Emico Soltis Ph.D.: “Undocumented is racial code. None of these bans would’ve been passed if they said, “Let’s ban brown students.” “
This woman is teaching illegal aliens about America. We think she is a “hater.”
Laura Emiko Soltis, Ph.D. ( @lesoltis )
Professor of Human Rights and Documentary Photography
Professor Soltis received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia, where she was awarded the Foundation Fellowship. Emiko received her PhD from Emory University and wrote her dissertation on the human rights strategies and cultural practices of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an interracial farmworker organization in South Florida. Her research and teaching interests include social movement theory, global studies, farmworker movements, racial formation theory, music and social movements, and documentary photography. Having served as a longtime student activist, Emiko is committed to mentoring undocumented youth and providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to be effective leaders in their own freedom struggle.
Executive Director, Freedom University
The four-minute audio linked above is an out-take from the February 2, 2016 edition of the “Closer Look” show on Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, (award winning!) WABE News. For years we have noted that WABE News has dropped all pretense of fairness, balance or real journalism. They have exceeded expectations here. Although the station is mostly an echo chamber for increasingly batty far-left “thinkers”, sometimes the goop they put out can serve as an educational tool for normal Americans.
Listen as the WABE News reporters collect and air the observation from an anti-borders, race-baiting thinker, Emiko Soltis, Ph.D., who has informed us al that the formerly inaccurate term “undocumented” used for illegal aliens is now unacceptable. Because “racial code.”
We will have some fun with this for awhile.
It is easy to see why the staff at WABE News keeps dissenting views out of their broadcasts.
You can learn more about Atlanta’s “Freedom University” HERE. And HERE. For insight into what the teachers led by Emiko Soltis are teaching the already resentful illegal alien students, see HERE.
A notable course example:
Fall Term II, 2013
Gender Identities and Writing the Self
Dr. Dana Bultman, Dr.JoBeth Allen
November 17- December 15
This five-week mini-course will analyze and discuss gender, masculinity, and femininity as concepts that shape our social, political and economic relationships and that, in turn, we can use consciously to shape our lives. We will examine how imposed gender definitions and sexualities—found in the pervasiveness of media images, inherited ideals, and rules embedded in common language—are made to seem natural and used to structure and limit our access to power and privilege in U.S. society. As we explore questions of bodies, relationships, and consumerism, we will work on being mindful of our own and our peers’ multiple and intersecting race/ethnicity, class, and gender/sexuality identities. We will do this by reflecting on our own positions throughout the course through writing and open discussion. The material will be challenging, sometimes shocking and often very personal, so each student’s past experiences and processing of our themes over time will be respected in an environment that puts our individual perspectives in dialogue.
You can contact the thinkers at “Freedom University” HERE.
The Atlanta Jewish Times ran an OPED last week attacking Georgia Senator David Perdue for acting to end the confirmation consideration of GALEO’s Dax Lopez for federal judge. In that opinion piece, they also had some things to say about me. Below is my response published this week.
Atlanta Jewish Times
Letters to the Editor – 2/5/16
Thanks to Sen. Perdue
The AJT editorial board recently attacked Sen. David Perdue of Georgia for his leadership and courage in stepping up to oppose the confirmation of recently resigned GALEO board member Dax Lopez for federal judge (“Our View: Dream Betrayed,” Jan. 29). In that attack the Jewish Times took a few swings at me too.
In part, I write to thank the authors of for the acknowledgment that GALEO is an advocacy group — and for quoting me accurately. We agree with Sen. Perdue that Lopez’s decade-long involvement with GALEO makes him totally unacceptable for a lifetime seat as a federal judge.
To be clear, like most leftist, anti-enforcement immigration corporations, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials is innocuously named but is very clear in its agenda. Both before and after becoming a state court judge, Dax Lopez served as adviser, director and tactician for the GALEO activism against immigration enforcement.
Lopez’s statement that he “agrees with their mission” must always be viewed with the knowledge that, since 2003, the corporate-funded GALEO has viciously smeared law enforcement officers who dare to help enforce American immigration laws. GALEO has marched in the streets of Georgia for another immigration amnesty, lobbied against state e-verify laws designed to protect legal workers and against local jails honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds for criminal aliens, and vehemently opposed voter ID. And they lobby against English as our official language.
The murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco last summer was a direct result of successful advocacy against detaining criminal aliens in local jails until ICE can pick them up. For the radicals at GALEO, Steinle’s murder is merely a cost of advancing the anti-enforcement scheme.
We think the editorial board may have overlooked the federal lawsuit filed against Georgia’s Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a host of other anti-borders groups, including GALEO. That lawsuit was heard in the same federal court in which Lopez would have served if confirmed.
Among the lawyers suing to stop enforcement of the 2011 state law aimed at protecting jobs for legal workers was Lopez’s then-fellow GALEO board member, Charles Kuck. It should not go unnoted that GALEO’s executive director, Jerry Gonzalez, is even now threatening to sue for foreign-language voter ballots in the same court.
Jerry Gonzalez
We’re not sure which possibility is worse: that the editors at the Atlanta Jewish Times agree with Lopez and GALEO on immigration enforcement or that they want to put yet another Obama-appointed activist federal judge on the bench.
We share the concerns about the content of Dax Lopez’ character. We thank and support Sen. Perdue for his action.
D.A. King, Marietta, president, Dustin Inman Society, for the board of advisersHERE
The Dustin Inman Society is proud to have played a pivotal role in providing the information that led to the end of consideration of GALEO-pal Dax Lopez for a lifetime federal judge seat in Georgia. Thank you all for the help! The illegal alien lobby is quite upset that one of their own has been turned away because of his affiliation with anti-borders GALEO Inc. Many thanks again to U.S. Senator David Perdue!
NOW! There are even more illegal aliens on their way to Georgia! Obama has stopped any pretense of capturing many illegal alien border-crossers. Please see the Washington Times news.
Did you know? Right now, Republican-controlled Georgia is issuing drivers licenses, official state photo ID cards and public benefits to the illegal aliens rewarded by Obama with work permits and Social Security cards in his illegal 2012 amnesty. Yes, these illegals are eligible for unemployment benefits in Georgia. If Obama’s pending Supreme Court lawsuit is successful we will have another 200,000 illegal aliens added to the approximately 20,000 who already have a Georgia drivers license.
SB6 will also require Georgia law enforcement to share official information they have so common citizens can see when Obama has released criminal aliens onto our the streets of Georgia. It will stop illegal aliens from becoming lawyers and public school teachers and insure that illegal aliens do not get in front of U.S. citizens and real immigrants for in-state tuition.
*ACTION NEEDED! Please make one phone call today (and tomorrow) to Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle’s office in Atlanta. The message to leave with the staffer is simple: “Please tell the Lt. Governor that we are watching and we want to see SB6 get a vote by the full state senate. Why are we giving illegal aliens a drivers license?”
Office of Georgia’s LT Governor Casey Cagle (R)
240 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334 Phone: (404) 656-5030
Fax: (404) 656-6739
The Georgia Board of Regents has a policy that bans undocumented students from attending some of Georgia’s top public colleges. Reporter Dillon Richards took an in-depth look into why this policy exists.
SB 257 – Public Works – prohibit illegal alien employment
First Reader Summary
A bill to amend Chapter 80 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to local government in general, so as to prohibit the employment of illegal aliens on public works for the state or any authority, county, municipality, school district, or other local government unit or political subdivision; to provide for an oath relative to the employment of illegal aliens on such public works; to provide for a penalty.
Status Summary HC: SC: SLGO LA: 02/11/97 S – Read 1st time
Page Numbers – 1/ 2
Code Sections – 36-80-17
Senate Action House
2/11/97 Read 1st time
SB 257 97 LC 26 0116
SENATE BILL 257
By: Senator Fort of the 39th
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT
1- 1 To amend Chapter 80 of Title 36 of the Official Code of
1- 2 Georgia Annotated, relating to local government in general,
1- 3 so as to prohibit the employment of illegal aliens on public
1- 4 works for the state or any authority, county, municipality,
1- 5 school district, or other local government unit or political
1- 6 subdivision; to provide for an oath relative to the
1- 7 employment of illegal aliens on such public works; to
1- 8 provide for a penalty; to provide for related matters; to
1- 9 provide an effective date; to provide for applicability; to
1-10 repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
1-12 SECTION 1.
1-13 Chapter 80 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia
1-14 Annotated, relating to local government in general, is
1-15 amended by adding a new Code Section 36-80-17 at its end to
1-16 read as follows:
1-17 “36-80-17.
