NPR affiliate’s news report on an Atlanta progressive is “a racist hit piece” and a “smear campaign…”

From “the things you can run over on Twitter file”: Straight from the progressives, this is pretty funny stuff and makes for a good grin on a Friday.

WABE News @WABENews, an Atlanta NPR affiliate, by our judgment it’s further left than NPR itself – and far less balanced – ran a story the other day about a very far left Atlanta activist, Anoa Changa @TheWayWithAnona, who apparently spreads the progressive message on the Russian-funded Sputnik radio.

The WABE reporter, Johnny Kaufman explains Sputnik radio for the unaware:

“A report released in January by the FBI, National Security Agency and CIA called Sputnik and the TV network RT, formerly Russia Today, part of “Russia’s state-run propaganda machine.”

The report titled, “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in US Elections” links Sputnik to Russia’s broader efforts to influence the 2016 election, noting it served as “a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.”

“Those platforms are set up for the sole purpose of promoting the Kremlin line,” said Robert Orttung, an associate research professor of international affairs at The George Washington University.

It’s not that activist Changa denies using the Russian radio outlet and Kaufman tells us “Changa doesn’t plan to stop appearing on Sputnik programs.

The two shows where she’s a regular, “By Any Means Necessary” and “Loud & Clear,” are a place where she’s comfortable talking about issues important to her, like police brutality, voter suppression and corporate influence in the Democratic Party. The shows, Changa said, are independent. She trusts their hosts and producers.

“If there’s a space available to occupy and get that voice across,” said Changa, “then we should take it.”

You can read the entire story here.

But, leftist supporters of Changa – members of the Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists @MetroAtlDSA no less – are having a major cow over the report and are in their third day of attacking the leftist NPR station for…wait, wait, wait “the racist hit piece.”

Comrade Changa you see, is a black woman.

From the Metro Atlanta DSA site:

“In the proto-fascist milieu of contemporary American politics, it is vitally important that we lift up voices of color and support women like Anoa who stand in resolute defiance of white supremacy”.

Today I see that the Metro Atlanta DSA has posted another dig at WABE News that includes a knock off of the MAGA caps worn by conservative Trump supporters that reads: “Make NPR for Old Racists again.” Oh, my sides.

“The smear against her is grotesque but also transparent – the ruling classes will not let go of power easily. We’re grateful to women like Anoa who put themselves at risk to stand up to the 1% and we are grateful for the opportunity to support her in that fight” says the DSA.

I don’t have time to post all of the Twitter posts by the DSA, but just know they are calling this a “smear campaign…”

It’s a hoot if you have time to look around. BTW: When did American commies start avoiding Russian commies? Is the hammer and sickle logo now “so last year?”

MS-13 gang leaders , Houston Rape, murder suspects Photo: Breitbart

Clarke County Sheriff’s new policy on ICE holds and criminal aliens is a reversal of his February position

D.A. King

As has been widely reported, another county sheriff in Georgia has announced his office will not offer full cooperation with ICE on holding illegal aliens that land in his jail for other crimes.

Clarke County Sheriff Ira Edwards Jr. released a statement on Friday, April 13 that he is “discontinuing the practice of honoring ICE requests to detain persons after criminal charges or other holds are resolved.”

What we have not seen reported is that Sheriff Edwards is on the record as late as February enthusiastically expressing his support of immigration enforcement and opposition to sanctuary policies.

Edwards is a member of the board of the National Sheriffs’ Association. He was part of a group of sheriffs who met in February with President Donald Trump to discuss illegal immigration and sanctuary policies. He was rather effusive in his pro-enforcement position to the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal.

