Image: AJC

Erick Erickson Twitter @EWErickson – WSB 750 AM Wikipedia

Added info on Erickson Re; Obama nominated federal judge who was on GALEO board for eleven years here.

“Erickson also actually told his listeners that Lopez would have no role on immigration as a federal judge. “No spin,” pledged Erickson,…”

9-ish minutes from May 16, 2019

AUDIO

AJC coverage of the McKinsey report here.

Transcript from REV.com :

Erick Erickson:
“The President has unveiled his immigration plan today. Uh, let me start at the end, as opposed to the beginning, [inaudible 00:00:10] while I’ll explain. It’s not going to happen. The end. Reason it’s not going to happen is because Chuck Grassley, Susan Collins, Lyndsey Graham and several other members of the Senate have come out and said, “There’s no need for this. We don’t want to consider this.” [inaudible 00:00:25] can’t pass in the House, and Senate Republicans are saying, “We don’t want to do this.” And in fact, the- the President has privately consulted behind the scenes through Jared Kushner, uh, on this immigration plan, but Republicans don’t want to pursue it.

Erick Erickson:
However, the President has an argument, and it’s a Georgia argument, for why they should do this. Uh, let me explain this to you. The McKinsey … the McKinsey consulting group, um, they do all sorts of studies, uh, economic studies and whatnot. Well, McKinsey & Company decided to do a study on their own; they weren’t paid by anyone, but they decided to do a study of Georgia’s economic trends. And there are some worrying signs for Georgia economically. Let me read you some numbers. According to McKinsey, Georgia has unfilled job openings in several sectors in 2018. 28,800 available jobs in transportation and logistics, 22,300 in sales, 22,200 in computing, 20,300 in healthcare, 16,700 in office and administration. Again, these are the number of jobs that are not filled.

Erick Erickson:
We are in an employment crisis in Georgia, or at least, we’re heading into one, uh, not because we have too many unemployed people, but because we don’t have enough people to fill the jobs that are available. So by the way, th- this goes back to a … Chris Burns from Dynamic Money was here two weeks ago. He made this point about the current economic news in the state. It is so good right now, there are so many openings, that if you want a new job, go market yourself. Uh, get your resume together, and start shopping it around. We are at a full employment situation; there are a massive number of jobs that are not being filled [inaudible 00:02:15].

Erick Erickson:
Again, let me read you the numbers, for these are the 2018 numbers from McKinsey & Company, in Georgia. 28,800 unfilled jobs in transportation and logistics, 22,300 unfilled jobs in sales, 22,200 jobs unfilled in computing, 20,300 unfilled in healthcare, 16,700 unfilled in office and administration. That’s just Georgia.

Erick Erickson:
So the President’s got to do something, because his advisors are starting to warn him that we need more workers in the country. And if we were to produce natural-born workers in this country, it would take a minimum of 18 years, 19 years really to get them into the workforce, because they’d be nine months in the womb, and then 18 years before they get out of high school. [inaudible 00:03:03] forget college. So it- it would take us 19 years really, to- to build them natural-born. So you know what we gotta do? The thing some of you don’t wanna do: immigration. Loosen the standards on immigration.

Erick Erickson:
I mean, I- I don’t need to read the numbers again, but you get the sense in Georgia: we need more workers here. We can lure workers from other parts of the country, but if you lure workers from other parts of the country, well, you’re … One, I mean, take for example, do we really want a bunch of people from California coming here? I mean, that was one my chief objections to Amazon, we’re getting a bunch of skinny jeans-wearing hipsters from Washington, down to Georgia with their Washington, atheistic, progressive, hostile to- to Christian values … [inaudible 00:03:45] no point.

Erick Erickson:
But where are we going to find the people, if we’re not attracting them other states? And by the way, we did attract them from other states, then those states suddenly have employment problems, ’cause you gotta fill the jobs in those states. So the President’s gotta do something, and his solution is to open borders. Now, not open borders in the way the left wants open borders. Essentially what the President is doing, is he wants to be able to, uh, open the border to more immigrants who are already skilled, already have the skills, uh, but he also wants to open schools to immigrants, who not only potentially have the skills, but could also then stay here.