1-18 (a) Whenever public work for the state or any county,
1-19 municipality, school district, local government unit or
1-20 political subdivision, or any state or local authority is
1-21 to be let out by contract, no person, firm, partnership,
1-22 or corporation procuring such work shall employ on any
1-23 such work any alien in the United States in violation of
1-24 any law, convention, or treaty of the United States.
1-25 (b) Before commencing any public work pursuant to
1-26 subsection (a) of this Code section, any person, firm,
1-27 partnership, or corporation procuring such public work
1-28 shall make an oath in writing that he or she has not
1-29 directly or indirectly violated subsection (a) of this
1-30 Code section. The oath shall be filed with the officer
1-31 whose duty it is to make the payment under the contract.
1-32 If the contractor is a partnership composed of more than
1-33 one person, all of the partners and any officer or agent
1-34 or other person who may have represented or acted for them
-1-
2- 1 in bidding or procuring the contract shall also unite in
2- 2 making the oath. If the contractor is a corporation, all
2- 3 officers, agents, or other persons who may have acted for
2- 4 or represented the corporation in bidding or procuring the
2- 5 contract shall make the oath.
2- 6 (c) Any person, firm, partnership, or corporation
2- 7 violating or failing to comply with subsections (a) and
2- 8 (b) of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
2- 9 for each instance of improper employment of an alien and
2-10 for each instance of failure to make the required oath or
2-11 false swearing and upon conviction thereof shall be
2-12 punished by a fine of not less than $500.00 nor more than
2-13 $1,000.00 for each such instance.”
2-14 SECTION 2.
2-15 This Act shall become effective upon its approval by the
2-16 Governor or upon its becoming law without such approval but
2-17 shall be applicable only to contracts entered into after its
2-18 effective date.
2-19 SECTION 3.
2-20 All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are
2-21 repealed. READ THE BILL HERE
-2-
——————————————————————————–
Clerk of the House
Robert E. Rivers, Jr., Clerk
Last Updated on 04/20/98
While the national news frenzy is focused on terrorists in America and the varying degrees of determination of presidential candidates to address them, Georgians may want to take some time to pay attention to what happens in the General Assembly in Atlanta. We have our own security problems here and the real powers that dictate government in our state have little interest in allowing pro-enforcement solutions.
Voters should treat the current session as a carefully monitored, two-month campaign for re-election by our state legislators.
The powerful business lobby under the Gold Dome has ordered this reward practice to quietly continue. So it will. And much of the Republican base has apparently accepted this as the new normal. But there is now push to at least alter the actual drivers license document given to these “victims of borders” who lack legal immigration status so that it doesn’t look almost exactly like the ones U.S. citizens are given and use as ID when they vote. Or board an airliner. Or rent a car. Or buy explosives.
SB 6, written to exclude all illegal aliens from a Georgia driver’s license, had to be modified to try to safeguard our security and still get past the powerful Georgia Chamber of Commerce lobby by changing the appearance of the card given to illegals so that there is no confusion on the illegal status of the bearer. It would not be a “license” but a “driver privilege card” that is only valid for driving.
As someone who has spent the last decade watching unreported legislative antics under the Gold Dome up-close and in person, this writer urges all voters to pay attention. Maybe get some solid, irreversible commitments from your legislators about whose side they are on.
It is also important to note that the current written test for a Georgia driver’s license is administered in 11 languages in Georgia. With SR 675, legislators will have the opportunity to allow all Georgia voters to answer a ballot question when we vote for president in November 2016 on changing that fact and making English the official constitutional language of government in the Peach State.
Georgia has more illegals than Arizona. On illegal immigration, readers who hope for change in Republican-controlled Georgia should be watching GOP state legislators in the coming election year.
D.A. King
Marietta, Ga.
[King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society and writes often on immigration issues. Twitter @DAKDIS.]
Senator Sinks Obama Court Nominee Over ‘Uncomfortable’ Views on Illegal Immigration
Phillip Wegman
A U.S. senator has scuttled President Barack Obama’s nomination of a pro-amnesty judge from his home state of Georgia in the latest skirmish over judicial nominees.
Citing Judge Dax Lopez’s work with an organization supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., last week torpedoed Obama’s nominee to the U.S. District Court for Georgia.
