House Rules Committee holding incarceration-cost transparency bill prisoner
For many watchers it has long been assumed that the Republicans who run the Gold Dome would rather taxpayers not have any official hard data on any part of the cost of illegal immigration. Now, with crossover day looming, the House Rules Committee with South Georgia Rep. Jay Powell (R-Camilla) as chairman seems poised to prove that assumption.
Rules Chairman Jay Powell Image: Georgia House
In a red-ish state that is home to more illegal aliens than green card holders, we may never be allowed to know the cost of state incarceration of the illegal aliens.
HB 202 from Rep Jesse Petrea (R- Savannah) is a simple and long-overdue one-pager that would require the Georgia Department of Corrections to publish a public, quarterly report on the number of non-citizens in the prison system, the number of that group who already are subjects of ICE detainers, the home nations and crimes committed along with the percentage of the entire prison population these aliens represent.
All concerned should note that ICE detainers could only be issued if federal authorities have already had contact with illegal aliens who are serving state time. The current version of the bill is a step back from original language that would have required immigration status, if known, of all aliens in the system. The data the now weakened legislation produced would not be an indicator of the entire cost of incarcerating all illegal aliens in the state. But it is apparently still too much information for the House Rules Committee.
A letter of endorsement to Rep Petrea from Mr. Robert Trent, a now retired Senior ICE enforcement agent in Brunswick, notes that because the DOC is using the federal 287 (g) program in addition to the Secure Communities system to collect fingerprints from prisoners, they have more than enough tools to gather information on the immigration status for all prisoners. These databases can also alert ICE to legal immigrants who may be deportable.
This writer testified in support of the bill in the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee earlier this week and watched with pleasant surprise to see that there were more pro-enforcement Americans – including several immigrants – signed up to speak in favor of Petrea’s legislation than there were corporate-funded leftists opposed to the bill.
Here is a picture of the committee sign-up sheet.
Image: DIS
Few of the conservative present could have imagined that the Republican House Rules Committee would favor the anti-enforcement lobby. But they have not been watching the Capitol workings on illegal immigration for sixteen-years as has this writer.
Race baiting by the Democrats
It should also be noted that several Democrats in yesterday’s Rules Committee hearing made it clear that data on the number and cost of any part of the illegal alien population in our prisons could “…start a race war…” Committee video here starts at 19:10.
We also note that none of the Rules Committee members asked “what would Barbara Jordan do?”
HB 220 has now captured national attention with pro-passage, activist alerts from the influential NumbersUSA in Washington DC as well as several pro-enforcement groups in Georgia, including the Dustin Inman Society….Read the rest here.
Do you want to know how many illegal aliens are in the Georgia prisons and what it costs state taxpayers ? Many Georgia Republicans under the Gold Dome want to insure you will never know.
ACTION NEEDED
–>We need calls and emails to Gold Dome House Rules Committee members.
The corporate-funded illegal alien lobby is calling right now. Many Business-First Republicans are on their side.
*HB 202 is being held prisoner in Republican-run House Rules Committee. ** Read the bill here.**
Sponsor Rep Jesse Petrea needs your help and support to convince the Republicans who ran as conservatives to step up and get this bill out.
Please call the Chairman, Rep Jay Powell 404.656.5141 and as many of the Republican Rules Committee members as possible. Leave a polite message with the assistant. Then send an email.
“Please tell the Representative conservative voters are watching HB 202 and we want it passed. We will not vote for liberal Republicans again. Georgia has more illegal aliens than green card holders and we want to know the cost of incarcerating them. Thank you.”
*Georgia HB 202 will simply require the Georgia Dept. of Corrections to publish a quarterly list of non-citizens in the state prison system along with a list of aliens who have an ICE detainer and the crimes that have been committed along with home countries and what percentage of the prison population is non-citizen.
This commonsense legislation is struggling to survive in the Republican-ruled House Rules Committee. It seems there are very few conservative Republican House Reps. on the Rules Committee. I post a list of those Republicans below. You can click on their names for email addresses.
