photo: AJC

October 5, 202

He said, though, that GALEO and the other groups lacked the standing to make the case. Ray said in his order that the individuals who said they weren’t sent Spanish-language ballot applications were able to get them from the county, and did vote. He added that a Spanish-language ballot application was accessible on the county website.

Jerry Gonzalez, GALEO’s executive director, said he disagreed with the judge’s analysis…. Read more here.

Note: I have no idea why the text above is so screwy…

_

Beginner’s Guide to GALEO from the 2015/2016 Dustin Inman Society campaign to stop the conformation of former GALEO board member Dax Lopez for federal court here.

______

Update: Dustin Inman Society board amber Everett Robinson just sent me the below letter to the AJC editor he sent in 2 weeks ago. Believe it or not, they ran part of it! Thanks Ev. Thanks, AJC!

Ev, our neighbor for 35 years and DIS board member addressing the room.

 

Dear AJC,

In a stunning abuse use of the term, the AJC recently referred to the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) as a “civil rights group” in a news report on their failed lawsuit against Gwinnett County involving foreign language voter ballots.

GALEO, funded by corporate-Georgia, is notorious for its long history of actively fighting against official English for government, voter ID and marching in the streets of Atlanta against immigration enforcement. GALEO has actually lobbied to convince local governments to refuse to honor ICE detainers when dangerous criminal illegal aliens are found to be in local jails and organized rallies against state laws to require public employers to use the federal E-Verify program aimed at insuring illegal labor does not take taxpayer-funded jobs.

As a proud, long-time board member of a citizen-funded group that advocates for an equal application of the law on immigration and for official English for government, this sixty-something, pro-enforcement Black conservative knows a civil rights group when he sees one.

Regarding GALEO: Being anti-official English and anti-enforcement on immigration does not a “civil rights” group make.

Everett Robinson

Canton

Board member, the Dustin Inman Society

Photo: City of Dalton

The response on top was received here Oct 2, 5:23PM. We are grateful for the follow-up.

_

Mr. King,

I am sending a second follow up message to reply to the concerns you relayed; specifically, you noted that copies of the 2013 and 2014 Occupational Tax Certificate applications/affidavits for Oakwood Café were not present in the responsive document which we relayed to you.

I checked with the City Clerk’s office and was reminded that the retention schedule for SAVE and E-Verify affidavits is three (3) years according to the guidelines provided by the Secretary of State for Georgia (see details below. Thus, the City is simply not in possession of those physical records you requested for the years 2013 and 2014 (applications/affidavits). If you review the Excel spreadsheet documents which the City provided you, however, you will see that Oakwood’s records for those years are listed as being submitted to the Georgia state audit system in compliance with the law.

I regret that we did not let you know in advance that we did not possess those physical records as indicated above, but the City’s response to your records request provided all of the responsive records in our possession at the time of your request.

LG-16-038 | SAVE and E-Verify Affidavits
Category: Personnel
Description: Affidavits testifying to an individual’s right to receive public benefits. Note: Retention applies only to those affidavits not maintained as part of another record, such as a contract or bid response.
Retention: 3 years
Classification: Temporary-Short-Term
Updated: October 20, 2016

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your follow up questions, and feel free to contact me directly by email or phone if I can assist you further.

Best Regards,
Jason

PLEASE NOTE – MY EMAIL DOMAIN HAS CHANGED – UPDATE CONTACT TO EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW

jparker@daltonga.gov

Jason Parker
Dalton City Administrator
300 W. Waugh Street
P.O. Box 1205
Dalton, GA 30722
706-529-2404
www.daltonga.gov

From: Jason Parker
Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 2:47 PM
To: ‘D.A. King’
Subject: RE: City of Dalton Response to Request for Public Records

Good Afternoon,

I apologize for the delay in response and thanks for your follow-up questions as we strive to respond accurately and timely to all requests for public records. I am checking to see if there was an oversight in the records search and will get back with you shortly.

