Up to this point I have been very PLEASED with the decisions that you have made!
This one baffles me, however! WHAT IN THE WORLD POSESSED YOU TO CHOOSE JOHN KING TO TAKE JIM BECK’S PLACE? Do you really know WHO he is??? Do you KNOW WHAT GALEO IS? Did you really do your homework? WHY would you choose someone who is pro-amnesty, pro-illegal immigration…….. in ANY POSITION in the GA bureaucracy?
Needless to say, I am VERY disappointed! PLEASE DO YOUR HOMEWORK THE NEXT TIME…..and thoroughly vet candidates such as this!
Your choice here proves the old saying that Republican does not always mean conservative.
“Diversity” does not require Republicans who value the rule of law and a commonsense approach to filling government posts to put friends and supporters of nasty and radical enemies of immigration enforcement, voter ID, and secure borders like GALEO in positions of power.
My wife is a proud immigrant. We honor legal immigration and understand that to do so, we must take a pro-enforcement position on the issue. By his support for GALEO, we see that John King does not agree with that premise.
What next – an appointment for the rabid Jerry Gonzalez?
You will lose votes in your apparent attempt to be more like the Democrats. You may have lost both of ours.
The below letter was copied here today. I added a link to more information. – dak
____
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp – photo, Facebook
June 17, 2019
Governor Kemp,
I am Robert M. Trent, Senior Special Agent, USINS (Ret.). My final assignment was at the U.S. Immigration Officers Academy, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Glynco, GA. . I served as the Assistant Director for Enforcement Training.
Having spent most of my life fighting for public safety through enforcement of our immigration laws, I am shocked and extremely disappointed to learn that in your recent appointment of John King to Insurance Commissioner, you have chosen to elevate a friend of the notorious GALEO organization to a position of power in our state government. John King has served as a valuable assistant in GALEO’s fundraising.
GALEO’s Executive Director, Jerry Gonzalez is giddy in his excitement over King’s appointment and boasting of the friendship and connection with your choice for an appointment to constitutional office. Like most conservatives, we expected to this happen only after the Democrats gained control of our state government.
Left, Insurance Commissioner appointee John King with GALEO Executive director Jerry Gonzalez. Image: Facebook, GALEO.org
GALEO is shamelessly dedicated to stopping enforcement of the immigration laws I swore to uphold and has a verified history of opposition to literally every tenant of commonsense policy that conservatives elected you to implement. If you have even mentioned illegal immigration since you took office it hasn’t filtered down to our attention here in South Georgia.
Like many of my friends and colleagues, I am outraged beyond the words I send you today. This appointment and your association with GALEO is a memorable mistake on your part and it is obviously far away from your campaign promises on illegal immigration in Georgia.
GALEO is a clear enemy of enforcement. John King is an active friend of GALEO. My own opinion of you as governor has been greatly and permanently diminished.
Robert M. Trent
**** ***** **
Saint Mary’s, GA 31558
Below is a screen shot from the GALEO facebook page with King and corporate-funded GALEO leader Jerry Gonzalez.
–>UPDATE: November 8, 2020:It looks like the AJC has removed the June 12, 2019 page with the report and subject of our screen shot of GALEO’s Twitter post. And after less than two years!
Heath Garrett is an extremely well-connected, Establishment Republican “strategist” in Georgia who officially worked for ‘business-first’ moderate (and sometimes pro-amnesty) Republican Senator Johnny Isakson for twelve years. Garrett is recognized as being an “influencer.”
Heath Garrett’s office address is 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 130, Atlanta, GA, 30339 – Senator Johnny Isakson’s Atlanta office is located at 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Suite 970, Atlanta, GA 30339.
As I listened to Garrett’s “let’s go easy on illegal immigration…and tone down the ‘rhetoric’…” speech to the Cobb County Republican Women’s Club luncheon in (October?) 2013, – the last year a repeat of the 1986 immigration amnesty was on the brink of passage, I watched the trusting and attentive crowd literally and collectively gasp when he told them that “we lost California because of the rhetoric.”
While most of the group nodded in ignorant and innocent agreement, Garrett also put forth a curious concept that “there is no such thing as an Establishment Republican.” According to Heath Garrett, people use that term to jealously describe somebody who has been in the party longer that they have. He advised against usage.
