The below open records request to TCSG is pasted in reverse order – my original ORR is on the bottom., most recent reply on top.

 

D.A. King,

Thank you for your patience, D.A., and for taking the time to submit your Open Records Request. Pursuant to subparagraph (b)(I)(A) of O.C.G.A. 50-18-71, we are responding in a reasonable timeframe. You have requested copies of SAVE affidavits, applications, and Secure and Verifiable ID documents collected from specified employer participants in the apprenticeship program.

At this time, the requested records do not exist. The awarded companies were recently announced, and we are in the initial stages of the contracting process. This process includes the hiring of apprentices, submission of required documentation, and the verification of information prior to contracts to be drafted and executed.

It is anticipated that the requested records may become available by late February or early March. It would be best to submit a new request at that time to obtain the information.

Should you have any additional questions or require further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

When submitting future requests, use our ORR portal: Legal Services – TCSG | Technical College System of Georgia

Kind regards,

Leigh Keever

 

” src=”blob:https://newdustininmansociety.org/0de89be6-83ac-4aa9-8b10-2861f5627242″ alt=”image001.png” border=”0″ class=”Apple-web-attachment Singleton” style=”width: 1.2812in; height: 0.5625in; opacity: 1;”>

Leigh Keever, M.A. Policy Coordinator Office of Legal Services Technical College System of Georgia 1800 Century Place, NE, Ste. 400 Atlanta, GA 30345 404-679-4971–office lkeever@tcsg.edu |www.TCSG.edu

_________________

From: D. A. King <dk
Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2024 11:32 AM
To: Keever, Leigh <lkeever@tcsg.edu>
Subject: Re: ORR

CAUTION:This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Thank you.

dak

Sent from my iPhone

_________

On Dec 3, 2024, at 11:28 AM, Keever, Leigh <lkeever@tcsg.edu> wrote:

Mr. King,

Thank you for contacting the TCSG with your Open Records Act request. Pursuant to subparagraph (b)(I)(A) of O.C.G.A. 50-18-71 we wanted to notify you that the breadth of acquiring the requested data will take longer than the 3-day period. We anticipate having the documents you are requesting to you no later than Friday the 13^th of December.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Kind regards,

Leigh Keever

 

 

<image001.png>

Leigh Keever, M.A. Policy Coordinator Office of Legal Services Technical College System of Georgia 1800 Century Place, NE, Ste. 400 Atlanta, GA 30345 404-679-4971–office lkeever@tcsg.edu |www.TCSG.edu

 

___________________

From: D.A. King <>
Sent: Monday, December 2, 2024 10:15 AM
To: Keever, Leigh <lkeever@tcsg.edu>; D’Alessio, Mark <MDAlessio@tcsg.edu>
Subject: ORR

 

Please regard this email as my official open record request for copies of documents pertaining to compliance with OCGA 50-36-1 in the HDAP Apprenticeship Program.

Please send me copies of SAVE affidavits, applications, and Secure and Verifiable ID collected from the below employer participants in the apprenticeship program. I understand that there may be some redaction.

5 Points Electrical

Ace Electric Inc.

All & Everything LLC

Ascendum Machinery Inc

B & W Mechanical Contractors, Inc.

Bargeron Electric Company LLC

Caterpillar BCP, Inc.

Croy Electrical Inc.

Silver Sheet Metal

Delta Plumbing Inc.

Thank you,

D.A. King.

 

 

 

 

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” Attributed to George Orwell.

 According to the federal government, only seven states host more illegal aliens than Georgia. The leftist Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says we are home to more illegals than Lawful Permanent Residents (“green card” holders). Pre-Biden/Harris/Mayorkas, the estimates on how many “undocumented workers” live in our state varied, but after nearly four years of illegal open borders, use of about 500,000-600,000 is a conservative ‘guesstimate.’

This is no way to run a state.

Absent the promised federal protections of defended and secure borders, it does not require an advanced political degree to recognize that our state and local governments should be doing everything possible to drive illegal aliens out of Georgia.

