.A. King:
I’m gonna stay way away from that microphone. Thank you again very much. …my name is D.A. King and normally when I speak to… a crowd who has never heard me before, I always try to explain why I introduce myself with my initials. And it’s because my mom named me Donald Arthur King… which makes me Don King so…
Audience:
(laughs)
D.A. King:
I try to do that so people don’t get really worried about the boxing promoter having gone even uglier, completely bald. Um, I’m very, very glad to be here today a- and what I do is I drive around the state of Georgia and go to Washington and try to educate people on the consequences of illegal immigration. And I normally start out by saying two things, and today’s not going to be any different, right now while we are here on this absolutely gorgeous Georgia morning… there are border patrol agents in the desert in Arizona and Texas, and New Mexico who are risking their lives to accomplish their sworn duty to secure our borders. And I never, ever want to speak without recognizing the fact that the border patrol agents are the unsung heroes in this country.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
Thank you!
D.A. King:
I remember where I was a year ago, tomorrow… and having been to the border five or six times, I can tell you, that right now, 10 years after the horror of 9/11, people are coming into our country illegally and uninspected from all corners of the world, including some countries with known terrorist ties. So when you hear the term “illegal immigration”, please do not only picture in your head, someone who comes here from a very, very poor country trying to better their life, as willing to cut the grass for $10 an hour. Illegal immigration is a crime and it is a threat to this country.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King: The other thing I try to do is to explain something that’s very important to me, and that is the way that people who, can be described only as anti-enforcement on our immigration laws, tried to twist the English language. And what they do, is they try to make you believe that if you are against illegal immigration, then somehow you are against immigration or immigrants.
D.A. King:
So I’m here to tell you, the federal definition of the word immigrant, is somebody who comes to the United States lawfully, with the intention of permanent residence. Someone who comes here illegally to make a buck and go home, is not an immigrant. Someone who comes here illegally, is not an immigrant. People who stand up and say “Illegal immigration is wrong”, are not anti-immigrant. The correct, proper and legal term for somebody who is here illegally is illegal alien. An alien is simply someone who is here, and is not a citizen. My adopted sister, is an immigrant who happened to come to us from Korea. Many of the people who support the Dustin Inman Society are real legal immigrants. I have several friends in the audience right now who are married to immigrants and are immigrants.
D.A. King: I also never talk about this, without making something very, very clear. When I stand up at a room and talk about illegal immigration, people trying to silence me by calling us, and people like myself, a lot of very, very ugly names. So I try to make my agenda as crystal clear as possible before I educate people. And I do have an agenda, and I’m curious to know if it matches yours. I was taught as a child of the sixties, that justice in America is an equal application of the law, and that no one is above the rule of law in this country.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
I was taught that the fundamental duty of the Federal government of the United States of America, is to secure our borders. If they don’t secure our borders, what else are they good for?
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King: I’m really, really big on sustainable, reasonable levels of immigration. I’m gonna to get to that in a moment. But one of my biggest concerns and one of the reasons that I quit my business, and I do what I do, is that I can see our country slipping away from us, and I can see the one thing that binds together, one of the most diverse nations on the planet. So part of my agenda is this… I believe that English should be the common and official language-
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
Of the United States of America, I don’t care who knows it. (applause) I thought so. Thank you! [inaudible 00:07:42]. I came here and there’s a couple of thank-yous that I have to do. How many people know that in this last session in the Georgia legislature… that we passed and governor Deal signed into law, a bill called “House bill 87”, Georgia illegal immigration reform and enforcement act.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
Let me tell you what folks. Was I ha- [inaudible 00:08:09]. So thank-yous go out to some people who are here today. Uh, I-I saw, uh, s-s-s, uh, senator Seabaughout here and I wanted to personally say thank you from here for his fine work in the senate. Bill Hamrick your senator from here.[inaudible 00:08:29] and work for the senate, and we could be paying for that. I will say my [inaudible 00:08:31].
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
The entire Georgia legislature worked very, very hard against millions of dollars worth of lobbying, from people who wanted to stop the state of Georgia from enforcing the immigration and employment, and benefits laws that our federal government is refusing to do. I urge you to please… please insist that the law, we all worked so hard on in the capitol this last session, is enforced to the very, very letter of the law. The United States of America takes in, more real legal immigration than any nation on this planet. We take in more than a million, real, legal immigrants a year… a million! Traditional levels of immigration are around 250 to 300 thousand. We are also taking more than a million and a half guest workers. The people who lobby against, enforcing our immigration laws are doing so for the dollar. Please remember that. When we go to the capitol and we go into committee and we say, “Mister chairman, here’s a reason we should pass this law”.