Afterwards, with a small group waiting to greet him and watching us, I asked Garrett if he and Senator Isakson had any plans to educate the unaware that another amnesty would not help the GOP in elections and that the Republicans lost California largely because of demographics and because of massive immigration and because once naturalized, a huge majority of immigrant voters go for the big government, high-tax, “we’ll give you more loot than they will” pandering Democrats. He didn’t like the inquiry but made it clear that, no, the truth on how California was lost for the Republicans to Democrats was to be kept from the faithful.
Fast forward to the next time – February, 2014 – I watched as Garrett spoke to the same women’s club in the same room with pretty much the same attendees. This time the lesson was ‘unity’. And the constantly repeated directive that ‘the Establishment Republicans’ should partner with the Tea Party. So, now there is an Establishment GOP. I have this on audio. I was seated at a table with the Cobb County District Attorney. He watched me record on my iPhone.
The thing is that no one seemed to recall the complete contradiction in the new truth they were being given.
Full disclosure: I while I have never been a member of any political party, I was a member of the CCRWC for two years, but I don’t think I have been back to a meeting since the last time I heard Garrett speak and watched the obedient crowd follow along.
Updated 13 Nov 2020. Corrected typos and added seating description. Adjusted headline. Added link to Cobb AG. Added link to ‘illegal immigration.’
“Gov. Brian Kemp announced four new Superior Court judgeships Friday – but the list was just as notable for a potential jurist who was passed over for a promotion.
That would be DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez,a Latino Jewish Republican who was seeking a superior court seat.
Lopez was blocked by U.S. Sen. David Perdue from a federal judgeship after anti-illegal immigration activists in Georgia objected to his leadership in a group that opposed local government participation in 287(g) programs.
Some of those same forces oppose his bid for the new county post.
Kemp tappedanother state court judge, Shondeana C. Morris, for the post.
A former Fulton County prosecutor and assistant Atlanta solicitor, Kemp said she “offers the ideal set of legal expertise and leadership skills for this critically important position.”
The Dustin Inman Society worked very hard to organize resistance to GALEO’s Dax Lopez (now a state court judge) being appointed to superior court by Governor Kemp. The announcement that Lopez did not get the promotion came this morning. We are grateful to all who took time to write, call, email, and tweet Gov. Brian Kemp urging him to pass over GALEO’s anti-enforcement judge for advancement. Thank you, Gov. Kemp!
Letter to the editor today in the MDJ. I don’t subscribe and cannot read it through the pay wall, so thanks to Sue for sending it along.
Marietta Daily Journal
OPINION
May 31, 2019
DEAR EDITOR:
Kevin Foley giving Sheriff Warren advice on the subversive and race-baiting GALEO Corporation is another example of the uninformed leftist writer looking up and talking down. GALEO, led by the perpetually angry and professional-victim Jerry Gonzalez, is yet another corporate-funded anti-borders group that has a widely known reputation in political circles for smearing political enemies.
Maybe Foley was among the past crowds that GALEO has led in marches in the streets of Atlanta protesting any immigration enforcement. GALEO particularly hates 287(g) because it detects and reports illegal aliens already captured for other crimes.
Foley’s advice to the sheriff to “engage” rather than “condemn” illustrates that Foley writes from a jerking knee and not any basis in knowledge or experience.
Gonzalez, the boss face of GALEO since its creation in 2003, has accused Warren of bias and prejudice for simply carrying out his sworn duty to protect all Cobb residents. Gonzalez has also falsely smeared pro-immigration enforcement legislators for legislation that would reduce the effects of the illegal aliens GALEO is dependent on to keep the corporate donations flowing. Gonzalez was thrown out of a Rome, Georgia, event by police several years ago for chasing and verbally attacking the diminutive state Rep Katie Dempsey. There is a long history of GALEO radicalism including lobbying against official English, voter ID, and E-Verify — while transporting illegal aliens to the state Capitol.
GALEO lobbied against jails honoring ICE detainers for criminal illegals.
In short, GALEO is a typical subversive and radical but innocuously named anti-borders activist corporation. While that may be right up Foley’s alley, he should at least have the facts before he offers advice to Sheriff Warren.
State Court Judge Dax Lopez served as a board member for eleven years while Jerry Gonzalez led GALEO in the above described activities. He was as silent as mouse, except when he personally wrote Gov. Deal to veto a bill against illegal aliens driving with no license.
