Illegal immigration: House committee to consider SB 107 and no-cost postsecondary education for foster care students - while Biden has borders open to UACs

Biden’s border officials project 13,000 child migrants in May. Text and photo: Axios.

SB 107 is scheduled to be heard in the House Higher Education Committee tomorrow, March 17, 2021 at 1:00 PM. This is the same committee that passed out HB 120, the “lower tuition for illegal aliens than Americans” bill that has not yet seen a floor vote.

We suggest changes to SB 107.

Our antenna go up when we see an op-ed embedded in proposed law. SB 107 from Senator Brian Strickland and his cosponsors is a prime example. Generally, the bill is aimed at providing no cost postsecondary education (*USG (urging language)& TCSG) to young people who have been adopted or are/were in foster care in Georgia. No tuition, no fees.

Here is a sample of the op-ed language in SB 107 – starting on line 15 (LC 49 0418S (SCS))

SECTION 1.

“Article 12 of Chapter 3 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to postsecondary education grants for foster children and adopted children, is amended by repealing CodeSection20-3-660, relating to program of grants created, terms and conditions, applications, eligibility, duties of the Division of Family and Children Services, expenses and fees covered, and report by the Education Coordinating Council, and enacting a new Code Section 20-3-660 to read as follows:

(a) It is the policy of the General Assembly that resources of this state should be committed to support benefits and positive outcomes for youth who age out of foster care.

A postsecondary education can benefit these youth, many of whom who have come from places of great disadvantage; however, too few have been able to realize the benefit.

Therefore, the General Assembly establishes this program to support as many of these youth as possible in realizing the benefits of postsecondary education. The General Assembly urges and recommends that the Board of Regents adopt substantially similar tuition waiver programs for these youth to realize the benefits of postsecondary education in the University System of Georgia.”

End on line 30.

Georgia ranks number seven in states with its illegal alien population. We are home to more illegal aliens than Arizona – and more illegals than green card holders. We are an illegal alien destination because the state laws put in place to make us inhospitable to illegal immigration are largely ignored by the Republicans in power and because along with the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce runs most policy decisions under the Gold Dome.

Many of whom are destined to become Georgia residents and likely under foster care, unaccompanied alien children (UACs) are streaming over the southern border as I type because the Democrats are essentially open borders radicals and are fortifying their future voter rolls. It is important to note that last year’s “children in cages” is now “temporary shelters for migrant children…” under Biden.

Here is a blurb from the WaPo on the swelling crisis that ‘isn’t a crisis:’

Washington Post

March 13, 2021

Biden will deploy FEMA to care for teenagers and children crossing border in record numbers

“The Biden administration is deploying the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Mexican border to help care for thousands of unaccompanied migrant teens and children who are arriving in overwhelming numbers and being packed into detention cells and tent shelters, the Department of Homeland Security said Saturday evening.

The deployment marks another escalation in the administration’s response to the growing crisis at the border. It is part of what DHS said would be a 90-day government-wide effort at the border, where an unprecedented number of minors are arriving without their parents each day and must be sheltered and cared for until they can be placed with a vetted sponsor, usually a parent or relative already living in the United States.” Here.

And:

noqreport.com

Biden’s border crisis: 2021 on pace for more unaccompanied children than Trump’s four years combined

“2019 was the worst year on record for UACs (Unaccompanied Alien Children). At the pace that UACs are flooding across the border today, the Biden administration will blow that number out of the water. In fact, he’s on pace for TRIPLING the worst year ever.” Here

Already passed in the Republican-controlled senate, SB 107 is scheduled to be heard in the House Higher Education Committee Wednesday, March 17 (tomorrow). It can and should be improved and “illegal alien-proofed.” We have experienced and serious doubts that illegal immigration was any part of consideration in the senate. Senate vote record here.

While we do not claim to be experts on Family and Children’s Services, foster care or adoption, we do know about illegal immigration and that SB 107 is in urgent need of changes.

Fact: Most Georgians will take a dim view of a law that allows illegal aliens to attend post secondary education institutions at no cost while Americans and legal immigrants pay. SB 107 needs a belt and suspenders.

Our suggested changes to SB 107 – sent to some of the Republicans (including the Chairman) on the Higher Ed committee members below.

GA state Senator Brian Strickland. Photo: GA senate. Sponsor, SB107

SB 107 Suggested changes LC 49 0418S (SCS)

Add sentence that goes something like:

“eligibility for benefits under this code section shall limited to students and applicants who are U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents as defined by the federal government and foreign nationals who have legal immigration status as determined by federal law…applicants who have deferred action on enforcement of U.S. immigration laws shall not be eligible to apply…”

More suggested changes:

* Line 38 should be changed to include “all of”

code section for each foster child or adopted child who meets all of the following requirements:

* Lines 59 & 60 look very muddy. Should read that student must qualify for FAFSA – not merely complete the application.