D.A. King:
It’s not just the, the, the ACLU, that lobbies against us. A lot of people don’t wanna hear this, but I’m telling you, it was the chamber of commerce, and the agriculture industry who put up the biggest and most effective fight, for us to get our bill through. Remember who your enemies are when it comes to enforcement of immigration laws. And I say that because next year is an election year and you, we got people running for president now, who are saying that they will… grant, some kind of legalization plan, if they can make us believe the borders are secure.
D.A. King:
So I have a question. By a raise of hands, how many people here know that in 1986, the United States of America issued a one time amnesty legalization program to about three million people, who were here illegally? Less than half the crowd, that’s pretty normal. What we were told in 1986 folks, was that we have a very, very difficult illegal immigration problem, that there are people here illegally, lowering American wages and taking American jobs and the only way we’re going to be able to fix the problem, is that we’re going to make these people who came here illegally, legal… And then folks, we’re gonna secure the American border and we’re going to punish the employers who’ve hired these illegal people.
D.A. King:
So the amnesty went through, Ronald Reagan signed it, we legalized three million people and now we’re here. It’s here in 2011, you can judge for yourself if the border is secure… It’s not I’ve been there… And you can judge for yourself whether or not an employer has a better chance of being punished for hiring illegal labor, or being struck by lightning. I’m telling you, it’s the latter. We cannot, honor the rich tradition of immigration in this country. We cannot honor, real, legal immigrants, unless we enforce the law that says “You just can’t come here when you want to”. If we do not enforce our employment law,…when we have soaring unemployment. If we allow illegal labor to be hired, while there are Americans and real legal immigrants, standing in the unemployment line, we are not fulfilling the duties that we were given as citizens.
D.A. King:
I plead with you to note what any candidate says, that’s running for president of the United States, are on immigration. Because immigration is not, repeat, not a separate issue, from most other issues in this country. It’s not a separate issue from education. It’s not a separate issue from health care. It’s not, a separate issue from the budget dollars, your taxes. The governor of Georgia is using a figure of $2.4 billion, that Georgia spends every year to educate, provide healthcare and incarceration to people who have no business to be here, and their children. I am pleading with you to please pay attention in the p-presidential elections, and make the candidates say this, “I will never, ever again, allow a legalization program by any name, to legalize people who are here illegally”. The answer is that we enforce the law, and we watch people go home because they can’t get a job, they can’t get a benefit, and they can’t get a surface.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
And to close with this. Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Right now we take in, a million immigrants in here and another million and a half guest workers. Now the jobs report, that came out September 2nd, showed zero jobs growth… zero. It is very clear to anybody with the sense that God gave appropriately to us, that Obama has to go.
Audience:
(cheer)
D.A. King: I plead with you to replace him, with someone who pays attention to the immigrant and honors immigration, and enforces our immigration laws. And remember this, 10 years after 9/11, the people coming into this country on a visa are not monitored. We do not now have, even 10 years after 9/11, a system in place, in the greatest country of the world, that monitors when people leave this country. Once you get a visa to the country of the United States, unless you rob a bank or they’re convicted of murder or rape. Your chances of getting arrested and shipped out of the country are practically nil.
D.A. King:
I am in great envy and appreciation of everybody who, as a member of the Tea Party, will come out here, on a Saturday morning or meet on Tuesday night, on your own, because you’re trying to save the country that was passed on down to us. I plead with you to remember that immigration and illegal immigration are as much a part of what we need to pay attention to as any other issue. And I plead with you to remember that in the presidential election.
D.A. King:
I am very grateful for your time, I don’t wanna tell you this. Right now we have somewhere between 12 and 20 million people in this country who are here in violation of our law. When I started this, I went to the Georgia capitol and I watched about 250 illegal aliens, marching in front of the Capitol, waving flags before our country, demanding a Georgia driver’s license. Demanding that we make them legal, and demanding the right to vote. Now I’m gonna tell you something. Last month, the month before, there were 10,000 illegal aliens, marching in front of the Georgia Capitol. Making the same demand, that we make them legal and give them the right to vote.