“I was very, very surprised when I was in a training [conference] this past week, and there was a federal magistrate judge that told us she had sentenced a person over 25 times, and that person has come back into our country,”

“My concern is, as a sheriff, if we are going to secure our homeland, it is going to be imperative that we build some type of border to prevent those that would do harm within our community, within our homeland,”

“When we have the sanctuary cities, that is going to be a breeding ground for those who come back that are undocumented, coming back into our community. That is why I am kind of concerned,”

Earlier this year, Edwards had convened a ‘Citizens Input Committee’ and charged them to consider community safety and provide policy recommendations that serve the best interests of the mostly liberal Athens-Clarke County, home of the University of Georgia.

In another victory for the many corporate-funded anti-borders groups that lobby in Georgia against immigration enforcement, Clarke County joins the cities of Atlanta, Decatur and Clarkston in rolling back policy offering protections for residents regarding immigration holds of criminal aliens.

Gang members released by local law enforcement

Sheriff Edwards did not comment on how his reversal in policy would effect gang activity in his county. According to federal authorities, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona and has a growing gang problem.

The Center for Immigration Studies reports that “according to ICE statistics provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, over a nine-month period in FY2017, 142 gang members that ICE was seeking to deport were released by the local law enforcement agency instead of transferred to ICE custody.”

Athens/Clarke County is home to current Secretary of State and Republican candidate for governor, Brian Kemp, who has made criminal aliens and Georgia’s illegal immigration crisis a major part of his campaign.

Georgia GOP candidate for governor proposes ‘criminal alien database’

Dustin Inman Society

Georgia’s GOP Speaker David Ralston photo, Georgia General Assembly

Breitbart News
April 15, 2018

D.A. King: GOP Blocks Georgia Immigration Enforcement Bill, But OKs Traffic Cameras

The Republican Speaker of the Georgia House blocked a bill that would help deport criminal illegal aliens, but he pushed through a last-minute bill touted by his lobbyist son, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The paper reported April 12:

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston delayed the end of this year’s legislative session past a midnight deadline so lawmakers could vote on a bill to allow speeding ticket cameras in school zones.

The bill was pushed by Ralston’s son, a lobbyist for an Arizona-based company, American Traffic Solutions, that sells the camera systems to local governments.

Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the president of the state Senate, agreed to continue working past midnight to allow the House to approve the bill after it had passed the Senate a few minutes earlier, said Kaleb McMichen, a spokesman for Ralston, a Blue Ridge Republican.

In contrast, Ralston refused to allow a vote on a public safety bill in the GOP-dominated House before ended its annual session on March 30. Corporate-funded anti-borders groups took credit for the defeating the bill, which would have required state officials to notify federal immigration-enforcement officers of illegal migrants in the state’s jails.

GOP leaders offered excuses for blocking the popular immigration-reform bill

“We ran out of time before we had finished all the bills that were worthwhile,” said House Majority Whip, Christian Coomer. “Other bills took priority and SB452 wasn’t called before the clock struck midnight,” he told the liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

GOP Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle originally backed the immigration enforcement legislation but stayed quiet when the bill was narrowed to exclude migrants who did not commit “serious crimes.” But after the bill was blocked, Cagle issued a statement saying:

Law enforcement agencies at every level of government should work together to make sure that criminal illegal aliens who commit serious crimes are arrested, convicted, deported, and never allowed back inside our nation’s borders.

Cagle is one of four GOP politicians vying for this year’s gubernatorial nomination.

Ralston faces a May 22 primary election against Margaret Williamson.

Ralston is an attorney, with clients that include construction companies. Many construction companies rely on black-market labor hired by subcontractors. His website says:

The firm also represents the interests of both home builders and contractors, as well as home owners in litigation issues arising over construction. With over 35 years of courtroom experience in the construction law area, our firm has successfully litigated and defended against a range of matters in the construction area.

Majority whip Coomer told excused the decision by telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the GOP establishment might approve a similar bill in 2019 and – if public pressure continues.

“If the state’s interest in reasonable law enforcement approaches to criminal aliens and misdemeanor bail issues remains high, then another version of the bill may see movement next year,” he said…  Read the rest here.