Feel free to call or email if you have questions in the meantime.

PLEASE NOTE – MY EMAIL DOMAIN HAS CHANGED – UPDATE CONTACT TO EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW

jparker@daltonga.gov

Jason Parker
Dalton City Administrator
300 W. Waugh Street
P.O. Box 1205
Dalton, GA 30722
706-529-2404
www.daltonga.gov

Photo: Wikipedia

Border Patrol Arrests Man Wanted for Rape, Murder

TUCSON, Ariz. – U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a Mexican national with multiple warrants in both Mexico and Oregon for homicide and rape, respectively.

Tucson Sector agents apprehended three men after they illegally crossed the border into the United States through a mountainous area outside Nogales. Records checks revealed one of the men, Juan Francisco Espinosa-Burgos, to be wanted for rape in Oregon City, Oregon. He is also wanted in Mexico for homicide.

All three subjects will be processed for immigration violations. Espinosa-Burgos will be handed over to Mexican law enforcement authorities following his extradition to Oregon for adjudication of his alleged crimes in the U.S.

Photo: USCIS

Photo: WCSO.

The below complaint was sent to the Whitfield County Sheriff office this AM. I have recieved confirmation of receipt.

Complaint      #2 of 2. Complaint #1 here.

Re: Possible violations

 OCGA 36-60-6 & OCGA 16-10-20   

To: Scott Chitwood

Sheriff, Whitfield County Georgia

*Please note that throughout this complaint I have inserted hyperlinks to evidence and facts that make the issue much easier to understand and to save time for investigators.

Sheriff Chitwood,

Please regard this as an official complaint against Dalton business owner State Rep Kasey Carpenter alleging possible violations of OCGA 36-60-1 (E-Verify requirement for private employers) and OCGA 16-10-20 (Filing false documents) and a request for an investigation by the GBI.

In my own educated but obviously unofficial investigation of the workings of the City of Dalton’s Occupational Tax Certificate (OTC) office (please see complaint #1), I obtained various documents through open records requests on two Dalton businesses, Oakwood Café and Cherokee Brewing and Pizza (Cherokee Brewing LLC). The purpose of accessing these documents was to understand the system in place for administering public benefits, specifically OTCs and to compare the operation and documents used to clear mandates in state law.

As can be seen in my other recent complaint (#1 of 2), I found multiple actions that I believe are illegal and require official investigation and possible prosecution.

In reviewing the copies of OTC applications and affidavits, I noted that on the November 2014 application for the City of Dalton to issue an OTC for the year 2015, owner Kasey Carpenter completed a notarized affidavit attesting to use of the federal E-Verify program, entered the unique user/ID number issued to his business by USCIS and entered “11-11-’14 as the date of authorization to use E-Verify.

The service provided by USCIS to track E-Verify users (“How to Find Participating Employers”) shows that Oakwood Cafe was authorized to use E-Verify on 1/19/12.

Clearly stated, the dates do not match on a very important document that serves as evidence of eligibility for Oakwood Café to be issued an Occupational Tax Certificate which is required to do business lawfully in Dalton, GA.

My open records request included a time frame of 1 July 2012 to 15 September 2020. It did not produce any copies of any documents from the Dalton OTC office for Oakwood Cafe completed in 2013 for the OTC to be issued for 2014. I am informed that Oakwood Café has been in business since 2004. As I noted on complaint #1, this seems to indicate that although it was apparently diong (doing) business, Oakwood Café was not issued an OTC for 2014.

There may be an easy answer to this confusion of which I am not aware.

—> Cherokee Brewing and Pizza – (Cherokee Brewing LLC)

Much more concerning is the fact that in reviewing the copies of documents sent by the Dalton OTC office, Kasey Carpenter, an owner of Cherokee Brewing and Pizza signed an affidavit attesting to use of the E-Verify, entered the date of authorization to use the system as “9/15/’19” and did not enter the required user/ID number of the E-Verify system which is assigned by the USCIS.

