Photo: Billy and Kathy Inman holding a picture of their late son, Dustin. Photo: AJC

Dalton Daily Citizen

April 30, 2018

Letter: Payne is wrong on driver’s license bill

At our house, we’re following the state Senate primary election in Dalton with great interest because of the issue of Sen. Chuck Payne voting against the illegal alien driver’s license bill in last session. You see, our son Dustin was killed by an illegal alien who crashed into the rear end of our car Father’s Day weekend in 2000. The illegal had a driver’s license from North Carolina that was the same as all North Carolina driver’s licenses.

He was involved in another rear-end crash before he killed our son and put my wife, Kathy, in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. The police had no way of knowing he was an illegal alien when they saw his license when he ran into the first family’s car — maybe they would have reported him to immigration authorities if his license was marked or looked different that he was here illegally. Maybe my son would be a productive 34-year-old with kids of his own today.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, my son’s killer is living in Mexico after he escaped Gilmer County law enforcement.

We do not want illegal aliens here and to have driver’s licenses, but if politicians are going to issue them to some illegals, those licenses should be clearly marked that person is not a legal immigrant.

I remembered when I turned 15, getting my learner’s license it said “Learners” across the top. Why not a note or word on the license of illegals that get one? Sen. Payne saying illegal immigration is not a Georgia issue is very disappointing. Try telling that to my wife. She’s easy to find in her wheelchair.

Mr. Tidwell said he doesn’t want Georgia to become a magnet for illegal immigration and would have voted for the illegal immigration driver’s license bill that Sen. Payne is against. We wish Mr. Tidwell good luck and don’t agree with Sen. Payne that Mr. Tidwell is a loser, and we ask Sen. Payne what happened to common sense and respect in politics.

Billy and Kathy Inman

Woodstock

Here

Dalton Daily Citizen

April 29, 2018

Payne wrong about bill

Proving that Republican does not always mean conservative, state Sen. Chuck Payne has voted three times to stop the effort to change the drivers license Georgia issues to illegal aliens so that it is different from real, legal immigrant’s drivers licenses and cannot be used as federal ID to board airliners, enter military bases — or register to vote.

Voters should note that in 2016, 37 GOP members of the Georgia senate — including former senator Charlie Bethel — already voted for this common sense public safety concept.

In each case, four-term senator, seasoned pro-enforcement immigration authority and long-time attorney, Josh McKoon, sponsored the legislation. The idea that Sen. Payne can somehow see errors missed by these conservatives is laughably preposterous.

It was was stunning to see video of Sen. Chuck Payne tell the audience at the recent Daily Citizen-News candidate forum that “Georgia does not deal in immigration. We don’t have immigration laws.” Respectfully, this is ignorant nonsense.

As a pro-enforcement immigration authority, this writer has worked with state legislators since 2004 on state immigration laws. Sen. Payne’s lack of knowledge on this topic is alarming to those who work to make Georgia as unwelcoming as possible to the crime of illegal immigration — and it is dangerous.

• In 2006, Georgia passed a law to require official agencies that administer taxpayer-funded public benefits to insure those benefits do not go to illegal aliens. That is an immigration law.

• In 2006 and 2011 Georgia passed a laws requiring use of the no-cost federal E-Verify system to help deter illegal alien labor. Those are immigration laws.

• In 2009 Georgia passed a sanctuary city law — immigration law again.

Payne’s worldview clearly does not match up with President Trump’s pro-American agenda. But it does align with the Chamber of Commerce pro-amnesty, anti-enforcement policies pushed in Atlanta.

As he says, Sen. Payne may very well “read through” legislation before he votes. But it should be seriously considered that there is a very glaring difference between being a public servant and a servant of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce.

In the same forum video, I was relieved to hear conservative candidate Scott Tidwell say “we need to do everything we can to keep Georgia from being a magnet for illegal aliens.”

Speaking for Georgia victims of the crimes perpetrated by illegals, we plead with Dalton voters to send a conservative to the state senate next year. Georgia still has more illegal aliens than does Arizona.

D.A. King

Marietta

King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society, a nationally recognized authority on immigration and has assisted state lawmakers with immigration legislation since 2004. He is not a member of any political party.

Here

Insider Advantage Georgia

Dalton GOP Sen. Payne Faces Primary Challenger From His Right

by D.A. King | Apr 27, 2018 | The Forum

Here’s another race to watch: The Republican primary race for state Senate District 54 in the Dalton area has heated up over the topic of illegal immigration and the failed attempt at illegal alien driver’s license reform in the 2018 legislative session.

Scott Tidwell

Conservative political newcomer, Scott Tidwell, a pastor and assistant funeral home director from Resaca has challenged Incumbent Senator Chuck Payne and is apparently seeing increasing support in the North Georgia district.

Payne is under a barrage of fire for being one of two Republicans who voted with the Democrats against Senator Josh McKoon’s SB417 in a March Public Safety Committee hearing, which resulted in the bill’s demise. The same language was then inserted into an already-passed House bill and offered for reconsideration in the same committee. This time, Payne was the only Republican to vote “nay” as it moved on but was never allowed out of Senator Jeff Mullis’ Senate Rules committee.

McKoon also tried to amend the House distracted driving bill as it passed the senate with a greatly abbreviated version of his reform language but enough Republican senators wanted to pass a “clean” cell-phone bill to decline the floor amendment.

As can be seen on the official senate committee hearing video, (00:39) Payne’s apparent lack of full understanding of the bill and the territorial limits of state law had several watchers shaking their heads when he asked McKoon how, if passed, the Georgia law would be enforced “out of state”. Neither was it clear that first-term Senator Payne understood that the federal government operates the TSA airport security and decides what ID is acceptable for boarding airliners.