The bill cannot pass unless the Rules Committee lets it out. As usual, the Democrats in the committee have made this into a race issue.
The South Georgia Republican Chairman, Rep Jay Powell, has signaled his reluctance to allow Georgians to have an idea of the cost to Georgia taxpayers of incarcerating illegal aliens.
Rules Chairman Jay Powell Image: Georgia House
Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona! Again, the anti-borders leftists are calling right now to kill this bill.
Only one Republican on the Rules Committee asked that it be considered. Video coming soon. We are hearing a lot of “this is why the Republicans are losing ground in Georgia!” from people.
Jay Powell (Chairman): 404.656.5141
Matt Hatchett (Vice Chairman): 404.656.5025
Richard Smith: 404.656.6831
Mandi Ballinger: 404.656.7153
Tommy Benton: 404.656.5126
Shaw Blackmon: 404.463.7853
John Carson: 404.656.7855
Sharon Cooper: 404.656.5069
Katie Dempsey: 404.463.2248
Chuck Efstration: 404.656.5105
Barry Fleming: 404.656.5125
Gerald Greene: 404.656.5105
Brett Harrell: 404.656.5103
Lee Hawkins: 404.656.7855
Jan Jones: 404.656.5072
David Knight: 404.463.2248
Eddie Lumsden: 404.656.5087
Chuck Martin: 404.656.5064
Gret Morris: 404.656.5115
Butch Parrish: 404.463.2246
Alan Powell: 404.463.3793
Terry Rogers: 404.651.7737
Ed Setzler: 404.656.7857
Lynn Smith: 404.656.7149
Ron Stephens: 404.656.5115
Jan Tankersley: 404.656.7855
Kevin Tanner: 404.656.9210
Darlene Taylor: 404.656.7857
Bruce Williamson: 404.656.5024
Jon Burns: 404.656.5052
Trey Kelley: 404.656.5024
On the topic of “journalism” — we were sadly shocked to see the MDJ help the far-left, anti-borders organizers of a recent Atlanta protest rally spread their message. Getting the word out about a rally is one of the most important and difficult parts of organizing — a task made much easier with the help of this newspaper.
In announcing a noon event, an early morning, online “alert” posted on the Northside Neighbor’s/MDJ website on Feb. 18 was very helpful for the (as listed by the newspaper) “Georgia Alliance for Social Justice and partnering organizations: CAIR Georgia, Project South, GLAHR, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, J Street, Indivisible Georgia Coalition, ACLU of Georgia, Refuse Fascism Atl, Necessary Trouble Indivisible, The Immigration Education Project, Community Estrella, Racial Justice Action Center, Women Watch Afrika, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists.”
I am sure the rally organizers were grateful for the assistance. Most rallies are covered as news after they occur and not usually announced in the press beforehand.
Whether or not the editors and reporters at the MDJ are for or against border security and a wall is no longer a question here. Seeing the newspaper post the alert for the protest rally with time, location, address and a link to the national organizer’s website complete with their hateful “Trump is a national emergency” message removes any mystery. It also speaks volumes about the state of neutral “journalism” at the MDJ.
Know this: The corporate-funded illegal alien lobby is calling right now and will fill the committee room tomorrow spewing their hateful opposition to Georgians getting official stats on crime and immigration status. Your voice is needed!
Phone calls and emails (please do it now, the office has voice mail) needed to the Chairman of the House Public Safety Committee, Rep Bill Hitchens. It’s easy to leave a polite message with Rep Hitchens assistant or on the voicemail, something like:
“Please tell the Chairman conservative voters are watching and trust that HB 202 will have no problem passing out of his committee. It is a commonsense public safety proposal. Please thank the Chairman for being a co-sponsor. Only the radical leftists will oppose Rep Petrea’s bill.”
This bill should pass with a unanimous vote. It won’t. The corporate-funded anti-borders lobbyists – some of whom are illegal aliens – will fill the committee room and claim it is “anti-immigrant.”