Apparently the OTC office in Dalton accepted this illegal affidavit (see complaint #1) without it being notarized.

The USCIS tracking database for E-Verify users (How to Find Participating Employers) does not produce records of any authorization for Cherokee Brewing and Pizza or Cherokee Brewing Co. or Cherokee Brewing LLC to use E-Verify.

–> Stated more clearly, in applying to obtain an OTC, owner and applicant for the OTC, Rep Kasey Carpenter says Cherokee Brewing has been authorized to use E-Verify since Sept 15, 2019. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services says they have no record of that authorization.

It should be noted that according to the state law on private employers use of E-verify for employers with more than ten employees. Cherokee Brewing has completed documents for a Dalton OTC reporting more than ten employees since 2018.

OCGA 36-6-6:

• Every private employer with more than ten employees shall register with and utilize the federal work authorization program, as defined by Code Section 13-10-90. The requirements of this subsection shall be effective on January 1, 2012, as to employers with 500 or more employees, on July 1, 2012, as to employers with 100 or more employees but fewer than 500 employees, and on July 1, 2013, as to employers with more than ten employees but fewer than 100 employees. *Emphasis mine – dak.

The copies of all documents sent to me by the City of Dalton for Cherokee Brewing and Pizza can be seen here. For Oakwood Café, here.

I want to be clear that I hope I am mistaken in wondering if a state legislator and Dalton business owner has misrepresented his use of E-Verify or violated state law to obtain the OTC required to operate business lawfully.

OCGA 36-60-6(h) Any person presenting false or misleading evidence of state licensure shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any government official or employee knowingly acting in violation of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; provided, however, that any person who knowingly submits a false or misleading affidavit pursuant to this Code section shall be guilty of submitting a false document in violation of Code Section 16-10-20

(j) The Attorney General shall be authorized to conduct an investigation and bring any criminal or civil action he or she deems necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Code section…. During the course of any investigation of violations of this Code section, the Attorney General shall also investigate potential violations of Code Section 16-9-121.1 by employees that may have led to violations of this Code section.

—>Filing false documents is a serious violation under OCGA 16-10-20, which I respectfully paste below to eliminate confusion:

§ 16-10-20.1. Filing false documents

(a) As used in this Code section, the term “document” means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form and shall include, but shall not be limited to, liens, encumbrances, documents of title, instruments relating to a security interest in or title to real or personal property, or other records, statements, or representations of fact, law, right, or opinion. 

(b) Notwithstanding Code Sections 16-10-20 and 16-10-71, it shall be unlawful for any person to: 

(1) Knowingly file, enter, or record any document in a public record or court of this state or of the United States knowing or having reason to know that such document is false or contains a materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or 

(2) Knowingly alter, conceal, cover up, or create a document and file, enter, or record it in a public record or court of this state or of the United States knowing or having reason to know that such document has been altered or contains a materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation. 

(c) Any person who violates subsection (b) of this Code section shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment of not less than one nor more than ten years, a fine not to exceed $10,000.00, or both. 

(d) This Code section shall not apply to a court clerk, registrar of deeds, or any other government employee who is acting in the course of his or her official duties.

 I ask that you forward my complaint to Director Vic Reynolds and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Sheriff Chitwood, on a personal note, as a 68 year-old former Marine, grandson of a police officer (Detroit Police Academy, class of 1928) and someone who has devoted the last seventeen years of his life to actively advocating for immigration enforcement, please accept my sincere gratitude for the courageous job you and your deputies and staff do for Whitfield County and Georgia.

At our house we respect and support law enforcement officers and pray for your safety.

Also, I have been an advocate for 287(g) since 2004 and am proud to have assisted in implementing the lifesaving 287(g) program in Gwinnett County. Please know the high level of admiration we have for you for your participation in that commonsense program.

