My friend Martha Zoller mentioned my response (see bottom of this post) to a tweet she made on the air. So I called in, which I seldom do. But I am always happy to be a guest.

Audio link  10:36 ( I think a very short segment is missing in the audio).

 

The Martha Zoller Show on WDUN-AM May 18, 2022.

I found the podcast here.

Cost of transcription: $29.90

May 18, 2022 (GA Primary Day is May 24)

Radio Announcer: (00:00)
… 550 and FM 102.9, WDUN.

Secretary Mayorkas: (00:01)
We have a multi-pronged approach to what is a very dynamic situation. We are addressing it across the Department of Homeland Security, across the federal government with our state and local partners, and with our partners and allies south of our border.

Host Martha Zoller: (00:31)
It is The Martha Zoller Show. And look, um, that is Secretary Mayorkas, who continues to be tone-deaf about the issue on the border. And, uh, I know that I got a message from DA King earlier today that there’s still time to talk about passing a law to say we should enforce the laws. Well, I, I, I… you know. And I don’t care whether a politician promised to do that or not, okay? I’m just telling you what I say is that we shouldn’t have to pass a law to say we’re going to enforce the law.

Host Martha Zoller: (01:01)
We should enforce the laws or change them, and that’s a quote that I got from, uh, then-Congressman Nathan Deal. Uh, we need to enforce the laws or change them, and I… uh, you know. A- anybody that can look at this illegal immigration situation in America and not see, one, it’s drastically changed in the last 22 months or in the last… Let’s… How many months is it? 18 months. Um, two, that because of that change, that how we’re approaching it is changing, but three, now every network is acknowledging that there are people coming across the border that are being bused to airports and being sent to cities all over the country.

Host Martha Zoller: (01:46)
Now, I have been told multiple times they’re not coming into Gainesville, but we don’t know if they’re not being flown into Atlanta and then coming into Gainesville. And again, these are people that are clearly coming here illegally. They do not have a visa and they are waiting to go back for some kind of hearing to find out if they can stay, so they’re not legal in any sense of the word. They’re just waiting to be processed, and I know a lot of you cringe when you talk about legal or illegal.

Host Martha Zoller: (02:15)
I mean no disrespect to any human being, but your status is legal or illegal. I… If I go to a foreign country on vacation, I have to have a passport to show that I am a United States citizen. In some countries, I have to have a visa to get into that country. In other countries, I don’t, but I have to follow the laws of that country to be able to go into that country and it ought to be the same here. So to DA, who I consider to be a dear, a dear friend who I’ve known for a very long time, I think this is how we have to approach this and this isn’t…

Host Martha Zoller: (02:51)
I don’t care if this is what Brian Kemp said or David Perdue, or Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Here’s what Martha Zoller says. We’ve got to, one, secure the border. If.. We’ve got to get back to where we know who’s coming and where they’re coming in, period. Number one, you got to secure the border. Then, we have got to take, um… We have got to reduce the total number of green cards from about 1.1 million down to about 700,000. We need to for… on an annual basis. We need to take those 400,000 green cards every year and clear out the backlog of people who are waiting.

Host Martha Zoller: (03:30)
We have got problems on the legal side and on the illegal side, but the beginning point of all of this is securing the border. And also, to your point, DA, holding up the laws of the land and enforcing the laws that we have. We’ve got a lot to do over this and we’re going to keep talking about it right here on The Martha Zoller Show.”

A few minutes later in the show:

Host Martha Zoller: (00:03)
Thank you so much. We’re gonna take a break, and I think D.A. King might be callin’ in to take me to task on some things I said about immigration. We’ll be back.

Radio Announcer: (00:13)
The battle for control in the midterms is underway.

Speaker 4: (00:17)
Republicans have such a great agenda, we really do.

Speaker 5: (00:19)
The Republicans-..

And another few minutes later, about 10:45 with end of show at 11:00AM:Radio Announcer: (00:00)
The Zoller Show on AM 550 and FM 102.9 WDUN.