D.A. King:
Remember this! If a president of any party legalizes the people here in this country, it will be the largest addition to the progressive, far left Democrat voting rolls that you have ever seen in your life.
Audience:
(applause)
D.A. King:
On our immigration laws, if you ain’t mad, it’s cause you ain’t paying attention. I’m very grateful for your time. Thank you very, very much.
DIS educational poster from 2015/2016 during the Dax Lopez confirmation battle. Lopez was denied the confirmation by U.S. Senator David Perdue because of his association with the anti-enforcement GALEO Inc.
The below letter to Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan was forwarded here this morning by DIS friend Mr. Robert Trent. If I find time later, I will insert some informational links. (I found the time. Links added 1:00 PM)
I am a retired Senior Special Agent of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (USINS). I have served on metropolitan area drug, and organized crime task forces for many years and have supervised special agents assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. In addition, I spent ten years as a uniformed border patrol agent assigned to both the northern and southern borders. My final assignment was as the Assistant Director, Enforcement Training, U.S. Immigration Officer Academy, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA.
Because of a heads up from my friend D.A. King at the Dustin Inman Society, I have personally researched Anavitarte and can see that he was deeply involved with a leftist group known as ‘GALEO’ that is dedicated to working against immigration enforcement both here and in Washington D.C. Anavitarte is listed on the GALEO website as a ‘Founding Friend’ – along with that all-American luminary, Jane Fonda.
A personal endorsement of a candidate who was part of the GALEO effort to fight not only immigration enforcement but also voter ID, official English legislation and lobbied directly in the Gold Dome against legislation that required the use of the E-Verify system to protect public jobs for a legal workforce is stunning in it’s lack of logic or conservative values.
The AJC reported that in 2006, Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO’s executive director actually took admitted illegal aliens into the state Capitol and then into the senate chamber in an effort to kill then pending SB529, a bill aimed at our illegal immigration crisis that became law. Anavitarte continued his association with GALEO for another three years.
D.A. King has done a stellar job over the years documenting the anti-enforcement activities of GALEO Inc. He provided his detailed research to Senator David Perdue in 2015 during the confirmation process of an Obama nominee for federal court, Dax Lopez, who was also a former GALEO board member. Senator Perdue terminated that confirmation process citing his concern with the GALEO connection.
Part of the statement Sen. Perdue released in early 2016 announcing his disapproval of the candidate for a federal judge seat: “After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his longstanding participation in a controversial organization including his service on its board of directors.”
I urge you to read the entire statement and I urge you to reconsider your support of Jason Anavitarte for membership in the state senate where legislation will hopefully address the fact that Georgia has a serious and illegal immigration problem
Jobs and wages are going to illegal aliens in our state and American families are being damaged and sometimes permanently separated because we are not doing enough to make Georgia inhospitable to illegal aliens and the illegal employment that acts as a magnet to draw them into Georgia.
Your decision to endorse anyone with ties to GALEO shows poor judgment and has damaged my own opinion of you as Lt. Governor and President of the Senate. Anavitarte’s decision to serve on the GALEO board shows his own lack of good judgment and creates great doubt about his dedication to conservative ideals, including immigration enforcement a cause to which I have dedicated most of my life.
Georgia state Senator Chuck Payne greeted by FWD.us Gold Dome lobbyist and illegal alien, Jaime Rangel at Aug. 2019 FWD.us luncheon. Photo: FWD.us
From Georgia Recorder
“On policy matters, Payne said laws relating to immigration should be the purview of federal lawmakers, not the Georgia General Assembly. But philosophically, Payne contends immigrants, even those who remain undocumented, are “part of the fabric now.”
“They’re part of the nation,” he said Tuesday. “They’re part of the melting pot.”
Pro-Democrat organization founded in 2013 to promote the passage of “comprehensive immigration reform”
Spawned two subsidiary organizations—Americans for a Conservative Direction and the Council for American Job Growth.
Launched on April 11, 2013, and drawing its name from President Barack Obama‘s 2012 re-election campaign slogan (“Forward”), FWD.us is a pro-Democrat organization founded by thirteen tech-industry leaders to promote the passage of “comprehensive immigration reform” in the United States. HERE.