I apologize for the length of this complaint. Please know that I have spent many hours on research and in compiling the information gathered. I was closely involved in the creation of the laws cited here and have great interest in seeing them actually enforced.

Respectfully submitted,

D.A. King

Marietta, GA. 30066

Photo: USCIS

The below complaint was sent to Whitfield Couny Sheriff Chitwood this AM. I have received confirmation of receipt

Photo: WCSO.

___

Complaint      #1 of 2 (complaint # 2 here).

Re: Multiple violations

 OCGA 36-60-6 & OCGA 50-36-1

To: Scott Chitwood

Sheriff, Whitfield County Georgia

*Please note that throughout this complaint I have inserted hyperlinks to evidence and facts that make the issue much easier to understand and to save time for investigators.

Sheriff Chitwood,

Please regard this as an official complaint against the following City of Dalton officials for repeated and ongoing violations of OCGA 36-60-1 (E-Verify requirement for private employers) and OCGA 50-36-1 (verification of lawful status for public benefits).

Mayor David Pennington

Councilmember Derek Waugh

Councilmember Annalee Harlan

Councilmember Tyree Goodlet

Councilmember Gary Crews

City Clerk Bernadette Chattam

I ask that you forward my complaint to Director Vic Reynolds and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The E-Verify law

As part of HB 87, in 2011 (and 2013) language that is now OCGA 36-60-6 (posted here) went through a long and arduous committee process, was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by then Governor Nathan Deal. The intent of the law is to reduce illegal immigration in Georgia, protect lawful workers by reducing illegal employment and the black market labor that reportedly costs Georgia taxpayers billions of dollars annually.

The additional concept was, and is, that the fewer illegal aliens we host in Georgia, fewer lawful residents would be affected by crimes committed by illegal aliens.

Those crimes include identity theft and fraud. Illegal aliens cannot obtain employment without committing identity crimes, which all too often can ruin the lives of innocent victims.

The law is clear that private employers with more than ten employees are required to use the federal E-Verify system:

 “(a) Every private employer with more than ten employees shall register with and utilize the federal work authorization program, as defined by Code Section 13-10-90. The requirements of this subsection shall be effective on January 1, 2012, as to employers with 500 or more employees, on July 1, 2012, as to employers with 100 or more employees but fewer than 500 employees, and on July 1, 2013, as to employers with more than ten employees but fewer than 100 employees.”

The law also requires agencies that administer/issue/renew Occupational Tax Certificates (OTC) to collect information on affidavits from the employer that shows the number of employees he has, his unique E-Verify user/ID number issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services or a statement that he is exempt from the E-Verify requirement because he has fewer than eleven employees. Also required is the date the employer was authorized to use E-Verify.

“(d)(1)Before any county or municipal corporation issues a business license, occupational tax certificate, or other document required to operate a business to any person, the person shall provide evidence that he or she is authorized to use the federal work authorization program or evidence that the provisions of this Code section do not apply. Evidence of such use shall be in the form of an affidavit as provided by the Attorney General in subsection (f) of this Code section attesting that he or she utilizes the federal work authorization program in accordance with federal regulations or that he or she employs fewer than 11 employees or otherwise does not fall within the requirements of this Code section. Whether an employer is exempt from using the federal work authorization program as required by this Code section shall be determined by the number of employees employed by such employer on January 1 of the year during which the affidavit is submitted. The affidavit shall include the employer’s federally assigned employment eligibility verification system user number and the date of authority for use…”

 (2) Upon satisfying the requirements of paragraph (1) of this subsection, for all subsequent renewals of a business license, occupation tax certificate, or other document, the person shall submit to the county or municipality his or her federal work authorization user number or assert that he or she is exempt from this requirement, provided that the federal work authorization user number provided for the renewal is the same federal work authorization user number as provided in the affidavit under paragraph (1) of this subsection. If the federal work authorization user number is different than the federal work authorization user number provided in the affidavit under paragraph (1) of this subsection, then the person shall be subject to the requirements of subsection (g) of this Code section.