A very easy to understand one-pager that would require Dept. of Corrections to provide a quarterly, public report on the number of non-citizens in the prison system that indicates immigration status if known, home country, crimes committed and the percentage of the total prison population this non-citizen group represents.
Using the theory that it is difficult to change what we cannot measure, several years of this data would provide great insight into the monetary and human costs and of illegal immigration and serve to educate both the public and the legislators on crime as related to immigration in general.
Sadly, there are lawmakers, lobbyists and media who regard this as “too much information.”
FACT: According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders).
Correcting 11 Alive News in Atlanta on pending public safety legislation
Link to inaccurate news report on drivers license reform bill here.
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The Driver’s License, ID Credential and Voter Security Reform Act
Sponsor: Republican state Rep Jeff Jones – and many co-signers HB 400 LC 41 1835
Elevator explanation
The bill corrects state law to exclude all drivers licenses/ID Cards issued to non-citizens from consideration as “proper identification” at Georgia’s polls (seems like a separate story).
While preserving the ability granted under the REAL ID Act of illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation and others to obtain a drivers license/ID Card, the bill defines lawful immigration status to match that of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS issues EADs (work permits) and uses a code system on those documents to denote lawful or unlawful immigration status.
Using requirements taken from the REAL ID Act, creates a new tier of drivers license/ID Cards with an easily recognizable and unique design and color to replace the current credentials issued to the illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation and the other illegal immigration status’ who are currently being issued these credentials but who do not have lawful immigration status under the USCIS code system.
The new and unique design would include a vertical orientation; similar to the way DDS issues these documents to Americans under age twenty-one. Currently, DDS issues the exact same credentials to the illegal aliens with deferred action on deportation as we issue to legal immigrants, which is only reads “LIMITED TERM”. These credentials are used as federally approved ID to board airliners and enter federal buildings and military bases.
The bill does not grant drivers licenses or ID Cards to anyone who is not already receiving them. It serves to make these credentials issued to about 22,000 illegals notably different than what is given to Americans and legal immigrants. According to REAL ID Act regulations, the new credentials will bear the legend “NOT FOR FEDERAL USE.” And will also read “NOT U.S. CITIZEN” along photograph of bearer.
Would add the legend: “NOT U.S. CITIZEN” to the drivers license and ID Cards now issued to legal immigrants, guest workers and students who are in the U.S. with legal temporary visas. Again, currently, these documents are only labeled “LIMITED TERM.” That will term will remain on the card.
As further ID security, requires DDS to join the federal “RIDE” program so that Georgia drivers licenses and ID Cards used as ID to obtain employment are verified by the federal E-Verify system as other states have already done by agreement.
Below is an image of the proposed new design that would go to illegals ONLY, not all non-citizens as was reported. That includes DACA recipients, despite the very inaccurate statement that DACA illegals would not be able to obtain a drivers license included in the report from Dem Rep Brenda Lopez, who seems to be very confused. BONUS: How many versions of a drivers license does Georgia issue now? HERE.
Proposed new design of drivers license for illegal aliens who are already getting one in Georgia. Image: DIS
As someone who has organized many self-funded pro-enforcement rallies in Georgia and in Washington DC, I can tell you that one of the most difficult tasks involved is getting the word out to people who would want to attend.
How accommodating of the MDJ to help the far, far left, anti-Trump crazies with a morning “alert” on their website with noon protest rally’s location, address, and a link to the national organizer’s announcement!
The below post was from the Marietta Daily Journal’s Northside Neighbor newspaper early yesterday morning. It can be seen here.
*For the record, WSB-TV and WSB-radio and the AJC did too, but they were not nearly as helpful as the MDJ’s morning “alert.”
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Image: Northside Neighbor, an MDJ paper
Northside Neighbor
Alert
Rally outside ICE’s Atlanta office to protest President Trump’s state of emergency
Everett Catts
Feb 18, 2019
1 min to read
Trump declared a state of emergency Friday to help get the $8 billion in total funding he sought to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. That move came after the deal Congress struck earlier in the week to avoid another government shutdown called for only $1.375 billion, far less than the $5.7 billion he asked Congress for.