Speaker 2: (00:05)
When our city on a sh- hill is shining bright, others see it and they make their cities bright as well. That’s why I’m running for the Senate. That’s why I’ll be the next Senator for Pennsylvania, and that’s why I promise we will bring.

Host Martha Zoller: (00:25)
It is the Martha Zoller Show. So we don’t know, still, how the Pennsylvania primary went, uh, but, uh, we know that people are going to vote in Georgia. You can join us on the phones at 770-535-2911 and D.A. King, how are you?

D.A. King: (00:41)
I’m fine, Martha. Thank you. I hope you are.

Host Martha Zoller: (00:45)
I’m doing great. So, what’s on your mind today?

D.A. King: (00:47)
Well, I, I listen to your show as often as, as possible here in Marietta and I happen to be listening a little while ago when you mentioned a response to a Tweet that I had made and I wanted to kind of clarify, um, what I was talking about and make it clear to people that when we talk about enforcement of the law as related to the Governor’s race, I was specifically referring to the very detailed repeated promises that candidate for Governor Brian Kemp made in 2018 and what he would do here in Georgia. And my, my efforts here, uh, shouldn’t be confused, respectfully, with, with what’s going on at the border when the Governor as a candidate made very, again, specific promises about what he would do and he’s done-

Host Martha Zoller: (01:33)
So, and I’m glad-

D.A. King: (01:33)
… none of them.

Host Martha Zoller: (01:34)
I’m glad you, I’m glad you called because, because, um, don’t you thi- ’cause I think what has happened at the border… First of all, a few months into his governorship, a year into his governorship we had COVID and, um, then that kinda upended everything, then, um, Biden got into office and the whole border situation blew up. So, you don’t believe that the crisis on the border has, has altered things to where somebody… You know, because when you ask the Governor, ’cause I’ve asked the Governor every time he’s come on about that, and he says, well, he lists off all these things related to illegal immigration. So, you, even though it was a specific promise, and I get that, okay, I get that. You don’t think anything that’s happened since changes the way you might approach it?

D.A. King: (02:24)
Uh, uh, it would, it should in, with, with a-a-any logic, Martha, respectfully, it should redouble his efforts to at least make an effort to keep his promises about what he would do here in Georgia. Now the Governor didn’t run, just give me a minute, he, he didn’t run on promising to crack down on illegal employment, which is the main driver of illegal immigration. He said nothing about the e-verify laws in this state that I, uh, personally work very hard on for 15 years, not being enforced. But, um, what, what he did say, uh, he was all about criminal illegals. His words. Um, there’s laws on the books that I’ve worked with state legislatures with for 15 years to get there that say very clearly that all jailers, this is just one example, are required to check immigration status using reasonable effort of all incoming prisoners and report illegals to the feds.

D.A. King: (03:18)
You’ve got the Gwinnett County Sheriff on record the day he was sworn in promising, swearing, that he will never do what that law requires that I just mentioned. We don’t have a governor now that has sent his Attorney General to investigate the Sheriff of Gwinnett County and similar in Cobb County who ran on getting rid of enforcement cooperation with, with ICE regardless of what the state law says. I can go on, but this isn’t about the border. If we have more illegals, we should have more effort, um, from your executive branch here in the State of Georgia. And Brian Kemp is a failure on that because of his refusal to recognize or even honor and mention his 2018 promises. Those are my gripes.

Host Martha Zoller: (03:57)
No, and I, hey, I hear you and I have great respect for you, you know that. We don’t agree on everything. Um, I’m so frustrated in general because we continue to not be able to make any progress. I mean, one of the things that Senator Perdue did while he was Senator when he introduced the RAISE Act, uh, along with Senator Tom Cotton, that, you know, there, there’s just so many problems with, with immigration, in the policy, in the, the ICE is, is consi- uh, more concerned with fiance visas than they are about the hundreds of thousands of people that are crossing the border every day, I mean every month. So, I, I agree. There’s plenty of things we can talk about here and, and I wanted to give you the opportunity to make your case.

