January 26, 2006

Basic Pilot Program: verifying legal staus of employees used by few employers

Posted by D.A. King at 12:25 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

This from World Net Daily

INVASION USA
Employers shun service to weed out illegal hires
Web-based program accesses databases, IDs phony documents ‘within a minute’

An 8-year-old federal program that permits employers to use the Internet to instantly verify prospective hires’ legal eligibility to work in the U.S. is being used by less that 1/10 of 1 percent of the nation’s companies because it is voluntary, under-publicized and puts its users at a competitive disadvantage to firms who continue to hire illegal workers.

read entire article here.

Am I the only one who wonders why the press doesn’t cover the fact that the state of Georgia doesn’t use Basic Pilot?

LIBERALS BEWARE: THERE IS A HIGH COST TO “CHEAP” LABOR

Posted by D.A. King at 11:28 am - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

Former three term Democratic Party governor of Colorado Richard Lamm on illegal immigration.

LIBERALS BEWARE: THERE IS A HIGH COST TO “CHEAP” LABOR
Richard D. Lamm

There is a liberal case for controlling illegal immigration that is seldom articulated. As the issue heats up and sides are drawn, both objectivity and civility seem to be in short supply. Armed citizen groups travel to the Border as self-appointed border guards, setting the stage for worrisome and perhaps violent conflict. Defenders of illegal immigrants call any and all concern about this issue “racist,” and attempt to take the issue completely off the table. The wise words directed at another subject by the late John Gardner seem to apply; the issue is “caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers.”

Dialogue is particularly difficult when addressing issues that deal with, or are claimed to be motivated by, race. In a strange way, this is a compliment to America. The struggle for civil rights, even now not completely resolved, was so overdue, so right for its time, so glorious in its accomplishment, that it required the vast majority of Americans to inoculate themselves against all forms of racism. Unconscious insensitivities that had developed over the 100 years since the Civil War, had to be changed or at least made into a faux pas. We all step gingerly around the subject of race, and have even taken innocent words like “niggardly” out of our vocabulary because they might accidentally offend. All revolutions have causalities, and by a large margin the small costs are eclipsed by the large gains in justice. But you can’t solve an issue you don’t talk about, and a problem ignored just grows worse. It is time for an honest discussion about illegal immigration. Not out of a narrowness of heart to newcomers, but because illegal immigration is hurting U.S. taxpayers and the poorest Americans for the benefit of a few. A coalition of “cheap labor conservatives” and “open border liberals” reinforced by political correctness has kept this debate off the table too long.
It almost seems naĂŻve to start out the argument that we are a nation of laws, and that people should come here legally. This is not a mere formality as some imply, or a tiresome technicality: remember that there are millions of people patiently waiting to come to America, and illegal immigrants skip the line. To continue to tolerate this practice is not only a legal issue; it is morally unfair to those waiting to come legally. The argument should stop there, but it doesn’t, so let’s look at some of the public policy reasons against the institution of illegal immigration

Economic Impact of Illegal Immigration
Illegal immigration is having a heavy economic, social and demographic impact and it is past time to make a liberal case for controlling illegal immigration. Economic and social justice is the glue that holds liberals together. I first got interested in illegal immigration when a Colorado packing plant fired a group of Hispanic Americans and replaced them with illegal immigrants. A small group of the fired workers came to me, as Governor, to complain. There was little I could do. I called the President of the packing plant who nicely told me to mind my own business and claimed that all his new workers had Green cards, which indeed they had, bought in the underground market along with fake Social Security cards for $25 apiece. Some time later, INS raided the plant but the workforce evaporated during the raid, to return (or to be replaced by other illegal immigrants) shortly thereafter. The plant continued to employ a largely monolingual Spanish-speaking workforce until it was bought out and closed 10 years later.