In a press release, Perdue said he became “uncomfortable” with Lopez’s affiliation with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials—an organization that the judge described “as very near and dear to my heart.”
Perdue blocked the Georgian’s nomination by withholding his “blue slip.” Under this longstanding Senate tradition, a senator effectively can veto a judicial nominee from his home state simply by refusing to recommend that person to the Judiciary Committee.
For 11 years, from 2004 to 2015, Lopez sat as a voting member on the board of directors of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. He held the position while serving as a judge on the State Court of DeKalb County beginning in 2010.
During his time on the board, the organization of Latino politicians supported Obama’s executive actions to allow millions of illegal immigrants to stay and work in America without being deported. The president’s widely criticized actions currently face a challenge at the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition, the Georgia group regularly weighed in on local controversies.
In 2008, the Latino officials filed a joint lawsuit against the Georgia secretary of state, arguing that state law requiring voters to show identification at the polls unfairly burdened Hispanics.
Last year, shortly before Lopez stepped down from the board, the organization commended a local sheriff’s department for refusing to comply with deportation orders from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In a press release, the group urged “other jurisdictions in the state to adopt similar policies.”
Perdue also voiced concern with “public comments” made by Lopez after he became a state judge. The senator did not specify the remarks he found troubling.
In a 2012 radio interview, however, the DeKalb County judge outlined steps that illegal immigrants, when detained, could take to avoid deportation. In addition to the advice, Lopez noted:
“That’s not to say that you’re not vulnerable to being deported if you’re just living right and following the laws. Because you’re always vulnerable in a country like this.”
Before Perdue’s blue-slip block, local legislators and law enforcement officials—including the state Senate’s majority leader and two county sheriffs—opposed Obama’s nomination of Lopez.
In an open letter in August, Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren wrote that Lopez’s association with the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials suggested “a prejudice towards law-abiding citizens and law enforcement.”
But after Perdue blocked the nomination, liberal organizations opened a hailstorm of criticism in which they spotlighted Lopez’s Hispanic heritage.
The Hispanic National Bar Association dismissed concerns over Lopez’s association with the organization of Latino politicians. In a statement, association President Robert Maldonado wrote:
It is hard to fathom that we are in an era of such animosity that a judicial nominee’s participation in a trade association of bipartisan Latino elected officials is problematic …Our only inference is that he’s unacceptable to Senator Perdue because he is a Latino who believes in Latino participatory democracy.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Lopez would become the first Latino judge to serve on a federal district court in Georgia.
In a statement, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights complained that “as long as men like Senator Perdue are the gatekeepers, it’s unlikely that one ever will.”
Born in Puerto Rico, Lopez attended Vanderbilt Law School, where he was a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. As a Republican, he enjoyed support from different corners of the GOP, from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to conservative radio host Erick Erickson.
Perdue’s veto of Lopez comes as conversations continue among Senate Republicans about blocking all of Obama’s judicial nominees.
Some advocate freezing out all future nominees. Others argue that the nomination process already has become too political.
As a freshman senator who sits on the Judiciary Committee, Perdue has demonstrated a willingness to slow down the nomination process in certain circumstances. Last year, he opposed the confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Also last week, Perdue voted against confirming Judge Wilhelmina Wright for District Court of Minnesota after it came to light that she had written a law review paper characterizing President Reagan as a bigot. Wright won confirmation, 58-36. HERE
When Democratic presidents nominate leftist minority group members to the federal bench, it’s win-win for them. Either they get a leftist confirmed plus the right to brag about how much they’re doing for minorities or the Democrats can castigate Republicans for being mean to minorities.
The nomination of Dax Lopez to the federal district court for the Northern District of Georgia is a classic example. Lopez is Hispanic (and Jewish too). But Sen. David Perdue stood up to the pressure to rubber stamp his nomination and blocked it.
Now Perdue is feeling the backlash, as is clear from this article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The Hispanic National Bar Association has blasted Perdue, as has the Anti-Defamation League. And the Democrats, of course, are playing this for all they think it’s worth. Antonio Molina, the caucus chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia sniffed:
These kinds of partisan games only reinforce what we already know about the GOP—there is no room at their table for Latinos. They’ve now gone from blocking commonsense immigration reform and opportunity for DREAMers to depriving Georgia of a talented legal mind for no other reason than his association with the Latino community.