D.A. King: (04:40)
I, I, I appreciate it. Um, in case people forget, I put up the Governor Brian Kemp’s as a candidate very first TV ad from 2018, uh, put it on my personal Facebook page. Most people are, I’m gonna make it public so people can be reminded, but, uh, we shouldn’t mix the context, and sometimes I think-

Host Martha Zoller: (05:00)
I get it.

D.A. King: (05:00)
… it’s done intentionally. It’s not the border.

Host Martha Zoller: (05:02)
I get it.

D.A. King: (05:03)
It’s, it’s here in Georgia. Thank you, Martha.

Host Martha Zoller: (05:05)
I appreciate it D.A. Thank you very much. And, look, I hear him and I think D.A. is an honest arbiter of the issues that he has. I personally believe that this, this border situation becomes something that needs to be fixed before we can almost do anything else, but I will ac- I will cede to D.A. that being sure the laws we already have on the books in Georgia are being enforced, and there being penalties for people who do not enforce them should be there. And I gotta look into what the Sheriff’s responsibility is. Like, does the state have some sort of, um, you know, uh, say so over a Sheriff that says he’s not gonna enforce certain laws? And is it like with the State Board of Education, for example, that if you have a, a state, uh, board like the problems at DeKalb County right now, or, uh, way at, the very extreme things in Clayton County a number of years ago where, where the board was taken over. Uh, also that happened at DeKalb County a number of years ago. Is there that kind of relationship?

Host Martha Zoller: (06:07)
And I don’t know the answer to that question. So, I’m gonna try to get the answer to that question to find out if there is a Sheriff that says, “Hey, we’re not gonna do certain things, um, we’re not gonna do certain things.” Can the state come in and make them enforce state law? I don’t know. So, I need to get the answer to that question.

Host Martha Zoller: (06:27)
You can join us on the phones at 770-535-2911. Uh, there is l-lots more that we’re gonna be talking about. And we are gonna be doing some closing arguments. All the Lieutenant Governor candidates.

 

 

 

 

The below column was written and sent as a submission to NRO but politely declined with an explanation from the submission editor who told me he was “satisfied” with their coverage of the Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary race. I wrote and submitted on Friday, May 13. Turns out the same editor had posted his own column on Georgia’s GOP race the same day. His take (and I think information level) was different than mine.

Update 10:20 AM: National Review endorsed Brian Kemp for reelection the next Friday, today, May 20 without any mention of Kemp’s betrayal on his 2018 campaign promises on “criminal illegals.”

As of about 10 minutes ago I am no longer a National Review subscriber. We have the liberal AJC and a plethora of biased TV “news” outlets here (not to mention the Associated Press) to ignore Kemp’s defiance on illegal immigration in Georgia, we don’t need NR.

 

———–

Submission:

The GOP Gubernatorial Primary and Illegal Immigration in “Georgiafornia”

 A pro-enforcement report from the now purple Peach State

 D.A. King

According to latest estimates from DHS, Georgia is home to more illegal aliens than Arizona. In the partially successful effort to end 287(g) agreements in the state, the corporate-funded Georgia Budget and Policy Institute used a pie chart to point out that “the Peach State” is also home to more illegal aliens than green card holders. We have taken to referring to our home state as “Georgiafornia”

With the May 24^th state Republican primary looming, conservative observers around the country may assume that a very large part of the gubernatorial candidate debate between incumbent Gov Brian Kemp and Trump-endorsed challenger, former Senator David Perdue, has been on illegal immigration in Georgia. They may also logically assume that Perdue would be laser-focused and effusive on Kemp’s dismal record on illegal immigration as governor and his 2018 campaign promises on that matter. Not exactly.

Kemp has the well-deserved Georgia Chamber of Commerce endorsement. To get an idea of the politics of immigration here, readers should know that the Georgia Chamber fought the passage of the 2011 law that implemented E-Verify for some private employers and is pushing to allow illegal aliens with DACA status to pay instate tuition as part of a “Global Talent Initiative.”

