D. A. King
In the early 1980s, the promise was that if Congress legalized one million illegal aliens, the U.S. government would then secure the border and clamp down on the shameless employers who use fugitive illegal workers because they will work for less and are more “flexible.”
“Trust us” the president and Congress said when they passed the “one-time” 1986 legalization scheme. Look around. The amnesty ended up legalizing three times the officially estimated number of victims of geography. About 7 percent of Georgia’s workforce is today made up of illegal aliens, while state, local and federal officials alternate between scratching their heads on how to solve our unemployment crisis and ignoring it.
Which brings us to the ongoing de facto amnesty in Cobb County, and the three members of the Board of Commissioners who can’t seem to pull the trigger to require that taxpayer dollars only go to contractors who do everything possible to rid themselves of illegal labor. Or to use a simple tool that checks for possible identity theft by county-funded workers who have come to Georgia since the ‘86 federal amnesty.
The current language of the pending IMAGE ordinance (posted on this writers’ MDJ blog) just requires all employers who want to bid on work paid for by taxpayers to swear they have applied to federal authorities for IMAGE certification. There is no mandate that contractors already be IMAGE certified to work or bid.
Cobb would only collect affidavits from potential job bidders saying they have applied and collect valid ID from contractors who don’t have any employees. Radical stuff, eh?
The certification process will likely take years. This is simply an important and easy step to protect county-funded jobs for legal workers. The official estimated time to complete an application to become IMAGE compliant is a whopping 90 minutes. It is true the feds encourage employers who have applied to do a pre-audit internal check of the ID submissions and paperwork completed when an employee was hired. But it is not a requirement. This is done in-house with existing staff. No new employees are required. There is no added expense. Did I mention it is not required?
As a diversion from the fact that all this is about “jobs, jobs, jobs” and ID theft, the absurd proposition has been set forth that the county spend time inventing a program of awarding “points” to contractors who are IMAGE certified. As an “incentive.” Have contractors who won’t even apply for IMAGE compete with other contractors who won’t even apply for IMAGE. Great plan. Nice try from the people who are throwing jobless Americans under the bus and very efficiently exposing their true character while they put a political price on their neighbors’ ability to find work.
Happily, few Cobb voters accept this nonsense.
It needs to be pointed out yet again that in 2009 and 2010 illegal workers were found to be helping build the Cobb Courthouse, taking jobs from unemployed Cobb citizens who had paid into the SPLOST that funded the project. And that demanding that we do everything possible to safeguard public funds, our tax funded jobs and to discourage ID fraud is not regarded as “punitive” by the voting majority of Cobb residents.
There would be no punishment for anyone who does not want to apply for IMAGE certification — only a reward for those who swear they have done so. The reward is being allowed to bid on a public job.
It can only be regarded as a positive that so many voters now have so much more information to use when they vote again for county commissioners. Will it be the “Lee, Goreham, Cupid Cobb Amnesty of 2013”? When is the election again?
D.A. King is president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society and a nationally recognized expert on illegal immigration.
He assisted in the creation of the pending IMAGE-for-Cobb-contractor’s proposal.
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The immigrants are not taking our jobs...as all studies prove..and in fact they are creating more new jobs with their buying power and the taxes they pay.
Plus, I have asked for years for anyone in Cobb, or anywhere in that matter, to come forward and prove or even claim that their job was taken by an immigrant--nada, not a one. And I have even sweetened the deal by offering anyone who even feels they have been displaced by an immigrant a job or help with getting a job---nada, not a one.
A lot of bigoted hot air and smoke blowing then.
And why should anyone waste time on this IMAGE (an appropriate name cause there is no substance to it) when undocumented immigrants will soon be legal (yes, even GA will join the rest of the country soon and will have to find another scapegoat to blame for our problems). What a royal waste of time---maybe you complainers need a job?
I actually voted fro Helen. Never again.
The party of Reagan that pssed the amnesty in 1986 has never gotten more than 41% of the Latino vote. This is a fake news issue.
Tim Lee has shown us his real spots but is so arrogant and confident that the Chamber's money will protect him in the next election that he just simply doesn't care. They all think that by reelection time peple will have forgotten about this. They are wrong.
Helen Goreham is a carpet bagger who is not quite smart enough to pull off the flip flop she is trying. And far too slow to have come up with the unworkable non solution she has suddenly switched to.
The Goreham points plan is no different than admitting that she was told to leave things as they are. I live on Dallas Hwy with my daughter.Nobody here will ever vote for Helen again. Good bye Helen!
One more thing. WHY isn't the Cobb GOP insisting that we save jobs?
HN
I now know of THREE women who are going to challenge Helen because of this. But that won't help save th ejobs that are being takne by illegals or the SSNs that are being stolen while Helen Goreham grafts her way through life at the board.
Oh, Kevin - can't you just imagine if you knew anything well and didn't have to rerun MSNBC for your silly and arrogant columns? Kevin, do you still have a blog?
The numbers from the election were, clearly no mandate for the President. If you add disaffected voters who stayed home, the outcome would have been different.
So, why the focus on Latino voters? Why not focus on the young voters--a very difficult job since youth usually is very progressive in their thinking, but a worthwhile effort to introduce youth to practical finance and economics.
Per 2010 census, registered voters are:
white approx 109 mill
black approx 25 mill
Hispanic appr 8 mill
I do not have, at hand the changes between 2010 and 2012. With 1 million average, legal residents each year, legal voters should have increased, at most 2 mil.
So, why does the GOP chase Latino votes? Did they give up on our black citizens? I think the GOP is chasing the mouse while the rabbit is getting away.
This is the talk of our subdivision.
It is not difficult to make your workforce legal. We demand that all contractors and the subs they hire use E-Verify and subject their records to IMAGE audits.