* Lines 58-64:

“5) The student completes a simplified application process established by the Division

of Family and Children Services, which shall include completion of the Free Application

for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine the level of need and eligibility for state (It looks like illegal aliens d/n qualify for FAFSA, but the bill only says they must complete the FAFSA application – not be approved. Illegals could complete the app, and still receive no cost college?) and federal financial aid programs; provided, however, that a student who is presumptively eligible to participate in the waiver program shall be permitted to provisionally participate in the waiver program for a period of up to 30 days pending the student’s completion of the application process.”

* Starting on line 60, this language should be struck: to determine the level of need and eligibility for state

and federal financial aid programs; provided, however, that a student who is

presumptively eligible to participate in the waiver program shall be permitted to

provisionally participate in the waiver program for a period of up to 30 days pending the

student’s completion of the application process.

*Updated to explain what the urging language on USG.

Center for Immigration Studies

DREAMers’ are just the bait; “citizenship for all 11 million, or however many” illegal aliens there are here is the hoo

By Andrew R. Arthur on November 17, 2022

On November 16, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) held a press conference in front of the Capitol in which he called for amnesty for “DREAMers”, aliens brought illegally to the United States as children. As he did so, however, he pulled back the curtain on his end game – to “get a path to citizenship for all 11 million, or however many undocumented, there are here”. The DREAMers are the bait, while a full and total amnesty is the hook.

DREAMers, In Brief. Amnesty legislation for aliens who arrived in their youth has a long, but not particularly successful pedigree. Here’s a brief recap.

In August 2001, then-Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced a bipartisan “DREAM Act”, which included 18 cosponsors. That bill would have granted amnesty to aliens unlawfully present for five years who entered under the age of 21, and who met certain work and educational requirements.

The timing of that bill could not have been worse, because less than six weeks later, the September 11 attacks showed how foolhardy such blanket amnesties were. Nonetheless, similar “DREAM Acts” were subsequently introduced in later Congresses.

One bears special note. In March 2009, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) offered up the “DREAM Act of 2009” during the 111th Congress.

At that time, Barack Obama was president, Democrats held an overwhelming majority in the House, and from September 24, 2009 (when Democrat Paul Kirk was appointed to fill the seat of the late Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy) through February 4, 2010 (when Republican Scott Brown was elected to fill Kennedy’s seat), Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats in the Senate.

Obama’s fellow Democrats could have passed any bill they wanted – including and in particular the DREAM Act of 2009 – without any Republican votes at all. But that bill went nowhere. Cosponsor and then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) did not even bring it up for a vote in committee.

That said, two Republican senators – Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) – were cosponsors of the DREAM Act of 2009, so they probably would have blocked a filibuster even during the months Democrats only controlled a measly 59 seats in the upper chamber.

Obama blamed Republicans for the failure to pass a DREAM Act, but the fault really lies with him and congressional Democrats alone – DREAM Act legislation simply was not a priority for a party that held a hammerlock on the legislative process.

The popularity of legislation to “protect” the DACA population has been a key talking point for years (I was the punching boy for Democrats at a House hearing on the issue in March 2019), but let’s face it – if it really were all that popular, it would have been a shoo-in in the 111th Congress.

DACA. The failure of DREAM Act legislation led to a program called “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” or DACA. It grants quasi-legal status to aliens who entered the United States while under the age of 16 before June 15, 2007, who are currently under the age of 41, who meet certain educational standards, and have not been convicted of certain crimes.

DACA was not created by Congress, or even by executive order or executive action (for what that is worth). It’s the product of a memo issued by then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on June 15, 2012. In my considered legal opinion, Napolitano lacked the authority to create DACA (the Fifth Circuit ruled in October that the program is unlawful, but the Supreme Court has yet to weigh in), but in any event, it sets a bad precedent.

Want proof? Here’s what the editorial board of the Washington Post had to say when President Obama was considering expanding DACA to include parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in 2014:

The president should think twice. Some of the same Democrats and pro-immigrant advocates urging him to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation would be outraged if a Republican president took a similarly selective approach to enforcing the laws — say, those that guarantee voting rights or prohibit employment discrimination.

Obama ignored the Post editorial board and created something called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). DAPA proved to be a bridge too far for Texas and several other states, who successfully sued to block its implementation.

Despite all of this, DACA continues, and the Biden administration recently issued a new rule, effective October 31, “to preserve and fortify” the decade-old program.

A Sympathetic Population. The DACA population is admittedly sympathetic. The vast majority of the approximately 650,000 current DACA beneficiaries were removable a decade ago, but in the intervening years they have been living in a quasi-legal status thanks to some questionable administrative actions.

Even President Trump, in his 2018 State of the Union address, offered up a plan to legalize not just DACA recipients but also a total of 1.8 million “DACA-eligible” aliens – more or less the same individuals covered by the DREAM Act…. please read the rest here at the CIS website.