It is easy to see why this underground workforce is attractive to employers. The owner of this particular packing plant essentially told me he was not going to pay his (legal) workers $16 a hour, plus benefits, when he could hire illegals at $10 a hour without benefits. This type of reasoning will forever lock the bottom quartile of our American earners into poverty: for how are they ever to obtain a decent wage? Illegal immigrants are generally good hard working people who will quietly accept minimum wage (or below), don’t get health care or other benefits, and if they complain they can be easily fired. Even minimum wage is attractive to workers from countries whose standard of living is a fraction of ours.

But that is not to say it is “cheap labor”. It may be “cheap” to those who pay the wages, but for the rest of us it is clearly “subsidized” labor, as we taxpayers pick up the costs of education, health, and other municipal costs imposed by this workforce. These have become a substantial and growing cost as the nature of illegal immigration patterns has changed.

For decades illegal immigrants were single men who would come up from Mexico or Central America, alone, pick crops or perform other low paid physical labor and then go home. They were indeed “cheap labor”. But starting slowly in the 1960s, and steadily increasing to this day, these workers either bring their families or smuggle them into the country later. They become a permanent or semi-permanent population living in the shadows but imposing immense municipal costs. Illegal immigration today isn’t “cheap” labor except to the employer. To the rest of us it is “subsidized” labor; where a few get the benefit and the rest of us pay. These costs ought to be obvious to all, but the myth of “cheap labor” and “jobs Americans won’t do” persists. But let us examine it in more detail.

It is hard to get an exact profile of the people who live in the underground economy, but studies do show the average illegal immigrant family is larger than the average American family. It costs Colorado taxpayers over $7,271 a child just to educate a child in our public schools (closer to $10,000 per child per-year for non-English-speakers). Realistically no minimum wage workers, or even low wageworkers pay anywhere near enough taxes to pay for even one child in school. Even if they were paying all Federal and State taxes, Colorado’s estimated 32.3 thousand illegal alien children in Colorado school systems (out of an estimated Colorado population of 230,000 illegal immigrants) impose gargantuan costs on our taxpayers. This figure is actually a significant under-statement because there are an estimated 30,000-40,000 additional children born to illegal immigrants while they are in the U.S. (and these children are considered U.S. citizens), clearly adding to the total impact of illegal immigration.

We have here in Colorado, and increasingly nationwide, single family houses with three or more families of illegal immigrants earning, at the most, between $15,000 and $25,000 per family, but with multiple kids in the school system costing our taxpayers more in education costs alone that all three families gross in wages. Studies show that approximately two-thirds of illegal immigrants lack a high school diploma. The National Academy of Sciences has found that there is a significant fiscal drain on U.S. taxpayers for each adult immigrant (legal or illegal) without a high school education. But don’t get caught up in the battle of studies: just use your common sense and thoughtfully consider whether a low income family with three or four kids in the school system are paying anything close to what it costs to educate their kids. These are expensive families to provide with governmental services. Some employers are getting cheap labor and externalizing the costs of that labor to the rest of us.

Americans pay in more ways than taxes. Cheap labor drives down wages as low income Americans are forced to compete against these admittedly hard working people. Even employers, who don’t want to wink at false documents, are forced to lower wages just to be competitive. It is, in many ways, a “race to the bottom” fueled by poor people often recruited from evermore-distant countries by middlemen who profit handsomely. It isn’t only wages, the employers of this abused form of labor often violate minimum wage requirements, Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, and overtime laws. Further, if injured, illegal workers often have no access to Workmen’s Compensation.

The Americans who pay the price are those at the bottom of the economic ladder who directly compete with this illegal workforce. The very people that liberals profess to speak for and care about pay the price in lost and suppressed wages while employers get the benefits of reduced wages. Professor George Borjas of Harvard, an immigrant himself, estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market from newcomers.

The dilemma is compounded by the fact that approximately 40 percent of illegal workers are paid in cash, off books. Go to any construction site, almost anywhere in America, and you will find illegal workers who are paid cash wages with no taxes withheld. Equally important, those illegal workers whose employers do pay withholding taxes have learned to claim 12 or more dependents, so their withholding taxes are either non-existent or minimal. Virtually every city in America has an area where illegal immigrant workers gather and people come by to get “cheap” cash wage labor. High costs, low taxes, downward pressure on wages, this is not cheap labor; this is the most expensive labor a community could ever imagine.