Bob Barr – photo: MDJ

Marietta Daily Journal

April 12, 2018

Bob Barr: Hidden cost of immigration crackdown

Stan Marek can’t find men to hire. The work is there; an abundance of it as the housing market continues rebounding from the last recession. Marek told Fox News his construction company could easily add 600 positions to meet construction demand. But, as Marek notes, “there’s just not anybody you can hire out there…there’s work out there if we could find those people.”

Marek’s is a common story in the construction industry: a deep housing market, but a shallow labor pool. According to business owners like Marek, many of these positions disappeared with last decade’s recession. Yet, as the demand for new construction recovered, the number of skilled laborers did not. Houses now take longer to build because crews are smaller, and new construction costs have soared as labor rates have increased to reflect the new supply and demand curve. For example, Bloomberg notes the cxcost of framing a 3,000 square foot house has nearly doubled in less than a year due to lack of skilled migrant labor. This adds thousands of dollars to the cost of new construction that home buyers are forced to pay.

According to Fox News, the National Association of Home Builders notes that labor shortages are affecting more than half of the nation’s developers; a problem even more acute in the country’s hotter housing markets. One reason is many of the skilled laborers impacted by the recession left the industry in pursuit of new opportunities, or returned back to their home country. More recently, however, another factor impacting construction labor has arisen: President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Migrant labor is the life force of American construction. And, the crackdowns on both illegal and legal immigration — such as the RAISE Act being pushed by Trump and Sens. Tom Cotton and David Purdue — are making matters worse for the construction industry. Proponents of stricter immigration controls for legal migrants (especially those who could begin to fill the broad labor shortages in construction) argue they simply are protecting American jobs. The continued shortage, however, is clear evidence this is simply not the case; the jobs are there, but red-blooded American citizens are not filling them.

Traditionally we think of immigration “costs” in terms of strains on social welfare, hospital systems, and schools. While this is a legitimate metric, it is increasingly important also to look at the hidden costs of trying to address America’s immigration system with enhanced restrictions. This is not to say, as I have written before, that border security is no longer a crucial objective; it is, and to his credit, Trump has done a laudable job ending the capricious messaging of the Obama administration on illegal immigration, especially across our southern border. Regardless of whether Trump’s wall is ever built, his reversal of nearly a decade of Obama’s feckless immigration policies has already made a difference.

The issue at hand is how we move forward with immigration policies that protect America’s interests, while not shooting ourselves in the foot to accomplish these goals. Unfortunately, the tribalism impacting not just our nation, but Congress as well, has made such nuanced approaches nearly impossible. Democrats put all their eggs in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals basket, reducing their effectiveness to negotiate with Republicans on other and related issues.

Meanwhile, Republicans respond to pressure from constituents that any compromise on immigration is tantamount to going back to the Obama days, by refusing to do anything other than voice support for stronger and stronger restrictions.

A solution that is best for America lies somewhere in between the nonsensical notion of “Sanctuary Cities” (or states) and completely shutting off the avenue for foreign-based labor — in other words, immigration reform that provides adequate funding for border protection and maintains enforcement of America’s immigration laws, but also creates better and easier ways to lawfully enter the country for work. In many respects, the traditional “costs” of immigration are felt only in the abstract, and in some cases, are exaggerated altogether. The hidden costs, however, such as increases in products and services, like construction, which rely heavily on lower-cost labor, are felt immediately and daily by citizens who must shoulder the costs of dwindling migrant labor burdening businesses.

Perhaps ever higher consumer costs are something Americans are willing to bear for tightening immigration restrictions. The point is that Republicans and Democrats should work together on solutions, like adults, where such a scenario is avoided altogether. Doing so, however, would require dropping the heated campaign rhetoric, and performing the job many of us sent them to Congress to accomplish.

Bob Barr is a former federal prosecutor and a former Congressman. He represented Georgia’s 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003.   HERE

photo DHS

Brunswick News:
April 9, 2018

Sheriff: ICE stages morning roundup of undocumented immigrants

Agents with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency made an early morning sweep Monday in Glynn County, arresting as many as two dozen undocumented immigrants, according to Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump.