Erick Erickson:
See, it’s no good for us to be bringing people into this country, educating them, and then having them go to China or elsewhere. We gotta find a way to keep them here, and so that’s what the President’s policy wants to do. Currently only about 12% of immigrants are admitted to the country based on employment and skills. 66% are admitted based on family connections, and the President wants to flip those around, so 57% of the people who are coming would be based on employment, 33% would be based on family connections. The President … As he said all along, he wants to prioritize family connections based on either bringing children or bringing spouses or bringing parents in, not the extended family of first cousins, second cousins, first cousins once removed, aunts and uncles. So he- he wants to reshape that balance, but he really wants to make it easier for employers to bring into this country someone from abroad who wants to, uh, work in this country.

Erick Erickson:
Now, one of the things that this- this, um, policy for the President [inaudible 00:05:36] doesn’t touch, is the DREAMers. Um, this plan that the President’s rolling out today takes no position on current illegal immigration. What it does try to do is reset the parameters for illegal immigration. So, for example, um, instead of prioritizing people immigrating to this country who have existing relatives in this country, what the President wants to do is prioritize immigration of what he’s calling extraordinary talent, people with professional or specialized vocation, and exceptional students, that is, students in other countries with good grades who want to come to college in the United States, we’ll prioritize allowing those people to come in, hopefully then finding them jobs in the United States to develop talent here.

Erick Erickson:
Um, real world situation here: I actually … I- I was not an immigration attorney and had to help a guy, uh, with an immigration situation. But I was a lawyer, and he was a soccer coach. And he was a very, very good soccer coach, but soccer coaches … Obviously, uh, prioritizing British soccer coaches in the United States was not a high priority, uh, even for … At the time it was the Bush administration. Uh, just it wasn’t. Um, he had a job here. His visa was, uh, up for expiration, and there were people arguing that he should not be able to stay in the country, even though he had an employer in this country that wanted him to stay, wanted him to stay as a soccer coach.

Erick Erickson:
Uh, the federal government gave the run-around for a very long time, on allowing him to stay because of, uh, his classification on his visa. There were Americans who could have done the work. The problem was, there just actually weren’t any Americans who wanted to do his job, but it was a convoluted, burdensome, bureaucratic process to try to keep a British soccer coach in the United States working for a private American school who wanted to keep him.

Erick Erickson:
We … Eventually the situation we were successful, but it was still a- a pain in the butt to do. Uh, what the Trump administration wants to do … That process has actually got more complicated over time. What the Trump administration wants to do is they want to simplify the process by which if you have an employer in this country, and they want an existing employee who is an immigrant to stay, they’ll make it a lot easier for that company to keep that person’s visa renewed, but also if you have an employer or an employee out of the country who wants to come into this country, and the employer wants them to come, they’ll make it easier not only for that employee to come but to stay, and not tie it to their job; once they’ve worked for a number of years, they’ll be able to stay if they want to, if they want to seek American citizenship.

Erick Erickson:
That’s actually a pretty good idea, because what … Typically what happens is an employer brings, uh, someone from abroad here, and that person … One- one or two things happen: either they stay with the company, and you’ve got to go through the burdensome renewal process over and over and over, over time, or eventually, they decide, “You know what? I want to go work for someone else. I can get paid more. I wanna stay here. I can benefit another company.” And there’s a just nightmare process of trying to make that move, and so this will streamline that- that. The Trump administration is saying that a Byzantine process, Byzantine bureaucracy, uh, very complicated, convoluted, hard to follow … It drives up costs. People have to hire lawyers. They shouldn’t have to do that; they should be able to do it themselves, and we should prioritize finding people who want to come here to work, not people who want to come here because their family’s already here.

Erick Erickson:
That sounds like a no brainer to me. It sounds like a good idea. Of course, again, let’s go to the end of this. Congressional Republicans right now are saying this- this is a deal-starter. We- we don’t even want to consider this. We’re headed into an election season; we don’t want to do this. The President’s team this afternoon though is signaling he intends to make this a campaign issue if the Democrats won’t go along with it, but the subtle hint there … He’s saying that the Democrats won’t go along with it, but the subtle implication is, if the Republicans in Congress won’t go along with this, he’s gonna make it a campaign issue whether they like it or not, ’cause he really wants to do this. This President wants an immigration deal.

Erick Erickson:
Again though, ’cause I’m seeing people tweeting and emailing: this is nothing to do with … He’s not taking a position on the DREAMers. Illegal aliens are already here; this is only about fixing, streamlining and making more simple, the existing immigration process, legal immigration process, into the country.”

The below letter was copied to us today. The links were in it when it arrived.