The Atlanta rally is organized by Georgia Alliance for Social Justice and partnering organizations: CAIR Georgia, Project South, GLAHR, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, J Street, Indivisible Georgia Coalition, ACLU of Georgia, Refuse Fascism Atl, Necessary Trouble Indivisible, The Immigration Education Project, Community Estrella, Racial Justice Action Center, Women Watch Afrika, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists. Representatives from these groups will speak at the rally.
“We are convening a coalition of concerned organizations to protest this administration’s unjust and likely illegal emergency declaration,” Janel Green, executive director of Georgia Alliance for Social Justice, said in a news release. “We will protest Trump’s racist immigration policies and the entire concept of the alleged need for billions of dollars to build a wall. We presently have a dozen partners for this action that will center on the voices of our immigrant communities, and the necessity for Georgia’s elected officials in the U.S. Senate to stand up against the dangerous policies of this administration and reject this harmful action.”
The ICE office is located at 180 Ted Turner Drive SW in downtown Atlanta.
Positions on the IERB are not lifetime appointments and are limited by the language of the state law establishing the board
“(b) The Immigration Enforcement Review Board is established and shall consist of seven members. Three members shall be appointed by the Governor, two members shall be appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, and two members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. A chairperson shall be selected by a majority vote of the members. All matters before the board shall be determined by a majority vote of qualified board members. *Members shall be appointed for terms of two years and shall continue to hold such position until their successors are duly appointed and qualified. A member may be reappointed to an additional term. If a vacancy occurs in the membership of the board, the appropriate appointing party shall appoint a successor for the remainder of the unexpired term and until a successor is appointed and qualified.”
The General Assembly established the limits on terms to be served by members after they were appointed and reappointed. With use of the common English word, “an” additional term – the limit is two terms of two years each term.
The second part of the *sentence, “…and shall continue to hold such position until their successors are duly appointed and qualified” doesn’t mean members can legally serve an unlimited period of time, it merely add suspenders to the language that serves as the belt that regulates term limits.
→The language in the sentence does not say “orshall continue to hold such position until their successors are duly appointed and qualified” – it says “and.” The wording simply lays out the protection of member’s positions from any unforeseen future objection to their qualifications to be board members.
It may be redundant, but it does not a serve as disqualifier to the other part of the sentence or the intent of the law on term limits. The legislature did not pass language to designate limit terms only to reverse that intent or language in the same sentence of the code section.
The 2015 Balli/Clark reappointment letter from Speaker David Ralston is written using “…or until a successor is duly appointed.” State Rep David Ralston does not have the legal authority to appoint a member to serve beyond the limits of the regulating law.
If the respondent’s claim that they not only can, but must serve on the IERB until the appointing official replaces them by appointing a replacement, it serves to transfer the power of term limits – or endless terms – to the Governor, Lt. Governor and the Speaker of the House – which is not the intention or language of the law put into place by the legislature.
Using James Balli’s defense, once appointed, members could serve virtually lifetime terms if the appointing officials decide not to appoint replacements.
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times
February 11, 2019
Separated illegal immigrant families sue U.S. government, demand $3 million each
Six illegal immigrant families filed multi-million dollar claims Monday against the Trump administration over last year’s family separations, saying they need the money to pay for counseling and other medical care to heal from the “torture” they said they suffered.
The legal claims are the latest effort by immigrant-rights groups to punish the administration for the separations of thousands of children, which resulted from the Justice Department’s zero tolerance policy for illegal border crossers.
The families and their lawyers say the policy intended to inflict “emotional distress” on the parents and children, hoping it would make attempting to sneak into the U.S. so uncomfortable that fewer people would attempt it.
“It succeeded with devastating consequences,” said Mark Fleming, associate director of litigation at the National Immigration Justice Center.
Under the zero tolerance policy, the Justice Department began to file criminal charges against most illegal immigrants for illegal entry, a misdemeanor, or re-entry, a felony. The administration said the goal was to create some consequences for families who were breaking the law but generally had been released under the previous policies.