The arrival of ICE agents here caused a stir throughout the county, particularly among working-class immigrants, documented or otherwise. Those working in construction, landscaping, painting and other blue collar jobs reported numerous no-shows among immigrant workers who feared being deported.

The News received several such calls from employers and concerned residents Monday.

Jump confirmed that ICE agents out of Savannah used the sheriff’s office parking lot off U.S. Highway 341 as a staging ground for the operation. No deputies with the sheriff’s office took part in the operation, Jump said. ICE officials contacted him in advance about the federal agency’s desire to use the sheriff’s office compound as a staging ground, he added.

Jump said the ICE agents arrived before dawn and the operation was complete before 8 a.m. Those taken into custody were returned to ICE facilities in Savannah, Jump said

“They did let me know that they were in town, but none of our resources were needed or used,” Jump said. “But they did stage in our parking lot. I don’t know who they arrested, but everyone they picked up, they took back to Savannah.

“It was over 20 (people) and not less than 30 (people). They started around 5 a.m. and they were done by 7:30 a.m.,” the sheriff said.

Glynn County Police Chief John Powell said he knew nothing of the ICE operation. ICE is an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“If they are doing a roundup, we are not aware of it,” Powell said. “They have no obligation to tell what they’re doing. We’ve had several news outlets contact us, but we are unaware of any action.”

A man identifying himself as ICE’s agent-in-charge in Savannah could not comment further, referring all questions to ICE’s regional offices in Atlanta. Bryan Cox, regional communications director for ICE, said any action targeting undocumented immigrants that may have taken place in Glynn County would not be considered beyond the agency’s normal day-to-day enforcement activities. Here.

Decaturish.com
April 6, 2018

Chairman of state Immigration Board calls Decatur suit ‘frivolous,’ says board will be fair

The chairman of the state’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board says the city of Decatur’s lawsuit against the board is “frivolous,” and promised the board would treat the city fairly.

The board is handling a complaint filed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who contends the city is violating a state law that forbids sanctuary cities. The city is not a sanctuary city, however, and city leaders have flatly rejected calls from residents to adopt this status.

What Cagle was referring to was the city’s decision put in writing a longstanding policy regarding cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The city said it does not detain immigrants without a valid warrant from ICE and never has. Officers who violate the policy could face disciplinary action. The city says its policy is not in violation of state law.

Cagle disagrees and has made the matter a campaign issue, calling for Decatur to be stripped of state funding and suggesting its elected officials would be charged with crimes… Read the entire Decaturish.com news piece here and see the educational links included.

Dustin Inman Society

 

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle: “I will not give up on enforcing the law to keep our citizens safe,” he said. “Law enforcement agencies at every level of government should work together to make sure that criminal illegal aliens who commit serious crimes are arrested, convicted, deported, and never allowed back inside our nation’s borders.”

AJC
April, 4, 2018

Lawmaker: New version of Georgia immigration bill could come next year

The sweeping immigration enforcement measure backed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle stalled in Georgia’s House when lawmakers raced to consider other priorities on the final day of the legislative session, House Majority Whip Christian Coomer said Wednesday.

But it’s possible, according to the Cartersville Republican, that a new version of the bill will surface next year.

Senate Bill 452 would have required prosecutors to determine whether people facing sentencing in Georgia’s courts are in the country illegally and to notify federal authorities when they are.

SB 452 also would have required defendants to be brought before a judge, even if the court has a “bond schedule” allowing them to be released on their own recognizance as soon as they are brought to a local jail. Atlanta is the only Georgia city following such a system. It was adopted after reports by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other news outlets of poor people sitting in jail for weeks or months because they could not afford to post bonds for crimes like begging for money or urinating in public.

“We ran out of time before we had finished all the bills that were worthwhile,” Coomer said in an email…. More here.

