GOP Politicians Push to Mainstream Illegals in Georgia

Georgia business groups and allied GOP legislators are trying to slip more illegal migrants into the state’s education system and workforce, says D.A. King, a pro-American immigration reform activist in Georgia.

Legislators are trying to create “a new state education benefit for illegal aliens” even though the policy would eventually hurt Georgian’s ability to earn decent wages or afford decent housing, said D.A. King, the founder of the Dustin Inman Society.

“This is all coming from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce because they want more labor,” King told Breitbart News.

“Every talking point here out of their mouth is jobs and labor … They’re actually saying that if we educate more people, we will have more jobs,” regardless of the migration damage to Americans’ wages, wealth, and housing costs, he said.

To become law, a bill has to pass through Georgia’s House and Senate and then be signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, who is now signaling that he would like to enter the GOP’s presidential race.

GOP Rep Kasey Carpenter’s HB 131 would allow subsidized education costs for illegal migrants in the state, but not for the American students who move to Georgia colleges, said King.

“This is a push by the GA Chamber of Commerce to put illegal aliens first in Georgia, ” King said February 21 email to his supporters. “If this bill passes, the Chamber [of Commerce] will be back next year to demand that all illegal aliens — DACA or not — must get lower instate tuition, like in California.”

Carpenter’s bill is also backed by cosponsors Rep. Dale Washburn of Macon, Rep Bill Werkheiser of Glennville, and Rep Penny Houston from Nashville. It has more Democratic backers than GOP cosponsors.

Carpenter’s bill is titled the “Workforce Development Act,” and it would help create a pipeline for illegal migrants to get trained for Americans’ skilled blue-collar jobs, such as electricians and plumbers.

A similar Senate bill is being pushed by Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-31). His bill, SB 112, is titled the Workforce EXCELeration Act. Last week, the state Senate passed Anavitarte’s bill with a single “no” vote.

Alongside the two bills, said King, “there’s a separate push to relax — if not eliminate —  the verification process in professional licenses for, say carpenters [and] electricians.”

“That would [reduce professional standards] down to third-world levels so as to increase the workforce,” he added.

Many business groups have pushed similar, pro-illegal legislation in New Jersey, Colorado, and other states.

The GOP’s push to mainstream illegal migrants is likely very unpopular, especially among the activists who vote in primaries.

In January, 49 percent of Americans favored a decrease in government-managed legal immigration, while 43 percent favor an increase, according to a FoxNews poll of 1,003 registered voters.

By a factor of more than two to one, Americans agree companies “should raise wages and try harder to recruit Americans even if it causes the prices of their products to rise,” said a July 20-22 poll by YouGov.com.

Just 28 percent of registered voters believe immigration has been positive for their local economy, according to an August 12-15 survey of 2,025 registered voters conducted for a pro-migration advocacy group. Only 38 percent say immigration is good for the United States, the poll added.

The good news, said King, is that some GOP legislators are backing a bill that would require state officials be transparent about the number of illegal migrant criminals in their jails. The state now keeps a jailhouse population of at least 1,500 illegal migrants, at a likely direct cost of $40 million per year, King said.

Migration in Georgia

Business groups want more migrants because it provides them with an alternative source of workers, plus many additional renters and customers.

For example, the Chamber’s “Global Talent Initiative” claims “Through strategic, targeted efforts, we can increase the number of skilled workers in our state. this will lead to better jobs, increased economic mobility, and a more prosperous state.”

The inflow of new workers is good for business owners — but it is also bad for ordinary Americans. For example, any flood of foreign workers tends to cut local wages, spike housing costs, and fracture their communities. Migration also pushes more Americans out of jobs and towards drug addiction and homelessness.

Many business advocates claim there is a shortage of workers in Georgia, despite the state’s huge and growing population of illegal migrants.

But the federal reserve says that only 62 percent of working-age Georgians even hold jobs amid the mass inflow of cheap foreign workers. That percentage is sharply down from 68 percent in June 2008, ensuring more poverty and welfare costs.

In addition, despite claims of a labor shortage, Georgia companies are free to hire workers from other employers with the promise of more money or better conditions. But wages are also falling in many Georgia districts amid rising inflation, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Also, most migrants prefer to live in major cities. That flow of migrant workers, renters, and consumers into the major cities also minimizes the free-market pressure on investors and companies in Atlanta to hire rural Georgians for jobs at worksites in the many poor towns outside Atlanta.

WABE.org reported a chamber advocacy event in August 202 where legislators echoed the claim that companies be allowed to hire low-wage migrants from outside the United States, instead of hiring well-paid Americans from within local communities:

Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents the state’s 1^st Congressional District, says Georgia’s worker shortage is not hard to miss.

“Ride down the road, you see ‘Help Wanted’ signs everywhere,” Carter said. “You see businesses closing early and cutting back on their business hours because they don’t have the help.”

Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, a Democrat, says a significant reason for this labor shortage is the steep drop in immigration over the last six years.

“We are not getting the replenishment from immigration that we’ve really built our businesses around and what I hear as I talk to people is businesses are desperate for labor,” said Bourdeaux.

The push in Georgia is backed by FWD.us, a pro-investor group based in Washington D.C. that is funded by West Coast billionaires, such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

The investor group favors more migration into the United States, so ensuring a disproportionate flow of foreign workers and coastal investment for New York, California, Texas, and North Carolina.

The federal government has long operated an economic policy of “Extraction Migration.” The policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from poor countries and uses the imported workers, renters, and consumers to grow Wall Street and the economies of coastal states.

The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices. The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors, reduced native-born Americans’ political clout, and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans.

The colonization-like policy has also killed many thousands of unrecognized migrants, including many on the taxpayer-funded jungle trail through the Darien Gap in Panama.