Supply Side Poverty
Consequently, we have a group of workers who pay no, or reduced withholding taxes, with above average birthrate (thus above average impact on schools), impacting our school system, with more, and more arriving every year. It is Orwellian to call this “cheap labor.” It is “supply side” poverty added to our society so a few employers can get “cheap labor.” It is happening nationwide. Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Editor in Chief of U.S. News and World Report, speaking of U.S. poverty asks:

“So why haven’t overall poverty rates declined further? In a word — immigration. Many of those who come to the United States are not only poor but also unskilled. Hispanics account for much of the increase in poverty — no surprise, since 25 percent of poor people are Hispanic. Since 1989, Hispanics represent nearly three quarters of all increase in overall poverty population. Immigration has also helped keep the median income for the country basically flat for five straight years, the longest stretch of income stagnation on record.” (10/3/05)

Nationwide people and organizations are starting to object. The Atlanta Business Chronicle wrote that “Georgia taxpayers spend $231 million a year to educate illegal alien children” while “public schools (are) facing some of the most significant decreases in state education funding in decades, communities’ tax dollars are being diverted to accommodate mass illegal immigration.” How can the American educational system improve when it is impacted, year after year, by this source of “supply side poverty.”

Health Care Impact
The health care cost of this illegal workforce is also significant and also subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. You can go to virtually any emergency room in Colorado and you will hear Spanish as the predominant language. “Colorado has one of the highest rates of new mothers who speak little or no English” (RMN 10/13/05). Over eighty percent of the births in Denver Health and Hospitals are to monolingual Spanish speaking women. Increasingly we are seeing elderly grandparents with health problems present in emergency rooms as extended families consolidate. No, we don’t know for sure that they are illegal, because it is against Federal law to check, but it is safe to assume that most are. Denver Health alone estimates that they spend one million taxpayer dollars just in interpreting for non-English speakers. What would the total taxpayer cost of interpreting be statewide, and that is just a fraction of the total health care costs? The cumulative cost of this “subsidized” labor is impossible to ascertain and difficult to even estimate, but it is immense and growing as our population of these workers grows. A few benefit, the rest of us pay.

It is technically illegal for illegal immigrants to claim Medicaid, but as Health and Human Services Inspector General found, “Forty-seven states allow self-declaration of U.S. citizenship for Medicaid” and over half of those do not verify the accuracy of these claims as part of their post-eligibility quality control activities.” The barn doors are wide open! Families without a word of English boldly declare themselves U.S. citizens and nobody checks! When states don’t use the tools available to them, it is more the states’ fault than those abusing the system.

Many of my liberal friends like to think of themselves as “citizens of the world” who dislike borders, and indeed we all realize we live in a more interdependent, interconnected world. But “to govern is to choose” and if everyone is my brother and sister than nobody will ever get covered by Social programs liberals compassionately seek. I have been fighting all my life for universal health care, but we can’t have “the best health care system in the world” combined with Swiss cheese borders. Social and redistributive programs require borders. It is fine to think of yourself as a citizen of the world, but we solve most problems in a national context and therefore we owe a greater moral duty to our fellow Americans than we do to non-citizens. Liberals must defend borders or they will lose all the social programs that they care about! No social program can survive without geographic limits and defined beneficiaries.

We often hear that 45 million Americans are without health insurance, but this figure is likely overestimated, because it includes over 10 million illegal immigrants. Most of the estimated 12 to 15 million people living illegally in America do not have health insurance. More and more hospitals are going broke because of the constant stream of uninsured, particularly in our border states. The Census Bureau estimates that 11.6 million people in immigrant households are without health insurance. Not all immigrants are illegal; nevertheless, our experience here in Colorado indicates a substantial majority is not legally in the country. The problem is much like when the gods condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, and the stone would fall back of its own weight. It is not unlike when you expand education funding or Medicaid and give extra state aid to impacted hospitals, but the problems grow faster than the solution. We use the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover uninsured children, but a new flood of immigrant children without health insurance quickly overcomes our gains. The Center for Immigration Studies has estimated that for a recent five-year period, immigrants and their children accounted for 59 percent (2.7 million people) of the growth of the uninsured.