Photo: Wikipedia

Insider Advantage Georgia
April 4, 2018

An unhappy pro-enforcement immigration activist reflects on the 2018 General Assembly

D.A. King

When the 2018 General Assembly ended last week, pro-enforcement immigration activists and supporters of official English had no reason to celebrate. By my memory, along with 2012, this was one of only two years since 2006 that no legislation was passed to address the fact that Georgia has more illegal aliens than Arizona. “Historic” indeed.

A look back:

Constitutional official English ballot question: Failed.

“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that English is the official language of the State of Georgia?”

Despite polling that shows a bipartisan 76% of Georgians favor amending the state constitution to make English the official language of government, voters will not be allowed (again) to decide on the above proposed ballot question in November.

Conservative hero Sen. Josh McKoon’s official English bill, SR587 had a healthy list of co-sponsors and was passed out of the Senate Rules Committee. But it never saw a floor vote.

Smart – and obvious – election year GOP tactics would have been to roll out the legislation, push a floor vote and make it clear all summer that the Democrat “party of the people” would not allow voters to decide on the popular ballot question. But as IAG reported, it seems that at least two Republicans would have been exposed in the process too. No floor vote occurred.

Creating a separate tier of driving and ID credentials for illegal aliens with work permits: Failed

Current administration policy is that “non-citizens without lawful status” are issued the same drivers licenses and official ID Cards as legal immigrants and guest workers with valid, temporary visas. Unlike a growing list of other states (California, Michigan, South Carolina…) that offer options, Georgia has only one tier of these credentials. Georgia’s are issued so as to be accepted as federal ID and are used to access federal buildings, U.S military bases and as valid TSA ID to board airliners.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is quite clear on the status of the illegals with DACA individuals as well as non-DACA illegal aliens with work permits, but the Department of Drivers Services is quietly using the 2005 REAL ID Act language that allows (but does not require) states to issue credentials to these illegal aliens.

McKoon’s well-written remedy, SB 417, died in the Senate Public Safety Committee when two Republicans joined the Democrats in a “no” vote. Later, with only Dalton’s Republican Sen. Chuck Payne voting “no”, the same committee passed out the same language which had been inserted into a House bill. That’s where the new HB258 stopped.

It never came out of Senate Rules. This, despite the fact that an almost identical bill sailed through the GOP senate in 2016 with a 37-17 vote.

The full Senate had a third opportunity to change to driving and ID documents issued to illegal aliens with a floor amendment to the distracted driving bill on Day 39, again offered by McKoon. As IAG reported, that effort failed with eighteen Republicans voting “no” with the Democrats or not voting.

Note: If any reader will kindly point this writer to a mention of any of the above conservative issues in the Republican gubernatorial campaigns, I will happily wash your car.

Graphic as seen on the anti-borders GALEO Inc. Facebook page

SB452 -Requiring that captured criminal illegal aliens be reported to federal immigration authorities and tracking the immigration status and number of non-citizens in the state prison system: Failed
SB452 was widely regarded as a centerpiece, check-the-illegal-immigration-box for Lt. Governor Casey Cagle’s campaign for governor. The immigration enforcement bill died in the final hours of session when Republican Speaker David Ralston refused to call it up for a floor vote.

This writer left the Gold Dome about 3:00 PM on Day 40 after being assured by multiple senior and connected members of House leadership that the legislation would pass on a party line vote and that it was a topic of great importance.

Frantic “Dreamer” members of corporate-funded anti-borders groups literally ran around the third floor of the Capitol desperately begging young Republican lawmakers to vote “no” on reducing the population of criminal illegal aliens in Georgia. They had even scrawled in four-foot tall chalk letters “KILL SB 452” on the sidewalk at the bottom of the Capitol Street entrance.

It should be noted that the scouts for the new Amazon headquarters were in the city that day when readers try to understand how and why a Republican state legislature kills a bill aimed solely at criminal illegal aliens…in an election year.

And it should be long remembered.

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society     Here.