Transcript: Republican Chairman Chuck Martin on HB 131 & "Opportunity Tuition" for illegal aliens - Feb 1, 2023 in an unrelated hearing

Rep Chuck Martin, at the Feb 1, 2023 House Higher Education Commmittee meeting

FACT: HB 131 offers reduced tuition rates to illegal aliens living in Georgia with Obama’s DACA status. Those greatly lowered rates would not apply to Americans and legal immigrants whose families joined the American family lawfully and who live in other states.
Republican Chairman of the House Higher Education Committee Rep Chuck Martin in a hearing unrelated to HB 131 on Feb. 1, 2023 speaking about HB 131 and its effect on students “.. this does not put people that are in the country illegally in front of others.”
The liberal AJC newspaper is helping him spread that shameless whopper.

Audio below.

The below transcript is from the February 1, 2023 meeting of the House Higher Education Committee meeting. HB 131 was not on the agenda.

We are alarmed and saddened that Chairman Martin has apparently forgotten about the Americans and legal immigrants who migrated to the U.S. lawfully and did not choose to live in Georgia. HB 131 would in fact allow illegal aliens with DACA to pay far lower tuition rates in Georgia’s public colleges and tech schools than Americans and legal immigrants who live in other states.

You can read my 2021 Insider Advantage appraisal of the previous attempt at “Opportunity Tuition” for illegal aliens here and see some basic math on the consequences of allowing illegal aliens to pay (much) less tuition win Georgia’s public colleges here.

* Related: Vote record: These Reps voted to pass out “Opportunity Tuition” for illegal aliens in 2021.

You can watch the archived hearing here at about 1:28:36 – its about 3 minutes.

Transcript by Rev.com. My cost: $8.00 and three hours of my time.

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Georgia House Higher Education Committee Chairman Chuck Martin:

“Thank you for your presentation. I don’t see anymore questions. I, I have one more, um, for the good of the order, if I may. We’ll meet next Wednesday, we’ll have additional bills. Um, y’all know if I’ve got something to say, I say it and I try to give everybody their opportunity and we’re going to have a bill later on, um, this session that we’ll hear, we heard something similar to it a, a few years ago. Um, it’s introduced by, uh, Chairman Carpenter, uh, he, he called the Workforce Development Act this year, but i- it’s basically for workforce tuition, you’ve heard, we’ve heard this before. Um, there, there’s certainly, that’s a policy issue before this committee that one can agree on, um, that went in, Chairman Carpenter, yesterday?

Chairman Carpenter:

Dalton Rep Kasey Carpenter. Photo: Ga House.

Yeah… [inaudible 00:00:45].

HigherEd Comm Chair Chuck Martin:

Um, no, no sooner than, than today, an email went out and I won’t identify the individual, but the last part of that email said, says, and, and different parties can agree, uh, agree to disagree or we can debate the policy, the last portion of that email says, “HB131, the gentleman’s, uh, proposition puts ill-,” I’m quoting this from the email, “Puts illegals in front of Americans and legal immigrants.” Again, we’ll debate that policy before this committee, you may be for it, you may be against it, you may not know yet, but I want to read two places in the bill. I’ll just, I’ll, I’ll just read one, it’s duplicated for t- TCSG and USG. “To be clear, nothing in this code section shall be construed to require in-state tuition classification for individuals that are not lawfully present in Georgia.” Above that in the bill, it says, “An eligible program at the technical college system shall give priority consideration to enrollment applications by qualified students who are classified for in-state tuition over applications by qualified opportunity students, which is dealt with in this bill, and may defer enrollment for qualified opportunity students until all applications for students that have in-state tuition are accepted, deferred or rejected.”

We’ll debate the policy as it happens, but I think there’s nothing more important than, than connection and communication, so I just want to communicate to anybody that’s listening and anybody that’s out there, and you’re welcome to [inaudible 00:02:30], black letter, words on paper, this does not put people that are in the country illegally in front of others. That’s not up for debate and whatever, again, whether you take a position for this bill or against this bill, I think it’s important to know and just be direct and up front what it does and doesn’t do in the language. And that, with that, I have nothing more for today.

Anything else for the good of the order?

Anything else?

If not, thank you everybody for their time and attention today. Uh, if there’s no objection we’ll stand adjourned. Without objection, we are adjourned.”

From the Carroll County Star News.