The drafters of the law foresaw the likelihood of different agencies inventing their own style and format of forms and affidavits and sought to eliminate confusion and baseless violation defense of “we didn’t know…we have our own way of doing things…” by requiring the Attorney General to create a standardized form which the law says “…shall be used…”

(f) In order to assist private businesses and counties and municipal corporations in complying with the provisions of this Code section, the Attorney General shall provide a standardized form affidavit which shall be used as acceptable evidence demonstrating use of the federal employment eligibility verification system or that the provisions of subsection (b) of this Code section do not apply to the applicant. The form affidavit shall be posted by the Attorney General on the Department of Law’s official website no later than January 1, 2012.

I have posted that form here. Please note the area on the bottom for notarization.

OCGA 50-36-1

 This law was put in place in 2006 in an attempt to make Georgia less attractive to illegal aliens by insuring that only eligible residents were allowed to access public benefits (which include Occupational Tax Certificates). The Dept. of Audits and Accounts is charged under the law to create an affidavit that applicants for public benefits complete attesting to eligibility for these public benefits. This document is known as “Verification of Lawful Presence in the United States” affidavit.

(50-36-1: (2) “The state auditor shall create affidavits for use under this subsection and shall keep a current version of such affidavits on the Department of Audits and Accounts’ official website.”

That affidavit can be seen here from the Dept. of Audits and Accounts

In clear violation of state law, the City of Dalton leaders have invented and is using their own unauthorized version of this document. I suspect that city leaders are using their own illegal verification of lawful presence affidavit for other public benefits applications as well. I will assume that your office or the GBI will investigate that subject further.

Complaint

 * The City of Dalton office that issues Occupational Tax Certificates is in violation of OCGA 50-36-1 by use of an illegal affidavit.

* After spending a great deal of my own time on investigating the system used by the City of Dalton office that issues Occupational Tax Certificates, I see several ongoing violations. They include (but are not limited to) the fact that Dalton has ignored the law and invented it’s own jumbled affidavit to illegally replace the Private Employer Affidavit pursuant to OCGA 36-60-6 (d) that is readily available for use on the website of the Attorney General.

In addition to designing an unauthorized affidavit, the Dalton OTC office has curiously added the word “EXEMPT” in caps, bold and underlined above an unrelated section of their illegal official document that makes no sense. This addition should be explained.

I was able to see the Dalton OTC office’s issuing operation by using the state’s open records law and asking for copies of required documents required for issue and renewal for the time period 1 July 2012 to 15 September 2020 for two Dalton businesses (Oakwood Cafe and Cherokee Brewing and Pizza) chosen at random. While the response to my request was timely, the documents that logically should have been included for the 2013 application for the 2014 issuance of the OTC for Oakwood Cafe were not included.

Response to open records request Oakwood Café here. For Cherokee Brewing and Pizza here.

I wrote a note to the staffer who helped me to ask if the omission of the 2013/2014 documents an oversight, but I received no reply.

* It appears that the Dalton OTC office did not process an application or issue a 2014 OTC for Oakwood Cafe. Previous and subsequent years documents were sent to me for that business. Reliable press reports indicate that Oakwood Café has been open since 2004.

I understand how dry and uninteresting this topic is to the general public. But the law serves an integral purpose to fighting the organized crime of illegal immigration, which is largely caused by illegal employment.

I have no doubt my documented complaint will be treated to be as important as our other laws including tax-evasion, no-smoking, seat belt and laws that say we must provide certain benefits to illegal aliens. As for standardized forms, imagine if we all begin to send in our annual taxes filled out on homemade forms of our own design.

Summary:

 The City of Dalton OTC office (and likely other Dalton offices that administer public benefits) is in violation of OCGA 50-36-1 in that it is using an illegal affidavit to replace one that was carefully and officially designed to screen applicants for public benefits and to reduce the chances of those taxpayer benefits going to illegal aliens.