—

Re; Dax Lopez

Governor Kemp,

I see that you may appoint state court Dax Lopez to Superior Court and I write to ask you to consider the ramifications of advancing this man, who I am sure by now you know was a board member of the radical and race-baiting GALEO lobbying corporation.

When Lopez was nominated for federal court several years ago his record and that of GALEO were exposed for all to see and caused conservative Senator David Perdue to reject his nomination. The outcry then was shared by many of us who were amazed that while Lopez was an active board member, GALEO Executive Director Jerry Gonzalez attacked law enforcement officers and stood against literally all of the conservative principles of fairness and immigration enforcement, not to mention voter ID. Now, the open borders billionaires at FWDus have jumped in to create a letter writing campaign to you on behalf of Dax Lopez. That seems enlightening to me. I hope it does to you as well.

Dax Lopez is the favorite son of the people who will never stop pushing against immigration enforcement. He should not be trusted with an appointment to Superior Court.

At least one dependable news report indicates that while he was a sitting judge and an active part of the anti-enforcement GALEO operation, Dax Lopez personally lobbied then Governor Deal to veto public safety legislation aimed at protecting Georgians from the crime of illegal immigration.

As a proud immigrant and attentive conservative, I hope you listen to the people who elected you and remember your own campaign pledges on the illegal immigration that is ravaging Georgia and Georgians.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Grabar

404-***-***

Photo: Culpepper Star Exponent

READERS WRITE

AJC, May 14, 2019
Politics shouldn’t hinder immigration enforcement

A recent AJC story on the 287(g) program in the Gwinnett County jail contains quotes from two Democrat candidates for sheriff who parrot the corporate-funded anti-enforcement immigration talking points. The Bizarro-world gist is that locating and reporting to federal authorities murderers, rapists, child molesters and drug dealers who land in jail somehow reduces community confidence in law enforcement. The problem is that these prisoners are part of America’s protected class – illegal aliens. Candidate for sheriff and retired police chief Curtis Clemons allows that he thinks removing these dangerous criminals makes Gwinnett less safe. Washington has repeatedly failed to protect America from the crime of illegal immigration. Only political opportunists would reject a proven-effective local enforcement tool.

Thankfully, Gwinnett’s pro-enforcement hero, Sheriff Butch Conway, stands up against the leftist lunatics who would trade lives and commonsense public safety for the advancement of their open borders, identity politics agenda.

D.A. KING,

PRESIDENT, THE DUSTIN INMAN SOCIETY

Here.

The below letter was copied to us today.

An open letter to Georgia’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board

D.A. King

Special to The Telegraph June 22, 2017

D.A. King

“And Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said Deal intended his appointees to the board to take a hard line on immigration.”

“Gov. Deal signed this piece of legislation (HB 87) into law not so that it could be neutered and used as window dressing,” Robinson said.

“This immigration law is meant to have teeth. We want it to be enforced.” — 2011

Dear members of the Immigration Enforcement Review Board:

After no little trouble on my part, nearly a year ago, I filed a valid complaint against the city of Atlanta because it refused to protect public benefits according to state law which received much national news coverage when it was created in 2006 and international media attention the last time it was modified (2011).

OCGA 50-36-1 clearly requires all agencies that administer public benefits — including business licenses/occupational tax certificates — to follow simple and standardized procedures to help insure that applicants are eligible and are not illegal aliens. The city of Atlanta acknowledged their Business License Office was not following the state law, but defiantly defended themselves by saying they were in compliance with their own city ordinance on the process.

The IERB made a unanimous decision that my complaint is accurate and that city of Atlanta was in violation and sent me this letter to that effect. The IERB “requested” that Atlanta take remedial action to correct the estimated 6,000 violations that occurred over the course of five years.

While I awaited a meaningful sanction from the board on which you serve, apparently a procedural error was discovered which caused the entire hearing process on my complaint to be repeated from the beginning.

The original finding of violation had zero effect on the defense from the city of Atlanta in the second version of your proceedings. Their lawyer brought in the same witness to make the same “Ground Hog Day” claim: “We are in compliance with city law…and since state law doesn’t mention non-profit businesses, we think the law is ambiguous and difficult to obey or understand…”

I have received a second letter from the IERB with the same finding of violation and the same “request” that Atlanta obey the law. We should all be so lucky in our own business and daily responsibilities under the law.

Window dressing indeed.