Ironically, the price of compassion is restriction. The only way we can help America’s poor is to develop programs which are not constantly diluted by the rest of the world’s 6 billion, no matter how sympathetic.

Illegal Immigration and the Environment
The environmental community stands mute on the subject of illegal immigration. I was President in the late 1960s of the First National Congress on Population and The Environment, and later of Zero Population Growth (currently known as Population Connection). It was taken for granted at the time that the size of both world population and U.S. population was an environmental issue. We had a formula I=PAT that approached dogma at the time: Impact equals population times affluence times technology. Total environmental impact can be gauged by looking at the average individual impact on the environment (compounded or mitigated by technology) multiplied by the number of people. There was little argument among environmentalists or even civic leaders on this point. Yet the President’s Commission on Population Growth and the America Future (1970) found:

“We have looked for, and have not found, any continuing economic argument for continued population growth. The health of our country does not depend on it, nor does the vitality of business, nor the welfare of the average person.”

Today no major environmental group will take on the issue of immigration, legal or illegal. The fear of charges of racism silence the environmental community as the American population grows toward a half a billion consumers by mid-century. I fear history will show that the U.S. environmental movement, silenced by political correctness, is committing public policy malpractice by avoiding this issue.

Impact on our Social Fabric
Illegal immigration is having a heavy impact on our social fabric. A vast majority of illegal immigrants are from Spanish speaking countries. The sheer numbers are retarding assimilation as large ethnic ghettos develop and a de facto apartheid is forming. It is important to America’s future that we look at how our Hispanic immigrants are doing. Too many of our Hispanic immigrants live in ethnic ghettos, too many are unskilled laborers, too many are uneducated, too many live in poverty, too many are exploited, too many haven’t finished 9th grade, too many drop out of school.

The Center for Immigration Studies issued a report last year, which found nationwide: “Almost two-thirds of adult Mexican immigrants have not completed high school, compared to fewer than one in ten natives not completing high school. Mexican immigrants now account for 22 percent of all high school dropouts in the labor force.” But what is most disturbing is that second and third generations don’t do much better. Again, the study from The Center for Immigration Studies: “The lower educational attainment of Mexican immigrants appears to persist across the generations. The high school dropout rates of native-born Mexican-Americans (both second and third generation) are two and a half times that of other natives.” It found that Mexican immigrants and their young children comprise 4.2percent of the nation’s total population, yet they comprise 10.2 percent of all persons in poverty. They also comprise 12.5 percent of those without health insurance and their use of welfare is twice that of Native Americans.

Robert J. Samuelson writing in the Washington Post states:

“Our interest lies in less immigration from Mexico, while Mexico’s interest lies in more. The United States has long been an economic safety value for Mexico: a source of jobs for its poor. By World Bank estimates, perhaps 40 percent of Mexico’s 100 million people have incomes of less than $2 a day. The same desperate forces that drive people north mean that once they get here they face long odds in joining the American economic and social mainstream… Surely we don’t need more poor and unskilled workers, and Mexican immigrants fall largely into this category. The stakes here transcend economics.” (July 20, 2000)

The question has to be asked: “By tolerating illegal immigration are we laying the foundations for a new Hispanic underclass? A Hispanic Quebec?” The mere phrase makes liberals cringe. Frankly, it makes me cringe, but immigration is building the new future of America. Are we not building up a large, unintegrated, unassimilated underclass similar to what France is suffering from currently? Is this not a harbinger of social unrest in our own society? We owe it to our children to have a candid dialogue.