The afore-mentioned E-Verify law was weakened after it was put in place and enforcement is all but nonexistent. Kemp’s endless reelection mantra is that “Georgia is number one for business” and that he has kept all his 2018 campaign promises. Apparently, it is. He hasn’t.

As one may expect and as Mark Krikorian at the Center for Immigration Studies noted on NRO near the end of the primary runoff race here four years ago, Kemp did not make promises on attacking the root cause of illegal immigration (spoiler: it’s  illegal employment). Back then Kemp largely hung his hat on a repeated pledge to go after what he called “criminal illegals.”

He promised to create a public registry of criminal illegal aliens and put out a detailed outline of legislation he pledged to send to the state legislature entitled “Brian Kemp’s Track and Deport Plan.”

In his not-to-be missed first 2018 TV campaign ad Kemp expanded on the theme by assuring voters that he would “…enforce the ban on sanctuary cities and track and deport all criminal illegal aliens so our kids don’t become the next victims.” Never mind the fact that governors have zero authority or ability to deport anyone. He was on a roll.

“I got a big truck just In case I need to round up criminal illegals and take ‘em home myself” was the line delivered by candidate Brian Kemp in another memorable 2018 TV ad.

None of it ever happened. Kemp has not mentioned any of it since 2018.

Now, all questions about Kemp’s promises about “criminal illegals” in Georgia are met with a diversionary reference to “the border.” The response to the glaring obfuscation from loyal and obedient Republican voters is often that “we don’t’ want Stacey!” in reference to Stacy Abrams’ candidacy for governor of formerly ruby red Georgia.

At the pro-enforcement Dustin Inman Society, of which this writer is founder and president, we collectively refer to Kemp’s silent defiance as the “big truck trick” and have installed a counter on our website to track the period of his silence.

For his part, Perdue has nothing on his campaign website “issues” page concerning illegal immigration and to our knowledge he hasn’t brought up the absence of any promised Kemp registry of “criminal illegals” or ending the openly illegal sanctuary polices in the state. He did take some shots at Kemp in the recent series of three TV debates.

“On the governor’s watch, we have more illegal immigrants in Georgia than when he took office. We actually have more illegal immigrants here than the state of Arizona” said Perdue. “As a matter of fact, if you look at Florida, 70% of their counties have a contract with ICE to find and deport illegal criminals. In Georgia, only 3% of our counties” in reference to the important federal Warrant Service Officer (WSO) program – essentially 287(g) light.

“On his watch, we have grown (the) illegal community here, and I think the Hispanic community here that’s hardworking, small business and all that, really want that cleaned up too.”

“I remember the governor, when he ran in ’18, told us that, you know, “I’m gonna round them up, put them in my pickup truck, and get them out of here.” Governor, what happened? Your pickup break down? Perdue asked.

In an apparent “because Covid” response, Kemp replied “No. Still running. Still running, still working, still creating jobs, still doing something about stopping folks coming across the border…I don’t know how going around picking up people that might have COVID when our law enforcement was sending, um, ventilators and PPE supplies to hospitals would’ve been a good strategy.” Transcript.

The Republican Party in metro-Atlanta’s Cobb County censured Kemp in October 2021 for his failure to honor his immigration related promises.

An eight-page January “Georgians First” campaign mailer from Kemp did not touch illegal immigration.

A May 10 Perdue campaign internal memo did not mention Kemp’s immigration, broken promises weakness.

An April 25 poll from the liberal Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper revealed that more than 90% of Republican respondents answered that immigration and border security was “extremely important” or “very important” in deciding how to vote in the Republican primary. (Editor: Q8 here)

Trump’s former Acting ICE Director, Tom Homan, came out in support of Perdue late last week with harsh words for Kemp. “When it comes to dealing with illegal immigration, Kemp has failed the people of Georgia and this nation.”

So far,  Georgia media has treated Homan’s expert observation a well kept secret.

# #

D.A. King of Marietta, GA is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society and proprietor of ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com. An independent voter, he has assisted Georgia lawmakers with illegal immigration-related legislation since 2005. @DAKDIS 404-***-****

 dak