This writer has spent the last nineteen legislative sessions under the Gold Dome in Atlanta to that end. Working together with lawmakers, we have put a long list of statutes in place designed to make Georgia inhospitable to the federal offense of illegal immigration.

But many of them are not enforced. Enforcement is the task of the executive branch of government.

To noodle out what is really going on with illegal immigration in Georgia, it helps to realize that there are essentially two sides to our current immigration crisis: Pro-enforcement and anti-enforcement.

This writer is pro-enforcement. I have been researching and actively fighting illegal immigration for more than two decades. I am not well-liked at the Gold Dome. I am not a member of any political party.

I am grateful to publisher Will Davis who has kindly consented to allowing me to send educational commentary columns for readers of this newspaper. My goal is to provide a better understanding of illegal immigration in Georgia.

To that end, we recently published a column that highlighted Georgia’s Dual Enrollment (DE) program.

To recap, DE is a taxpayer-funded arrangement in which high school students – mostly 11^th and 12^th graders – can attend taxpayer-funded public college classes and get both high school and college credit. They do not pay a dime in tuition or for books and fees. The budget for 2025 is north of $91 million. It is intended as a head start on an employment career for the students. There is nothing in the Dual Enrollment program that excludes illegal aliens from taking the zero cost classes provided Georgia taxpayers.

Maybe Republican lawmakers have forgotten that federal law says illegal aliens are not eligible for employment anywhere in the nation.

Suggestion: Ask your state lawmakers why they are using our tax dollars to fund a college education for illegal aliens in the name of “workforce expansion.”

Dual Enrollment vs Instate Tuition for illegal aliens

The DE program is separate and quite different than the “shall we provide instate tuition to the annual illegal aliens who have already graduated our highs schools?” question.

Instate tuition is significantly lower (but not free, like DE) than the out-of-state tuition rate. How much lower? A look at the Middle Georgia State University website shows that total instate tuition and fees for a fifteen-hour class load is $3641. The out-of-state rate is $10,316. That is a difference of $6675.00. That is per semester.

 

Instate tuition is intended to benefit Georgians in Georgia. An American student living in Michigan (for example) who wants to attend Middle Georgia State College must pay the much higher out-of-state tuition rate.

Believe it or not, prodded by the extremely powerful Georgia Chamber of Commerce lobbyists in Atlanta, some GOP state lawmakers annually push for instate tuition for illegal aliens for whom then-President Barack Obama illegally invented the “DACA” program in 2012.

In March of 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found that illegal aliens with Obama’s DACA are not eligible to enter the United States, are removable (deportable) and do not have “lawful presence.”  The decision was unanimous.

“We have continuously and clearly taken the position in ongoing legal cases that DACA does not confer legal status…” says Georgia Attorney General Chis Carr.

Shorter: Illegal aliens with DACA are illegal aliens – but Obama gave them a work permit anyway.

Suggestion: Ask your state legislators if they support allowing any illegal aliens to pay $6675.00 less in tuition per semester at Middle Georgia State than Americans and legal immigrants who live in other U.S. states.

I respectfully advise that you start with Rep. Dale Washburn (R-Macon), as he is the number two signer on the most recent legislation (HB 131) aimed at rewarding and welcoming illegal aliens with the much lower tuition rate. Is that pro-enforcement?

D.A. King is president of the Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society. X/Twitter: @DAKDIS

A version of the above essay was published in the Monroe County/ Macon Reporter on October 23, 2024.

The below media request was sent to TCSG on Oct. 6, about 4:46 PM.

• Related reading: Despite state laws, illegal aliens run businesses in Georgia and they hire illegal aliens

To whom it concerns at TCSG,

I write to ask for comment on the TCSG policy on the requirement for verification of “lawful presence” contained in (2024) SB 497  (lines 197-201) as it applies to the employers who participate in the apprenticeship program and collect significant cash awards from the Georgia budget. I plan to write educational opinion columns on the premise that TCSG apparently does not have in place a system to ensure that employers who are in the U.S. illegally are excluded from benefits in the apprenticeship program – and that participating employers are not required to undergo the verification measures in OCGA 50-36-1. If true, that policy seems to be in contradiction of state law and could invite court action.