Conclusion
Illegal aliens are, as is pointed out endlessly, “good hard working people who just want the American dream.” But that can’t be the end of the argument. The trouble with that level of analysis is that there are over four billion “good hard working people” in the world living below the American poverty level, most of who would love to come to the U.S. Obviously we can’t take then all. We already have ten-percent of Mexico living here, and a recent poll showed that forty-six percent of all adults in Mexico want to move to the U.S. Then there is Central America. South America. Bangladesh? China? The pool of poor people is bottomless. Yet, we are a nation of laws, with our own unemployed and underemployed, our own kids to educate, and our nation needs to come to some enforceable consensus on what our policy should be on people entering the country illegally.
I have not mentioned what is perhaps the biggest reason to get control over our borders: terrorism. It isn’t that I forgot, it is just that all Americans are concerned about terrorism and I seek here to make uniquely liberal arguments. I sense a backlash against illegal immigration that risks many/most of our most important social programs. Polls show that over 70 percent of Americans object to illegal immigration, and we run a serious risk of a backlash against all immigrants if we don’t reach some consensus on this issue. Polls also show that there is no issue in America where there is a bigger gap between public opinion and opinions of the media and other “elites.” But many of us are against illegal immigration because we do take social justice seriously. The late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, one of my liberal heroes, was a consistent foe of illegal immigration. In testimony to the House Immigration Subcommittee, February 24, 1995 she stated:
“Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.” “…for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.”
Barbara Jordan was a liberal who understood that immigrants must be legal and that the law needed to be enforced for the sake of our own poor and our own social fabric. But reasoned dialogue in America is rare these days and issues of immense importance to America’s future are not being discussed or even debated. The question of illegal immigration is high on that list.

End
* Some argue that illegals contribute to our economy through their spending. In fact, because illegals’ salaries are low, they have little to spend. In addition, while American-born workers spend most or all of their earnings here in the US, creating more jobs and in turn, more tax revenues, illegals send much of their earnings back to relatives in their native country. For example, according to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center and Inter-American Development Bank, Latino immigrants in 2002, despite the soft economy, sent a record $23 billion to relatives and others in their home countries.

Posted with permission.

January 24, 2006

The 1986 amnesty from someone who was there

Posted by D.A. King at 1:08 am - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

My friend Bill King [ no relation] in an interview with the New American magazine: Please share this with those who would grant amnesty again…

William King is one of America’s foremost authorities on immigration, combining decades of field experience in the Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) with additional decades of study and speaking on the issue. After stints in the U.S. Coast Guard and the United States Army, William King joined the Border Patrol in 1957. He saw service as a Border Patrol agent on our northern and southern borders and many of our major coastal ports, including New York City, Miami, and San Diego.

Mr. King served as the Border Patrol’s chief agent for the El Centro sector, and was director of the Border Patrol Academy and acting director of the Immigration Academy. He was one of the four INS directors nationwide in charge of administering the amnesty provision of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA).

Since his retirement, William King has remained active on border and immigration issues, speaking regularly to political and civic groups, participating in debates and on conference panels, and appearing on radio and television programs

Please click here for entire interview.

January 23, 2006

We get mail… illegal immigration explained by someone who knows and approves

Posted by D.A. King at 11:09 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

Below is an un-edited letter recieved here today.

It needs no commentary.

I read you article and agree in one topic, immigration towards the US is not unemployed related. I am part of the so called, elite, in Mexico and currently live in London working in banking. Nevertheless, I must tell you that whenever I see my friends back in Mexico, we are glad of immigration because of historical reasons, we believe that land (from California to Texas) still belongs to us, and since we are have no political and military power, a cultural invasion has been the solution. In all honesty I feel very happy when I go to Texas or LA and speak only Spanish. On another context, the Mexican government will never diminish immigration since it is reflected in one third of its yearly budget. I hope these comments are helpful for you.

Regards

J Garza
—–

Note from D.A. more info here and here and here

January 22, 2006

America is fast becoming Hospital to the World

Posted by D.A. King at 11:15 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

This is neither news to those who choose to pay attention, nor a recent report, but it is worth noting Dr. Madeline Cosman’s very educated observations on the consequences of illegal immigration on our medical system.