The City of Dalton Occupational Tax Certificate office is in violation of OCGA 36-60-6 in several ways – and in at least two languages. These violations are not limited to the fact that city officials are ignoring the law on proper and designated forms distributed to collect information used to monitor compliance with the E-Verify for private employers requirement.

I do not have an explanation for the fact that they cannot present applications, affidavits or certificates for Oakwood Cafe for the year 2014. I hope an official investigation will offer an explanation to all of this. I would be grateful if you inform me of any oversight here on my part.

I contend that the City of Dalton has illegally processed hundreds if not thousands of illegal applications/affidavits and thereby has issued as many illegal and invalid Occupational Tax Certificates and illegally administered an unknown number of public benefits to an unknown number of recipients.

I link to a list of public benefits regulated by OCGA 50-36-1 here.

I question the legality and validity of all Occupational Tax Certificates now being regarded as lawfully issued and recognized by the City of Dalton.

I ask that your office forward this complaint to the GBI and that the Attorney General prosecute the violators so as to serve as a deterrent to other officials who are not compelled to have an interest in strict compliance with the E-Verify laws in Georgia.

OCGA 36-60-6:

 (h) Any person presenting false or misleading evidence of state licensure shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Any government official or employee knowingly acting in violation of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; provided, however, that any person who knowingly submits a false or misleading affidavit pursuant to this Code section shall be guilty of submitting a false document in violation of Code Section 16-10-20. It shall be a defense to a violation of this Code section that such person acted in good faith and made a reasonable attempt to comply with the requirements of this Code section. 

 (j) The Attorney General shall be authorized to conduct an investigation and bring any criminal or civil action he or she deems necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions of this Code section. The Attorney General shall provide an employer who is found to have committed a good faith violation of this Code section 30 days to demonstrate to the Attorney General that such employer has come into compliance with this Code section. During the course of any investigation of violations of this Code section, the Attorney General shall also investigate potential violations of Code Section 16-9-121.1 by employees that may have led to violations of this Code section.

 Sheriff Chitwood, on a personal note, as a 68 year-old former Marine, grandson of a police officer (Detroit Police Academy, class of 1928) and someone who has devoted the last seventeen years of his life to actively advocating for immigration enforcement, please accept my sincere gratitude for the courageous job you and your deputies and staff do for Whitfield County and Georgia.

At our house we respect and support law enforcement officers and pray for your safety.

Also, I have been an advocate for 287(g) since 2004 and am proud to have assisted in implementing the lifesaving 287(g) program in Gwinnett County. Please know the high level of admiration we have for you for your participation in that commonsense program.

I apologize for the length of this complaint. Please know that I have spent many hours on research and in compiling the information gathered. I was closely involved in the creation of the laws cited here and have great interest in seeing them actually enforced.

Respectfully submitted,

D.A. King

President, the Dustin Inman Society

Marietta, GA. 30066

Photo: AJC

This story is from the liberal AJC (!)

Immigration authorities arrest 13 Korean workers at SK battery plant
Sept 24, 2020

Georgia’s largest economic-development project in a decade has been hit with its second round of arrests targeting illegal workers in four months.

Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested 13 Koreans employed at SK Innovation’s $2.6 billion construction site in Commerce, said Lindsay Williams, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman. They were later released on an “order of supervision,” he said, declining to discuss the matter further since it’s under investigation.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in May arrested 33 Koreans who were working at the SK plant without proper visas.

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The immigration crackdown comes as SK Innovation remains embroiled in a legal battle over battery technologies that could threaten the massive construction project. The International Trade Commission is expected to rule next month on a dispute between SK and rival LG Chem over a patent for technology slated to be used at the plant. An SK spokesman said the commission’s ruling won’t be final and is subject to appeals.

