While many Georgia conservatives are left scratching their heads in outrage, the far-left wing of the state’s illegal alien lobby is applauding Republican Governor Nathan Deal for his recent appointment of one of their own to the state’s Board of Corrections.

Mrs. Rocio Del Milagro Woody, along with Jane Fonda, is a “Founding Friend“ of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), and she was sworn in for a five-year term on the corrections board on September 26. GALEO proudly announced the appointment in a September press release. 

Woody is also a member of the GALEO board of directors.

Led by a former Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund employee and Democrat-candidate fundraiser Gerardo E. (Jerry) Gonzalez, GALEO is well-known around the Peach State for staging and participating in illegal alien rallies, advocating for a repeat of the 1986 amnesty for illegals, and marching in the streets of Atlanta demanding an end to enforcement of American immigration laws.

GALEO has also been active in organizing and lobbying against passage of Georgia’s laws aimed at protecting jobs, benefits, and services from the impact of illegal immigration. Gonzalez is noted by many state legislators for his angry and often disrespectful remarks to committee members considering illegal immigration legislation. In addition, GALEO lobbied against passage of Georgia’s E-Verify laws in 2006 and 2011.

Deal signed the 2011 comprehensive illegal immigration legislation into law in May of that year, as well as a bill aimed at fine-tuning that law after the 2013 session.

According to the Georgia Constitution, the state board of corrections “shall have such jurisdiction, powers, duties and control of the State Penal System and the inmates thereof as shall be provided by law… The Board of Corrections shall be appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Senate.”

Because the Georgia General assembly does not convene again until the 2014 session begins in January, that body will not consider Woody’s appointment until next year. Nevertheless, according to an official in Governor Deal’s office, Woody is currently a “fully functioning board member.”

While referring to illegally present aliens as “immigrants” and immigration enforcement as “anti-business,” Deal’s newly appointed corrections board member Del Milagro Woody has publicly spoken-out against the federal 287(g) program, Attrition Through Enforcement, and complained that immigration law in Arizona “has encouraged Georgia politicians to claim that illegal immigration is costing jobs and threatening the economy.”

With then-state Senator Chip Rogers’s 2006 Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act, Georgia was the first state to enact comprehensive illegal immigration legislation.

Del Milagro Woody’s swearing-in ceremony at the State Capitol with Gov. Deal was attended by the following: GALEO board member Charles H. Kuck, Thomas D. Woody, Lily A. Green, Terresa R. Tarpley, Frank A. Figueroa, GALEO board member Rocio D. Woody, Governor Nathan Deal, Judge Bonnie Oliver, GALEO Executive Director Jerry Gonzalez, and GALEO board member Dax Lopez.

Immigration attorney Charles Kuck is currently suing the Georgia Board of Regents in an attempt to obtain in-state tuition rates for illegal aliens who have accessed President Obama’s mass deferred action of 2012.

News of the appointment hit hard for long-time Republican activist Kay Godwin of Blackshear. She said:

For conservative Republicans in Georgia, the governor’s appointment of a radical anti-enforcement advocate to the board of corrections is yet another indicator of official arrogance of power and the disconnect between we the people and some GOP officials we elected in good faith. The thought of angry-Jerry Gonzalez marching against our immigration laws one day, schmoozing with other Obama Democrats in the White House the next and then having an official photo posted with three of his subversive GALEO board members and Governor Deal in the Capitol should make all Republicans ask questions. What was the governor thinking?

Godwin is a National Committeewoman for the Georgia Republican Assembly.

“This appointment is a slap in the face to all conservatives” said South Georgia’s Pat Tippett, who is a leader of the powerful Georgia Conservatives in Action. Tippett and Godwin are also co-founders of the Georgia Immigration Enforcement Coalition.

According to the latest official estimates, Georgia ranks number six in the nation in its population of illegal aliens, with a higher number than Arizona. In 2011, first-term governor and former U.S. House member Nathan Deal used an estimate of “$2.4 billion” as the annual cost of illegal immigration to the Georgia taxpayers. As posted on the state Department of Labor’s website, the current official unemployment rate in Georgia is 8.7%.

To date, Deal has two announced primary challengers for the 2014 governor’s race.

Note: After careful research, this writer was unable to find note of Woody’s appointment in the Georgia media.