Horrendous diseases that long ago America had conquered are resurging. Horrific diseases common in Third World poverty and medical ignorance suddenly are appearing in American emergency rooms and medical offices. Along with the visible invasion of Illegal Aliens across our borders is an invisible invasion of deadly diseases

The entire report can be read here.

What was that about “cheap labor” again?

January 13, 2006

A willing worker for illegal immigration: Atlanta’s Tom Crawford bashes the rule of law and the citizens it came in on

Posted by D.A. King at 1:05 am - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

The pending state legislation aimed at illegal immigration in Georgia seems to be bringing out the worst in an already poor example of a journalist – and thinker – in Atlanta writer Tom Crawford. [ Email him]

Below is part of a recent commentary written by Crawford that ran in several places around Georgia…we read it in the Cherokee Ledger-News. [ Email the editor] Below that, a few observations from D.A. [Email D.A.]

The Georgia bills that are aimed at helping to enforce existing laws are Senate Bill [SB] 169, SB 170, SB 336 and HB 961 [Note that HB 961 is authored and sponsored by Democrats – maybe Pedro Marin, a signer, is “ethnic bashing” too …ehh Tom?] , among others. Click here to access the bills.

Please let us know if you find any language that addresses “immigrants” or ethnicity. We could not.

Let us know if you read any language that “bashes” anyone. We did not.

From Tom Crawford’s column:

“The season for bashing starts”

“The undocumented immigrants who make up a growing portion of Georgia’s population will also be a prime target for Republicans, reflecting a political trend on the national level as well. Sen. Chip Rogers, a radio talk-show host from Cherokee County, is determined to pass a bill that will deny government benefits like healthcare and education to immigrant families. Legislators will also support giving local police departments the authority to round up illegal aliens and send them back home, although that’s a legally shakier proposition because those powers technically reside with the federal government…

The debate over immigration could cause some heartburn for Perdue, who’s not as enthusiastic about keeping immigrant students out of school as some of his fellow Republicans…

With all the ethnic bashing on the legislative agenda, it could turn into a hostile session very quickly….”

D.A.’s observations on Crawford’s column:

I hate to further confuse Tom Crawford, but by definition, “immigrants” enter the U.S. lawfully.

He should heed some old advice for writers: write about what you know.

Emergency health care and K-12 education are federally mandated and not addressed in Rogers’ legislation. Neither is Rogers’ now a “radio talk show host”. But, who cares… ehh Tom?

Section 287 (g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996 is only one law that provides for state and local police to enforce immigration law.

Crawford must go apoplectic when he reads that the United States Border Patrol Agents actually apprehend and remove illegal aliens from what remains of our republic.

One wonders if he writes the inflammatory drivel like his commentary on state senator Chip Rogers’ and his bills as a result of sleepless nights spent in horrified panic that we have a border at all – or because he cannot find any valid arguments to support his obvious position that enforcing immigration laws is somehow un-American.

Maybe he is just trying to get to do whatever he can to motivate his people to turn out and vote? Good luck with that Comrade…most us realize that in a war on terror our unsecured borders and the resulting illegal immigration is destroying America. [Most of us think that is a bad thing Tom]

While I have seen more mindless accounts of the Georgia legislation aimed at aiding enforcement of existing law, I have not seen any lazier or more intentionally false.

It is a federal felony to re-enter the U.S. after having been apprehended and removed. It is a federal felony to employ, assist, shelter, transport or encourage an illegal alien to remain in the United States. In Crawford’s world, anyone who even suggests we actually enforce these laws is suspect, and apparently is engaging in “ethnic bashing”.

How handy.

Memo to Crawford: there is no such thing as “cheap labor”…the present black market labor that you pretend to have knowledge on is taxpayer-subsidized labor and it is not cheap. Si? Native born Hispanics and Blacks are the first Americans effected by illegal immigration. Ooops…those pesky facts again.