The 2.4 million-square-foot plant, located next to Interstate 85 in Jackson County, could eventually employ up to 2,600 workers. Georgia gave SK one of the biggest incentive packages in state history to locate there, including $300 million in grants, tax breaks and free land… Much more here.

Photo: AJC

Tough illegal immigration law ignored

Tough illegal immigration law ignored
Legislature provided no funds for enforcement; municipalities fail to register for program

By CAMERON McWHIRTER, MARY LOU PICKEL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, January 25, 2009

A key goal of Georgia’s 2006 law cracking down on illegal immigration was simple and controversial: stop undocumented immigrants from earning wages paid by taxpayers.Supporters heralded the provision as one of the nation’s toughest because it orders local governments, their contractors and subcontractors to confirm the legal status of new hires.

REGISTRATION GAPS

A review of the Homeland Security database shows that 21 county governments out of 159 have not registered with E-Verify. None of these counties were in metro Atlanta or other urban areas of the state. In nine of the counties that did not register, the school systems did sign up for E-Verify. And 234 chartered cities and towns out of 536, most of them small, rural communities, have yet to sign up.

But the provision has amounted to less than proponents hoped and critics feared. No one in state government is enforcing the law. No one at the state level has checked to see whether governments and businesses are complying. And nothing happens to them if they don’t.
A year and a half after the law required every government in Georgia to sign up with the federal Homeland Security Department to verify the legal status of new hires, the Georgia Department of Labor has no idea what agencies or governments are complying. The department is tasked with setting guidelines for implementing the 2006 Immigration Security and Compliance Act.

Supporters of the law say if this basic task isn’t done, they can’t have confidence that the rest of the law is being taken seriously. Other provisions call for illegal immigrants arrested for a felony or DUI to be reported to immigration authorities, and for governments to make sure they don’t give welfare to illegal immigrants.
The reason for the lack of accountability: The Legislature never provided money to monitor the law.

“As far as any enforcement responsibilities under the law, we don’t have any,” Labor Department spokesman Sam Hall said.
Hall said the agency posted guidelines on its Web site and offered to do random audits — if it received funding. Asked whether anyone in state government knows which agencies and governments are complying with the law, Hall said: “There is no central agency that has the authority to do that.”

Many sign up year late

The law, which started as SB 529, requires all government offices to sign up for the federal employment verification program called E-Verify. It’s a free national database designed to check whether someone can legally work in the country.All businesses with more than 100 employees doing government work are supposed to be registered by now. The smallest businesses doing work with governments aren’t required to sign up until July.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found most Georgia governments have signed up for the computer program that matches an employee’s name against Social Security and immigration data. Many were a year late in doing so. But some smaller governments still haven’t signed up.More importantly, no one has determined whether governments that have signed up are actually using it.Local officials who routinely use the system said E-Verify hasn’t had an effect on their hiring. In many towns, hiring has slowed because of the economic downturn.

Most metro Atlanta governments have enrolled in the program. Notable exceptions include Doraville and Lithonia. College Park signed up Jan. 13 after being contacted by the AJC.Rhonda Blackmon, the city clerk of Doraville, said the city will sign up for the program. Lithonia Police Chief Willie Rosser said, “This is the first I’ve heard we had to do it.”‘There is no stick’

The law contains other ways to crack down on illegal immigration. It uses the state tax code to tighten loopholes for those who declare themselves “independent contractors.” Some employers use independent contractors as a way around hiring laws. If employers don’t follow the new tax rules, they could be penalized if the state Department of Revenue audited their business.The provision requiring jailers to check the legal status of anyone booked on a felony or a DUI also has problems. For instance, a prisoner may bond out of jail before the feds call to hold the person on immigration violations.“There is no state oversight of any of this stuff,” said Terry Norris, executive vice president of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association.