 I will cite the information and details contained in the recent TCSG response to my open records request, the letter of inquiry sent to the Georgia Dept. of Law by a concerned state legislator and the response from the AG office.  I plan to also cite the quote on legislative intent I received from House Higher Education Committee Chairman Rep. Chuck Martin, the sponsor of the amendment to SB 497 that created the new language on “apprenticeships.” I include part of that input below:

 “Question to Chairman Martin: Was it your intent to omit the employer from a verification process or do you hold the position that the addition on line 201 of SB 497 will somehow include the verification of lawful presence for the employer who sends an employee to be trained, please? If it is the latter, it will help my readers (including many state legislators) if you could offer an explanation of that position.

Chairman Martin: “No, in fact, I believe the language covers the employer as well. Additionally, ‘Apprenticeship sponsor’ is defined in the bill (lines 116 – 120), so the additional language added to 50-36-1 is a bit of “belt and suspenders” for state verification.”

I am also looking for an answer to the question on whether for H1B workers are still being included as apprentices. I was informed by TCSG staff last year that H1B workers are in fact included in taxpayer-funded “upskilling” in the apprenticeship program. I look forward to including any further input from TCSG on the reasoning for the reported current policy and system. That revelation has created some expert attention.

My columns appear in the AJC, on James Magazine Online, The Federalist, Breitbart News, in various Georgia newspapers as well as my own widely-read blogs. I also have a weekly radio segment on the popular “Straight Talk” show hosted by Scott Ryfun heard in Coastal Georgia on two stations and well as online at iHeart radio.

In the interest of fairness, balance and accuracy, I look forward to any input from TCSG. My deadline is Wednesday, October 9, 2024 – noon.

Thank you.

D.A. King

404-

The Dustin Inman Society

ImmigrationPoliticsGA.com

Georgians for Immigration Enforcement

_______

 

Response from TCSG received Oct. 8, 2024.

From: WIOACompliance <WIOACompliance@tcsg.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 11:43 AM
To: dking    888<dking***>
Cc: WIOACompliance <WIOACompliance@tcsg.edu>
Subject: Re: Media Request — Apprenticeship Program

 

Dear Mr. King,

Since the passage of SB 497, the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) has been diligently working to establish procedures that ensure both compliance and effective administration of the High Demand Apprenticeship Program. As part of these efforts, we are developing a program-specific affidavit for employers participating in the program, which will verify that all participating employers are lawfully present in the United States, in order to put to rest any concern regarding compliance with O.C.G.A. 50-36-1. We anticipate finalizing and adopting this affidavit within the next month.

After a diligent search of our records, TCSG can confirm that as of this date there have been no H1-B visa holders who have participated in TCSG college-sponsored Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs). It is worth noting that, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, Registered Apprenticeship Programs are widely regarded as a strategic solution to upskill American workers and thereby reduce the dependence of employers upon H1-B and other foreign labor sources.

Best regards,

Office of Workforce Development

Technical College System of Georgia

The below open records request was sent to the Technical College System of Georgia offices on Sept. 24, 2024 at 10:12 AM.

Response pasted below with links on bottom – received Sept. 25, 2024 at 4:47 PM.

_

To whom it may concern at TCSG,

Please regard this email as my official request for copies of public records.

Please send me a copy of any and all applications, affidavits, forms, guidelines, information pages and documents listing and/or explaining requirements for identification required by TCSG connected with the administration and processing of individuals or entities who are employers and who apply to benefit from the Registered Apprenticeship Program and the “High Demand Apprenticeship Program” (HDAP) administered by the Technical System of Georgia.

 

 

 

LINK TO – High Demand Apprenticeship Program

High Demand Apprenticeship Program APPLICATION

High Demand Apprenticeship Program POLICY

__