I write today to make it clear that it is my assumption that the current delay in further IERB action and a meaningful punishment is intended to allow the city of Atlanta time to now begin compliance and escape any sanctions by simply stating they have stopped their violations. State law allows the IERB to impose punishments that will deter other agencies from future violations.

Having had similar experience with the IERB since its inception, I offer the request that if there is no intention of real use of authority in investigation of further violations or any real sanctions for clear violations of the law over which you have authority, the board members admit there is no reason for it to exist and to explain that premise to the General Assembly and the people of Georgia.

The pervasive official attitude across the state is that 2011’s HB 87 and all laws aimed at the crime of illegal immigration can easily be treated as optional in Georgia. The IERB and so far, the Attorney General’s office have done nothing to change that perception. I am aware that state law allows the AG’s office to prosecute violations of the three laws over which the IERB has preview totally separately and in addition to whatever action the board takes — or does not take.

As you know, I have more than 10 additional complaints pending with the board. I have little confidence in fair resolution. I am now beginning the process of seeking assistance for a remedy in the court system, where adjudication of violations of state law have a better chance of seeing real, wholehearted attention and justice. I am not going to ignore the board’s inaction despite the fact that the governor, the Legislature and Atlanta’s media does exactly that.

While I am aware some board members sincerely strive for an equal application of the law, I hope that you will all make recommendations to the General Assembly to disband the IERB and allow a workable, enthusiastic justice system that actually uses investigative authority to take over.

I also note here that I have a great deal of trouble recalling more than one meeting or hearing since the board’s creation in 2011 that saw attendance by the entire board membership.

Including in the “watch-dog media,” to my experienced knowledge, I am the only person in Georgia who pays attention to compliance on the illegal immigration legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Deal or investigates obvious violations.

The below letter was copied to us this evening. I have more to post, but little time…
_

Dear Gov. Kemp

I just learned that Dax Lopez is on a list for you to pick from for a DeKalb Superior Court appointment. I am shocked that this man is anyone’s choice for a higher court. I hope that you are not seriously considering him.

The fact that Lopez was on the board of the GALEO Co. and remained silent while Jerry Gonzalez accused good, decent people, including legislators and law enforcement officers of “racism” and “hate” because they made it clear that immigration laws matter makes me shudder to think he is any type of judge. GALEO stands against voter ID and uses ethnicity as a political weapon and did so the entire time Dax Lopez was a board member.

Senator Perdue has proven his courage in pointing out the problems with Dax Lopez when Obama tried to make him a federal judge. I am told that there is some imagined political benefit to advancing Dax Lopez due to his ethnicity. I trust we are only going to advance judges because of their proven integrity and personal history. As a recent former Republican county chair, current state committee member and a grassroots activist for your campaign, I respectfully assure you and your advisors that here in our rural North Georgia community, there would be no political payoff for putting a former GALEO sympathizer, fundraiser and tactician in a Superior Court seat.

Please pass over Dax Lopez as Senator Perdue did in 2016.

Denise Burns

Ringgold, GA 30736

Image: Insider Advantage Georgia

Illegal Alien Employer Arrest an Enforcement Opportunity for Kemp

D.A. King

May 10, 2019

The news that a Mexican illegal alien amassed a large fortune by illegally operating a construction company while employing other illegal aliens and living in a Bartow County compound — complete with a security wall and armed guards – presents a golden opportunity for Gov. Brian Kemp. That is, if the new governor wants to make clear his determination to fight illegal immigration.

It cannot be said enough: The chief cause of illegal immigration is illegal employment. Reduce the former and see less of the latter. Fewer illegal aliens equals fewer crimes committed by illegal aliens. It seems obvious.

As the anti-enforcement Georgia Budget and Policy Institute was kind enough to remind us last summer, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders). Only the most politically blind and naïve still hold out hope that congress will accomplish anything meaningful on ending the illegal immigration crisis.

The logical conclusion is that state and local governments should use all available tools to make Georgia as inhospitable as possible to illegal employers and illegal aliens. That would include unapologetic enforcement of state laws already in place.

Which brings us back to the governor and Juan Antonio Perez, the illegal alien recently busted by the feds and who reportedly had somewhere around 200 employees “almost all of them here illegally.”

Kemp should consider having the GBI obtain the employment records from all of the companies operated by Perez, if he has any. Including the I-9 forms. The I-9 form is the outdated, 20th century paper device used to collect and record identity verification documents presented by new employees to the employer.