But should Lopez be confirmed? In my view, the Democrats are lucky that any Obama nominees are being taken up in his lame duck year. Indeed, I believe that Republicans should have enforced a strong presumption against any judicial confirmations in response to President Obama’s lawless executive amnesty.
That aside, Perdue was right to block this particular nominee. Why?
First, he and fellow Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson received many letters from state legislators and law enforcement officials opposing Lopez’s nomination. In fact, the sheriffs of Georgia’s second and third most populous counties (Gwinett and Cobb) opposed it. So did the State Senate Majority Whip and State Senate Majority Caucus Chairman.
During Lopez’s time on the GALEO board, this outfit, among other leftist positions:
Applauded the Fulton County Sheriff for refusing to cooperate with ICE on deportations.
Supported Obama’s unlawful executive orders on illegal immigration and amnesty.
Opposed Georgia’s voter identification law.
Opposed Georgia’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Lopez also took a lead role in slandering opponents of illegal immigration. He researched, wrote, and edited a GALEO White Paper that attacked groups such as the Center for Immigration Studies, claiming that their views are “strikingly similar” to those of “racial separatists.” He singled out one anti-illegal immigration activist in part for saying “there is no universal civil right to live in the United States.”
Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren noted GALEO’s strident lawlessness in his letter opposing Lopez’s nomination. He wrote:
In my 38 years of law enforcement service in Cobb County Georgia, including 11 years as Sheriff, I have never seen an organization work harder against the interest of our state. GALEO has called for law enforcement to turn a blind eye towards criminals that have illegally penetrated our borders and then perpetrated crimes against the very citizens I am sworn to protect.
Third, Lopez likes receiving preferential treatment because of his ethnicity. A vocal supporter of race-based affirmative action for his entire public life, I’m told that he has said his LSAT score was low and he would never have been admitted to Vanderbilt Law School but for the preference he received as a Hispanic.
Fourth, Lopez believes strongly in judicial activism. Speaking about federal judges during the 1960s, Lopez reportedly said:
The simple answer to how these judges became the unsung heroes of the [c]ivil rights movement is that judges have the power not only to talk about change, they can actually ORDER change…and what they did is that through the Courts they provided non violent forum [sic] to address injustice which led to real change, nonviolent revolution. . . .
These were the original activist judges, judges that applied all of the law, not just the portions they felt supported their own prejudiced views.
If confirmed, Lopez would almost surely strive to become a “hero” by applying “all of the law” to advance his revolutionary agenda, especially when it comes to illegal immigration.
Senator Perdue will be roundly condemned in the mainstream media and in other liberal circles for standing against Lopez’s confirmation. The Democrats will use this to raise money to try and defeat him when he stands for re-election.
It is important, therefore, that Perdue’s vote be praised by conservative outlets, so that less courageous Senators, and those from less Red states, will feel comfortable standing against hardcore left-wing judicial nominees in the future.
Letters to the Senator from our readers commending, cc-ing other GOP Senators, would also be helpful. HERE
Dustin Inman, killed by an illegal alien – Billy Inman is Dustin’s Dad
Letters to the editor
January 28, 2016
DEAR EDITOR:
I write a short note to say a genuine THANK YOU to Georgia Sen. David Perdue.
The fact that Sen. Perdue stepped up last week and made it clear that Obama’s nominee to fill an empty federal court seat in Georgia was a horrible idea came as huge and very welcomed news.
Federal judges, once confirmed by the senate, serve a lifetime term. Obama had offered up a man named Dax Lopez to be a judge in Georgia’s northern district. Dax Lopez was a member of the board of directors of a radical immigration corporation called “GALEO” for eleven years and only resigned when Georgians spoke up against his confirmation.
A corporate-funded advocacy group, GALEO opposes immigration enforcement, voter ID, local jails holding criminal aliens and English as our official language. As Lopez made crystal clear, he “agrees with GALEO’s mission.” Having a federal judge who openly supports amnesty is clearly wrong for Georgia.
Sen. Perdue boldly used his authority as a home-state senator and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to terminate any further consideration of GALEO’s Dax Lopez.
I hope Georgians of all descriptions will contact Senator Perdue’s office and offer a well-deserved message of gratitude. The senator saved us from perhaps 30 years of Dax Lopez and his agenda on the federal bench. To be clear: Sen. David Perdue stepped up when others didn’t and did the right thing for Georgia … the political outsider done good!