In 2016, Dax Lopez was denied a federal court seat because of the courage of Georgia’s Sen. David Perdue, who investigated the facts brought to him by D.A. King on GALEO directly from the GALEO website, much of which has now been deleted. A long list of very respected legislators and other officials including Sheriff Warren wrote to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee advising against Dax Lopez.
The below is the transcript of a three minute public comment to the Cobb County Board of Commissioners on May 14, 2019 against 287(g).
“Good morning. My name is Patricia Burns. Most of you know me for supporting my neighborhood, county, and even country as I served in Vietnam during that war. Unknown to you though, is my 25 years involvement in immigration and human rights. You hold the picture of why. That’s our daughter, Mary, who entered our hearts as a hard to place infant. She expanded our awareness to the anti-immigrant fever that engulfed Cobb and swept across Georgia. Today, let’s talk 287(g).
287(g) is a federal Homeland Security program that uses Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to sidle into local government under the guides of public safety. It has quietly redirected funding from other county programs, even perhaps public safety salaries. 287(g) is discretionary, it all depends on a sheriff’s personal fears and views. From my understanding, Cobb pays the salaries of six deputies and two sergeants who work for ICE, but Cobb pays for it. Stop funding and approving this expensive and aggressive federal tool. Bartow County has disengaged from it.
The argument offered arises that violent criminals are taken off the streets, true perhaps but there is no accountability that those who are arrested are all violent. It models criminality and increases racial profiling. No accountability means mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, small business owners, and tax payers, are swept up by these six deputies, two sergeants and a sheriff who become no more than bounty hunters of your. Since statistics and costs of Cobb using 287(g) is nearly impossible to find, let’s look at Gwinnett County. Gwinnett, uses the same invasive program where to costs tax payers from 1.2 to $3 million annually according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. We can assume costs are about the same here.
In conclusion, do not renew or support a program that drumbeats our dark side. Instead, uplift Cobb County residents with things that make us the best, parks, libraries, senior centers, sound infrastructure, and perhaps even raises in public safety at this time. Thank you.” Video below.
“It’s my responsibility to assist the federal government in identifying illegal aliens committing crimes in Gwinnett County,” Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway on the 287(g) agreement with ICE
With the corporate-donor dollars on the anti-enforcement side, the war on immigration enforcement is raging in Georgia. It is not at all clear who will prevail.
Inger Eberhart
In question this month is the federal program that allows two local jails to locate and hold illegal aliens captured for additional crimes here in Georgia.
Sheriff Butch Conway’s Office has had an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2009 in which specially trained deputies can act as immigration agents under the supervision of ICE officials. Such agreements are allowed under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
All known aliens are screened using the database provided by ICE to determine immigration status and the illegal aliens are then reported to ICE.
In 2007, Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren was the first in the state to have his jail become 287(g) approved. Both sheriffs report significant success in not only turning over criminal aliens to ICE for deportation, but in reducing the overall jail population. The 287(g) program acts as a deterrent to many illegals who are carefully considering where to take up residence.
Both sheriffs’ agreements with ICE on the 287(g) program are scheduled to expire next month unless the arrangements are extended or renewed. And both sheriffs report that they have captured murderers, kidnappers, rapists and child molesters who were found to be in the country illegally. In a different time, one would assume that nobody would have a problem with the federal authorities receiving help from local jails. Those times are long gone.
In today’s Georgia, identity politics groups oppose the added 287(g) enforcement with the ever-present but mindless talking point that it somehow makes the community less safe. The idea is that it is better to leave criminal aliens in the Georgia community than to risk “separating families.”
It is easy to describe the various opponents of enforcement as “the usual suspects”, but we think it educational to name some names – the Latin American Association for example. David Schafer serves as ‘Managing Director of Advocacy’ for the LAA. “We have to ask ourselves, ‘What’s good for our community,’ ” Schafer told the Gwinnett Daily Post in 2016, the last time Sheriff Conway’s 287(g) agreement was renewed. “Is it better to work with communities in terms of helping them build confidence to report crimes? And how much good does it do us to be taking parents out of families when we’ve got a situation where these families are already struggling to make a living when we’re effectively taking the wage earner out of the home?”
The list of anti-287(g) activists goes on to include the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) that has organized lobbying against immigration enforcement since 2003 – including for the eleven years that State Court Judge and current candidate for a governor’s appointment to the DeKalb Superior Court, Dax Lopez served as board member and fund raiser….read the entire column here.