Tom Crawford is one of many who are concerned that Americans who value the rule of law will actually be successful in making life in Georgia difficult for criminal employers and illegal aliens.

Both of Crawford’s regular readers should be asking why.

Yuck.

January 8, 2006

The Dustin Inman Society joins in the National Protest Day

Posted by D.A. King at 6:59 pm - Email the author   Print This Post Print This Post  

The Dustin Inman Society joins in the National Protest Day January 7, 2005

Because D.A. King had to be out of town for a speaking engagement, Billy and Kathy Inman – Dustin’s parents – and other members and friends of The Dustin Inman Society, including Georgians for Immigration Reduction [GIR], organized our [planned at the last minute]effort to support the National Day of Protest against illegal immigration and the criminal employment of illegal labor on a corner here in Marietta, directly in front of one of the largest black market labor pick-up sites in the area.

The SE corner of Powder Springs and Sandtown Roads, Marietta, Georgia.

Our group totaled about 20 Americans waving signs and banners demanding that existing laws be enforced and our borders be secured on a very cold North Georgia morning. We received good news coverage, including repeating all -day, top of the hour radio taped reporting from the Atlanta metro area’s largest radio station [ thank you WSB radio! ]

The local Fox TV affiliate spent considerable time taping our event. While that station did run a segment on its 6:00 news Saturday, we are all puzzled as to why the editors chose to present a short shot that showed only 4 of the 20 fed -up Americans who were present to the viewer.

The 6th largest newspaper in the nation, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, did not cover our protest – again – despite having been sent a press release. [ Note from D.A; … the AJC supports amnesty and is very clear on their agenda of support for illegal aliens in the U.S and Georgia.]

Our group of Americans was shouted at and demeaned by what were likely illegal aliens and their supporters – counter protesters who seemed upset and displayed that ever dependable standby symbol of illegal immigration and open borders… a very large Mexican flag.

A local Spanish language radio station “QUE BUENA” sent a crew out well after our start time to incite the permit lacking illegal alien-supporting demonstrators across the street. To them, we send a hearty VIVA LA MIGRA! – VIVA REPATRIATION!

Marietta police on the scene found it necessaryto intervene several times with the un-American illegal alien supporting counter protesters.Thanks to MPD!

In short, while we had excellent response from passers by [several stopped and joined our group] the illegal aliens were pretty much business as usual in their lack of respect for American law and Americans who demand that it be enforced.

We are happy to report; There was a very definite and noticeable drop in the number of criminal contractors picking up illegal alien labor!! A great success! We will be back soon!

Thanks to all who took time out of their Saturday on last minute notice to make their voices heard. More of the same very soon!
dak……Marietta, Occupied Georgiafornia [ See photos of counter protesters [ scroll down] here]

Below is another account from J.R. of GIR on the day’s activity.

YesterdayÂąs protest demonstration was a success. You may have seen us on Fox
5 news or heard about it on WSB radio. About 15 people were there, although
I think the TV news clip made it look like a smaller number.

When we arrived at 9:45, there were guys all over the strip mall parking
lot, standing around and apparently waiting for employers to pick them up.
When they saw what we were doing, most of them left for other locations.
About an hour later, there were only a few still left there.

Although a few motorists flipped us off, lots of people gave us the
thumbs-up sign or honked. I was surprised by the number of people who came
up to us and asked about our groups, wanting contact information.

After about an hour, a couple of guys who had left the parking lot behind us
decided to set up their own counter-protest across the street. One of them
held up a sign which said, ÂłA day without Mexicans…your life is worthless²
or something very close to that. Some more people joined the pro-illegal
demonstration, and a some of them brought a large Mexican flag and held it
up. We figured that was good publicity for our side: people holding up the
flag of Mexico and telling us that they were moving in and taking over!
Shortly thereafter, the Spanish-language radio station Que Buena sent 2 vans
to join the illegals in their protest, and we figured that the radio station
was calling for recruits, since more people kept arriving.