State Sen. Chuck Payne

McKoon made it clear in his presentations that the goal was to end the practice of issuing the same driver’s license to illegal aliens as are given to legal immigrants and guest workers here with temporary visas. He also explained that the proposed new driving document would only be good for driving privileges and would not be counted as an ID document for state or federal purposes and would be marked as such.

In 2016, a McKoon-sponsored bill with similar language sailed through the Georgia senate with thirty-seven Republican votes but was never allowed a hearing in the House. Among the “yea” votes was Payne’s predecessor, former senator Charlie Bethel.

Payne’s liberal position on illegal alien drivers licenses and his confusion seen in the now widely disseminated committee hearing video has not gone un-noted by conservative voters in his district. Neither has the fact that the president and CEO of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce, Rob Bradham, attended the Gold Dome hearing and testified against allowing the measure to move out of committee. Full disclosure: This writer testified at the same hearing in favor of the legislation.

Payne’s remarks at a recent Dalton Daily Citizen newspaper candidate forum in which he told challenger Tidwell “you were already a loser before you even came out of the gate” and that the legislation reforming the system by which illegal alien drivers licenses are issued was “not an immigration bill” have cost Payne considerable conservative support.

Challenger Tidwell labels himself a “true conservative” and makes it clear that he would have voted for McKoon’s driver’s license reform bill. He says, “the illegal alien problem is threatening the economic state of Georgia.”

Some estimates have put the annual cost of illegal immigration to Georgia taxpayers at $2.4 billion. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona.

Payne told the audience that “Georgia doesn’t deal in immigration” and that the state “doesn’t have immigration laws” – apparently unaware of the numerous state laws put in place on illegal immigration since 2006 – including E-Verify, public benefits protections and ‘sanctuary cities’ laws – and 2011’s internationally publicized HB 87.

You read it here first.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society 

Republican state senator Chuck Payne. Photo: Senate website.

Just in from various sources at the Georgia Capitol

Scott Tidwell has reportedly qualified to oppose Dalton’s Chuck Payne in the GOP primary for North Georgia’s Senate District 54.

Including from this pro-enforcement outlet, Senator Chuck Payne has been under barrage of fire recently for his “no” vote – along with Senator Kay Kirkpatrick – in the senate Public Safety Committee last month on an illegal alien drivers license reform bill (SB417) offered by conservative Senator Josh McKoon. A nearly identical bill passed the senate in 2016 with a near two-thirds majority but was not allowed a hearing in the House.

According to DDS, Georgia has issued, renewed or replaced more than 21,000 drivers licenses and or ID Cards for aliens USCIS says lack lawful status.

Payne penned a response to this writer’s letter to the editor of the Dalton Daily Citizen that was not well received by many conservatives in his district. Word from Dalton is that Payne has created almost as much anger over his curious public defense of his vote as he has the vote with the Democrats to kill McKoon’s legislation.

Details to follow.

—

*Update, 12:50: I just spoke to Mr. Tidwell who was calling from the Georgia Capitol. He qualified about 11:00AM and said he had prayed about this decision all week. I asked him about Patne’s vote on the drivers license reform bill. He was not happy with his senator’s vote. “My vote would have been the opposite of that” he told me. On illegal immigration told me “this is a big issue with me…I am not for amnesty or this sort of thing” he said. His idea is that no illegal aliens should have a Georgia drivers license.

Age forty-six, Scott Tidwell is a native Georgian who grew up in the Powder Springs – Austell area of Cobb County. He lives with his family in Resaca. More details to follow.

Scott Tidwell qualifies for senate race. Photo: Special to DIS.

Red circles are “NO” voters on pro-American public safety bill.

Dalton Daily Citizen

Letter to the editor

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Not buying Sen. Payne’s explanation

I appreciated the letter to the editor from Mr. D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society educating us on Sen. Chuck Payne’s vote to kill a Republican-sponsored illegal alien driver’s license reform bill. Thanks to the Daily Citizen-News editors for running it.

It came as shocking news for many people that GOP Georgia is giving any driver’s licenses to any illegals.

The fact that we are documenting “the undocumented” doesn’t square with the message that politicians who campaign as Republican “conservatives” are doing everything possible to make Georgia unattractive to illegal immigration. The fact that non-citizens, who the Department of Homeland Security says lack lawful immigration status, carry around the same state-issued credentials as the legal immigrants we welcome is just wrong. Additionally, the revelation that the illegals use their driver’s licenses as valid federal ID for things like getting through security at American airports as easily as Americans boggles the logical mind. Can you see the potential security threat? I certainly can.

At our house, we are having trouble following Payne’s intellectual consistency on his recent votes. His rebuttal letter to Mr. King here tells us he thought the monetary cost of a law that would clearly mark the illegal aliens’ driver’s licenses was too high and that he thought it would cause the “creation of a whole new bureaucracy to enforce these new provisions would come without any warranted difference from what we currently have.” Huh? I still don’t have any idea what that meant. And I didn’t see him say what the cost was. Don’t all laws have a cost? Some new spending, especially on matters of public safety, is wise.

Less than a week after Payne joined the Dems in voting “no” in a committee against reliably-conservative Sen. Josh McKoon’s driver’s license bill, he voted “yes” in the full senate on SB452, a bill that will increase the chances of authorities being informed of the status of illegal aliens after they are arrested and prosecuted for additional crimes. I applaud that common sense vote. But I don’t follow Payne’s logic or priorities in adding to “the size of government.”

Maybe Payne is getting confusing advice from his campaign manager/advisor or the Gold Dome cheap-labor lobbyists on illegal immigration. Whatever the case, his letter here was unconvincing and discomforting to conservative voters who value public safety and steady, consistent, logical representation in Atlanta.

Denise Burns

Ringgold

Here

Drivers license issued to all aliens in Georgia. photo: DDS

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