We received this statement from Sen. McKoon this afternoon:

“The issue of driver’s licenses being issued to illegal aliens in Georgia is not up for debate. The Department of Drivers Services has acknowledged in a letter to me this year that over 48,000 Georgia Driver’s Licenses have been issued to illegal aliens.

This creates an enormous problem with respect to the integrity of our voter list in Georgia because when one applies for a driver’s license they are automatically registered to vote unless they choose to opt out. This means we have the potential for thousands of illegal aliens to be both registered to vote and in possession of a government issued photo ID valid for voting under Georgia law.

The only responsible thing to do, short of ceasing the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, is to immediately begin making the licenses that are issued clearly and unambiguously to reflect that the holder is not eligible to vote nor is a citizen nor do they have lawful status.

As the next Secretary of State, I will make this a legislative priority.”

(Senator Josh McKoon)

BuzzFeed

Sen. Ted Cruz says he supports call to end DACA program
Here.

‘DREAMERS’ protest immigration laws – photo, Getty Images

Washington Times

Illegal immigration surges 230 percent in April on southwest border

By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Thursday, May 3, 2018

Illegal immigration along U.S.-Mexico border surged 230 percent in April compared to last year, according to new numbers released Thursday that experts said expose major loopholes in American immigration law.
Chief among the loopholes is the de facto “catch-and-release” policy that sees most illegal immigrants caught at the border quickly put back out on the streets, with the hope that they’ll return to be deported later.
Perhaps 75 percent of all migrants caught by Border Patrol agents are given catch and release, said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents line agents. Knowing they’ll be released rather than quickly deported has served as an enticement for more illegal immigrants to make the journey, he said.

“The reason is obvious: If you can cross the border illegally without any consequence, why not? As long as the catch-and-release policy-program exists, large numbers of people are going to cross the border illegally,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.

April’s numbers continue a months-long trend of worsening illegal immigration.

The Border Patrol says it nabbed 38,234 illegal immigrants during the month, while Customs and Border Protection Officers encountered 12,690 more people who tried to come through the official ports of entry without permission.
That makes for the worst month since President Trump took office.

It’s also a huge turnaround from last year at this time, when the new president’s get-tough rhetoric sparked a massive drop. In April 2017, Border Patrol agents nabbed just 11,1129 people, and CBP officers encountered 4,646 others.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly bragged about those early figures, and Democrats have also seized on them, saying the border situation was essentially solved.
The latest numbers suggest that’s far from the case, however, with totals now back to where they were during the Obama era.
“In 2017 and due to the rhetoric we had fewer apprehensions than any year in the past 45 years. It was simply because people believed that if they crossed the border illegally they would be held until their deportation hearing,” Mr. Judd said.

But, he added, that didn’t end up happening. “Smugglers quickly realized everything was status quo, and they’re once again recruiting people to enter our country illegally,” he said.
Illegal immigrant children traveling alone, and families traveling together, are a particular target for the smugglers, who assure the migrants they can win a foothold in the U.S. Officials say it’s so bad that some illegal immigrants have taken to kidnapping or “borrowing” children en route to the U.S. so they can pose as a family and get more lenient treatment.
More than a third of those caught by Border Patrol agents in April were Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) or families, while for CBP officers the rate has soared to more than 50 percent.
Children and families are two groups that particularly benefit from catch-and-release, thanks to court rulings that have set strict limits on how long children can be held in detention. Releasing them virtually guarantees they don’t show up for their deportations, security experts say.

Still other rank-and-file illegal immigrants are also processed and released if there’s not enough detention space in the system to hold them.
Mr. Judd said that leads to the 75 percent catch-and-release figure. Given the more than 38,000 migrants agents apprehended last month, that would mean more than 28,500 of them are likely to be quickly released.
Administration officials have acknowledged the problems. They say they’ve ended “administrative catch and release,” which means they no longer have an official policy calling for some classes of illegal immigrants to be released automatically.

But they said a lack of detention bed space and demands set by federal courts still force catch-and-release for many illegal immigrants.
For example, in the case of a mother and child caught at the border, a court order generally limits Homeland Security to 20 days’ detention. That’s usually too short a time to complete their deportation case, so they are released with the hope they return for their deportation hearings later. That hope is often frustrated.

CBP didn’t respond to a request for comment on the new numbers, which come even as the border agency is dealing with the illegal immigrant caravan.

Mr. Trump, asked about the caravan and border security in a press conference earlier this week, said Congress needs to step up and fix the matter.

“We need a change in the law. Catch and release is ridiculous. If they touch our property, if they touch our country, essentially, you catch them and you release them into our country. That’s not acceptable to anybody,” he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen echoed that call in testimony to Congress last week, where she pleaded for Congress to write laws giving her department the ability to hold people.

“If you have an alarm in your home and you catch a burglar and you call the police and the police come, and in fact it is an illegal entry into your home. But the police then tell you that they have absolutely no ability to detain or remove those criminals and the criminals stay in your house, you would not tell me that is home security. That is what we face at the border,” she said… More here.

DACA should be overturned — A new lawsuit might succeed in doing that

Here.

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS BROWNSVILLE DIVISION

Here.

News story here.

Dustin Inman Society

California highway workers face ‘buckets of human feces,’ needles as homeless crisis worsens

Here.

SSI Islander

April 30, 2018

Letters and Opinions

Dear editor,

The recent news of federal immigration authorities arresting illegal aliens in Glynn should produce state charges as well.

Pro-enforcement voters can watch to see if Glynn and Camden County authorities will prosecute the same illegals for the additional violation of state law designed to protect us from identity theft. We hear that a well-known landscaping company that operates in both Glynn and Camden several home construction job sites have lost some black market labor because of the recent raids. We hope it is true.

“OCGA 16-9-121.1 (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.”

One of the reasons that the silly “undocumented worker” term used as a substitute for the legal and accurate “illegal alien” contained in state and federal law is so mindless is that it is nearly impossible to get a regular job without some kind of ID documents. Illegal aliens have documents, but they are either stolen or fake.

To be legally employed, all job applicants must complete paper work called an “I-9 form” on which they enter ID info and provide corresponding documents. Legitimate workers have no problem doing this.

Illegal aliens must violate the above state law to be hired. Employers are required to keep the I-9 form on file.

If any of the illegal aliens in question were hired after July 1, 2011 when the state law above became effective, they would be in violation of the aggravated identity theft law. It is easy to investigate and difficult to understand if it isn’t.

D.A. King

Marietta

King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society

Here

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

Dalton Daily Citizen

April 30, 2018

Letter: Payne is wrong on driver’s license bill

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

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

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

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

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

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

Billy and Kathy Inman

Woodstock

Here

Dalton Daily Citizen

April 29, 2018

Payne wrong about bill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

D.A. King

Marietta

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

Here