It is impossible for an illegal alien to complete the I-9 process without use of false or stolen ID. Georgia has a state law for that.

Intended to severely punish ID fraud in the process of obtaining employment, Georgia’s “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” (HB 87) put OCGA 16-9-121.1 in place.

“Offense of aggravated identity fraud”
(a) A person commits the offense of aggravated identity fraud when he or she willfully and fraudulently uses any counterfeit or fictitious identifying information concerning a real, fictitious, or deceased person with intent to use such counterfeit or fictitious identifying information for the purpose of obtaining employment.”

The law says that a first offense “shall be punishable by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 15 years, a fine not to exceed $250,000.00, or both…”

To our knowledge, the law has not been enforced.

The governor can send a strong signal to illegal aliens who have little reason to avoid living and working in Georgia by application of this statute and prosecution of the victims of borders who now fearlessly commit identity fraud to reside, work illegally and lower wages in Georgia. Let’s start with the black market labor that worked for Juan Antonio Perez.

Pro-enforcement conservatives are watching.

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

https://insideradvantage.com/2019/05/10/illegal-alien-employer-arrest-an-enforcement-opportunity-for-kemp/ D.A

State Court Judge and GALEO board member (circa 2011) Dax Lopez. Image: Twitter

This copy was sent here this morning. Nice to know she reads my letters to the editor!

—
May 8, 2019

Dear Governor Kemp,

I hope that you will follow the lead of Senator David Perdue on Dax Lopez and end consideration for putting him on a higher court.

Despite what you are likely being told by the establishment Republicans who want you to think advancing Lopez – who worked with the radical and race-baiting GALEO for eleven years – will somehow produce more Hispanic votes in 2022, Lopez has no business being any type of judge, let alone a Superior Court Judge.

My conservative Hispanic friends already vote Republican. They all agree that GALEO and Lopez are far to the left of the values you told us about in your recent campaign and that there is no goodwill to be gained from rule-of-law voters by your rewarding the anti-enforcement crowd with an anti-enforcement Superior Court judgeship for Dax Lopez.

Below is a quote I found from February, 2016 by Senator Perdue on why he decided against allowing the senate confirmation to move forward when Obama tried to advance GALEO’s board member, Dax Lopez.

“After a thorough review of the professional and judicial record of DeKalb County Judge Dax Lopez, I have become uncomfortable with his long-standing participation in a controversial organization, including his service on its board of directors,” Perdue wrote in a statement. “I believe similar concerns would be raised by many of my colleagues, making Judge Lopez’s final confirmation unattainable.”

The myth being pushed by the Chamber of Commerce-type, anything-for-a-buck Republicans who will say anything to dodge any real discussion of immigration enforcement is that capitulation will result in more votes from Latinos.

I respectfully point out something I learned from D.A. King in the AJC. In 1988 when Georgia H.W. Bush ran for president – just two years after President Reagan granted the immigration amnesty in 1986 – Bush only reaped 30% of the Hispanic vote. Proudly telling voters he would crack down on the scourge of illegal immigration, President Trump still got 29% of the Hispanic vote in 2016.

You will lose two votes at our house in 2022 if you approve Dax Lopez after all the nasty verbal attacks on law enforcement officers from GALEO staffers while Lopez was an advisor and board member – and all the GALEO crowd has done to impede immigration enforcement, voter ID and official English and ICE holds.

Dax Lopez should not ever have been selected by the nominating commission. The stench of politics is unmistakable. I urge you to appoint one of the other candidates.

Sue Ann Lanier
Independent Conservative Voter
KENNESAW
404-***-****

The below letter was sent here today.

Mr Buckler sent us the below copy of his letter to Governor Kemp

__

May 7, 2019

Dear Governor Kemp,

I have learned that Dax Lopez is a possible appointee to Superior Court in DeKalb County and that you have final say on that choice.

We urge you to reject Lopez for any promotion in the court system. As we hope you know, he spent more than a decade as a proud member of the board at the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) while that far-left outfit lobbied under the Gold Dome against enforcement of our immigration laws.

Dax Lopez has already been rejected by both of our U.S. Senators for federal court. We hope for that same outcome in your consideration for his current and quite unbelievable nomination for the empty seat in DeKalb County.

Like lots of conservatives all over the state who voted for you, we are watching this very closely.

Thank you,

Bill Buckler…

Kennesaw, GA