“Is it more irresponsible that moderate Republican Martha Zoller offers up wildly absurd excuses for Kemp’s defiant dereliction of his duty as governor – or that Republican voters remain silent? And how is Republican Kemp any better on illegal immigration than Democrat Joe Biden?

Readers of all descriptions need to know that there is an ignorant attitude and potentially dangerous talking point on illegal immigration circulating under the GOP-ruled Gold Dome and in the Establishment political class. Some elected officials and trusted “conservative” commentators are telling all who will listen that the “don’t worry, it’s not an invasion” invasion at our southern border is “a federal problem.”

Looking back to last session, it is educational to know that multiple bills were passed in the state Senate that would reward and encourage illegal aliens in Georgia.

It is equally important to remember that Georgia is home to more illegals than green card holders and more than Arizona.

When pressed by voters who find the courage to broach the topic with their own elected public servants, many state legislators can be heard responding “there is nothing we can do about illegal immigration on the state or local level!”

This bizarre nonsense should be firmly challenged by voters. To speed that agenda along, while the General Assembly is in session in the coming months there will be specific examples in this space of how treacherous and preposterous this “it’s not our job” attitude really is. As usual, names will be named.

For now, consider the reality that at least one Georgia politician has clearly acknowledged he has the power to address the matter. We should remember all the way back to 2018 when Gov. Kemp was candidate Kemp and recall his campaign ads that led with his solemn promise on what he would do about the crime problem generated by illegal aliens. Kemp promised to go after what he referred to then as “criminal illegals” and to create a public database of that group in Georgia. He pledged to end sanctuary city policies and to work to pass state legislation that would speed up the system that puts illegal aliens into the federal deportation system.

Here are some of Brian Kemp’s exact words from five years ago in describing the promised “Kemp Track and Deport Plan.”

“As governor conservative businessman Brian Kemp will create a comprehensive database to track criminal aliens in Georgia. He will also update Georgia law to streamline deportations from our jails and prisons.”

Brian Kemp’s criminal alien database summary:

Aggregates data from state, local and federal law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies.
Tracks the number of arrests, convictions, deportations and categorizes the crimes committed by criminal aliens.
Destroy silos and provides new law enforcement with sophisticated tools to track organized crime, gang, cartel connections…
Creates valuable data for lawmakers to develop common sense legislation that curbs illegal immigration in Georgia.
Includes opportunities for partnership with President Trump and local universities.”
Readers paying attention may have noticed that not only has Kemp ignored every part of the above promises, but that to this writer’s attentive knowledge, he has not mentioned illegal immigration in Georgia since 2018.

On the topic of bizarre nonsense, please also consider the lengths to which at least one Kemp acolyte has gone to concoct an argument for defending the governor, now in his second term.

Republican radio show host explains Kemp’s refusal to honor his 2018 pledge on ‘criminal illegals’

Republican stalwart and influential Gainesville radio show host Martha Zoller (WDUN- 9-11 AM weekdays and online) says illegal immigration has increased so much that Brian Kemp had to abandon his campaign promises on “criminal illegals” and ending sanctuary cities in Georgia. She has promoted this idea more than once on the air and says discussing Kemp’s betrayal is “wasting time.”

Zoller, a Kemp appointee to the state school board, has repeatedly expressed her irritation on-air with this writer for failing to forget Gov Brian Kemp’s many detailed promises on addressing “criminal illegals.” A former Kemp staffer, she says “he had to change his tactics” (because there are so many illegals). She has promoted this idea more than once on the air and says discussing Kemp’s betrayal is “wasting time.”

For those who need a recap, Talker’s Magazine 2023 Woman of The Year Martha Zoller is advising her trusting audience that Biden’s open borders have apparently made ending illegal sanctuary policies in Georgia, creating a public database of “criminal illegals” and sending legislation (“Brian Kemp’s Track and Deport Plan“) to the General Assembly an outdated, non-priority concept.

Sanctuary city policies are already illegal under at least two state laws. Georgia’s governor is not enforcing them.

So, closing questions: Is it more irresponsible that moderate Republican Martha Zoller offers up wildly absurd excuses for Kemp’s defiant dereliction of his duty as governor – or that Republican voters remain silent? And how is Republican Kemp any better on illegal immigration than Democrat Joe Biden?

The above column was published in the November 13, 2023 issue of the Carroll County Star News.