Mark Newman, an attorney at Troutman Sanders who advises businesses about the immigration law, said “most businesses are clueless” about what the compliance act requires. He said he wasn’t surprised by slow response from counties and local governments.“There is no stick,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like there is much motivation or incentive.”The absence of enforcement has been frustrating to state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), who was the lead sponsor of the bill and a vocal opponent of illegal immigration. Rogers, who is Senate majority leader, said he does not plan to introduce any enforcement changes to the law this year. He introduced such an amendment last year that became mired in the House.

Therefore, he’s waiting for the House to take action. Rogers said he has had many conversations with local and county officials who say they didn’t think they had to comply with the law. Many governments were slow to sign up.“The argument is always, ‘I didn’t know I had to,’ ” Rogers said. “Some don’t know they have to, and some simply aren’t doing their job.”

Enforcement funding iffy

Supporters of the law argue the Legislature needs to spend money on enforcement. In a news conference this month at the state Capitol, D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society, a Marietta-based group pressing for stricter immigration laws, said the Immigration Security and Compliance Act “is being laughed at by many of the local officials in this state. … I never dreamed it would be the local governments of Georgia that would defy the law.” Opponents argue the lack of compliance is proof the legislation is unworkable. They contend the cash-strapped state shouldn’t spend money on enforcement. “This is just a bad law and a bad idea,” immigration attorney Charles Kuck said. “It’s a waste of time and money and effort, and it gave the state a black eye.”

Between the two sides are local government officials.“Small cities with few employees, or a part-time manager, may not know they have to comply with E-Verify,” said Amy Henderson, spokeswoman for the Georgia Municipal Association. Janice Truhan, city clerk of Jonesboro, signed up in July and has been following instructions and tutorials ever since. Lately, she said, the E-Verify system has been acting up and won’t let her process new applications after she enters her password. “It’s not an easy system to use,” Truhan said.

King said he will push this session for money to enforce the legislation or to authorize the state to withhold money if governments don’t comply. But Kuck said that the state, facing a large budget shortfall, probably won’t do anything to finance enforcement.“It will just sit there,” he said of the law. “No one in the state of Georgia will vote to overturn it because it would be political suicide.”

I have the hard copy version but can only find this link:  

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Photo: DIS of AJC news report.

Photo: City of Dalton

Sent this afternoon to

Jason Parker

Dalton City Administrator

300 W. Waugh Street

P.O. Box 1205

Dalton, GA 30722

706-529-2404

www.cityofdalton-ga.gov

Mr. Parker,

Thank you very much for your prompt and professional response to my recent open records request. For clarity, I need to ask if there is are any documents that may have been inadvertantly overlooked in that response. I ask because the time frame in my request was 1 July 2012 to the date of my letter (15Sept2020).

Unless I am missing something, the responsive OTC documents included in the package I was able to access from the link you sent me begin in November, 2014 which is paperwork for renewal of the Occupational Tax Certificate for Oakwood Cafe for 2015.

I am curious if a oversight has occurred in fulfilling my request in your office for the copies of documents that would logically have been completed in 2013 for the 2014 Oakwood Cafe OTC. I have accessed reliable news reports that indicate Oakwood cafe began business in 2004. The E-Verify law for private employers with more than 10 employees but fewer than 100 was effective on July 1, 2013.

§ 36-60-6. Utilization of federal work authorization program; “employee” defined; issuance of license; evidence of state licensure; annual reporting; standardized form affidavit; violation; investigations

(a) Every private employer with more than ten employees shall register with and utilize the federal work authorization program, as defined by Code Section 13-10-90. The requirements of this subsection shall be effective on January 1, 2012, as to employers with 500 or more employees, on July 1, 2012, as to employers with 100 or more employees but fewer than 500 employees, and on July 1, 2013, as to employers with more than ten employees but fewer than 100 employees.

I understand the limitations of your responsibility under the public records law and my open records request. I only write this note for purposes of accuracy and clarity and am fully aware that you are not bound to reply. I am simply trying to help if indeed an oversight has occurred in your office.

Thank you if you have time to respond,

D.A. King