Welcoming Illegal immigration to Georgia with special treatment on college tuition

“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.

—>UPDATE: The liberal AJC prints a lengthy correction after demand letter from the Dustin Inman Society. More news on this coming soon.

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Daily Signal News report (‘DEFAMATORY’: Conservative Demands Swing-State Newspaper Retract ‘Hate Group’ Smear’)
on the recent AJC attack here by the great Tyler O’Neil.

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I added educational hyperlinks to the below letter – dak.

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October 18, 2024

VIA U.S. REGULAR MAIL & E-MAIL

Leroy Chapman, Jr., Editor in Chief THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION 223 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE Atlanta, Georgia 30346

Re: Demand for Retraction and Apology

Dear Mr. Chapman, Jr.:

I write on behalf of my client, the Dustin Inman Society (DIS), to demand an immediate retraction and apology for the defamatory statements published in your October 7, 2024, article titled “Democrats in this Georgia district are backing a write-in candidate” by Tia Mitchell.

Through use of internet links, the AJC article wrongfully characterizes the Dustin Inman Society as a “Marietta-based anti-immigration hate group.” This characterization is false, defamatory, and published with actual malice. The Dustin Inman Society pushes for secure borders, is not “anti-immigration” and its proprietors do not hate anyone. Rather, DIS advocates for enforcement of U.S. immigration laws and actively opposes unlawful immigration. This distinction is crucial and well-known to staff at your publication.

I paste the offending paragraph from the AJC story:

“A search of activity under her birth name, Karen Sacandy, which Stamper legally changed in 2019, showed that she previously was aligned with a Marietta-based anti-immigration hate group. The group’s website often linked to Sacandy’s activities, like a letter seeking information about the state’s Immigration Enforcement Review Board and a copy of a letter to the editor supporting legislation to prevent immigrants claiming asylum from obtaining driver’s licenses.”

HEMMER WESSELS MCMURTRY PLLC
250 Grandview Drive, Suite 500, Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017 ● Phone 859.344.1188 ● Fax 859.578.3869

October 18, 2024 Page 2

We note the AJC informs readers that the Dustin Inman Society “often” linked to Karen Sacandy/Kate Stamper activities — but produces only two occasions.

Your story, for which DIS founder and president D.A. King was not contacted, informs readers that Sacandy/Stamper “was aligned” with the Dustin Inman Society. We note that polls show that a majority of Americans oppose the federal offense of illegal immigration. Since the letter posted on the DIS site was a published missive to the editor at the Cherokee Tribune, we must ask: does this make that newspaper a “Cherokee County-based anti-immigration hate group”?

Your characterization demonstrates a reckless and vindictive disregard for the truth, rising to the level of actual malice as defined in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. Actual malice in defamation law refers to publication of a statement with knowledge that it is false or with reckless disregard of whether it is false or not. Your repeated mischaracterization of the Dustin Inman Society, despite having been corrected on numerous occasions, clearly meets this standard.

The Dustin Inman Society’s position on immigration is clear and public:

1. It supports sustainable levels of legal immigration through established channels.

2. It opposes unlawful immigration due to various societal concerns, including: – Strain on public resources and services
– Potential and real public safety issues
– Economic impacts on low-wage American workers and America’s poor

– Challenges to the rule of law

3. The Dustin Inman Society defends legal immigrants when media attempt to blur the difference between them and illegal aliens.

Moreover, the Dustin Inman Society’s board includes lawful immigrants who have navigated the proper channels for authorized immigration. This fact alone should dispel any notion that the organization is “anti-immigration.” As he has informed you multiple times over much of the last two decades, D.A. King’s sister is a real, legal immigrant.

While we acknowledge that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the Dustin Inman Society as an “anti-immigrant hate group that denigrates all immigrants,” your article presents the “anti-immigration hate group” characterization as the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s independent assessment and statement of fact.

This smear is not only demonstrably false and ignores Mr. King’s many communications to you advising you of the truth, but also demonstrates an exceedingly unprofessional failure to fact-check and verify information before publication.

We demand that the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

October 18, 2024 Page 3

1. Immediately publicly retract the defaming statement in the October 7, 2024, article.

2. Publish a prominent apology, equal in visibility and placement to the original defamatory article.

3. Cease and desist from further defamatory characterizations of the Dustin Inman Society.

Failure to comply with these demands may result in further legal action. We expect your prompt attention to this matter and await your timely response.

Sincerely,

Todd V. McMurtry

cc: James Abely, Esq.