The tea party board discussed the topic for about an hour and a half in the home of board chairman J.D. Van Brink in Acworth.
Following the vote, Van Brink explained why the board was unanimously supporting the ordinance proposed by commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Bob Ott that the Cobb Board of Commissioners is expected to consider on Feb. 26.
“If you do a cost-benefit analysis on it, the costs of illegal immigration are far outweighing the benefits, Van Brink said. “Plus, as we discussed tonight, the rule of law, this is of paramount importance to the Georgia Tea Party. We follow the rule of law.”
There is also the human cost of illegal immigration, Van Brink said, referring to the comments made by the parents of the late Dustin Inman at last month’s Board of Commissioners meeting.
Billy and Kathy Inman of Woodstock, the parents of Dustin, a 16-year-old boy killed in a traffic accident in 2000 by illegal immigrant Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez, urged the board to approve the code change, saying it would discourage illegal immigrants from being employed by the county.
“Anyone not moved by hearing that is heartless,” Van Brink said. “So the rule of law, cost benefit analysis, and the human cost, this was the right thing to do. We would urge that the county commission in Cobb to support IMAGE also. This is a very, very reasonable step in the right direction, so that’s why we support it.”
Tea party board member Larry Savage of east Cobb said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has the power to audit any business it wants anyway to check for illegal immigrants. So why not work with ICE on the front end, he asked.
“Under IMAGE you’re a voluntary participant, you are given certain relief from sanctions because of that, and plus you have the opportunity to get help and understand how to do your internal audit, you can self audit, and you have the opportunity to clean things up before ICE ever comes in,” Savage said.
According to the ICE website, the federal agency will waive potential fines if substantive violations are discovered on fewer than 50 percent of the required I-9 hiring records. For instances in which more than 50 percent of the I-9 hiring records contain substantive violations, ICE will mitigate fines or issue fines at the statutory minimum of $110 per violation. ICE will also provide information and training before, during and after inspection.
“You won’t be surprised and caught unaware by an unexpected ICE audit,” Savage said. “If you don’t participate, you may find that you have ICE coming in for an audit someday anyway, and you have no protection from sanctions, and whatever they find is likely to lead to a sanction, so it would make sense to me that you face the inevitable, that you’re going to get audited someday, and you should go ahead and volunteer and give yourself the protection and head start to get it done at your pace instead of theirs.”
IMAGE stands for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers. ICE developed the initiative as a way for employers to achieve a “lawful workforce” through self-policing of their hiring practices.
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What is most disgusting here is Cobb County. I can't figure out why Cobb is so determined to try to keep everyone who is not white and not rich out. It is truly the most selfish place I can think of.
DA, perhaps you can open the next TP meeting with one of your anti immigration rants, while firing your gun off.
Myth: They are a drain on our economy.
Truth: All independent studies conclude they contribute millions more than the services they receive.
Myth: They are taking our jobs.
Truth: The taxes they pay and their purchasing power produces a net increase in jobs.
Myth: They are a social detriment.
Truth: The areas they live in have lower crime rates; they are church-going, family oriented, hard working. (not unlike our/your immigrant ancestors)
The fact that those opposed to them have to concoct these myths belies some other motives.
(Thank God that the rest of America has awakened to these myths and truths so that soon they will be our "legal" neighbors. Then who will you scapegoat?)
You haven proven yourself a lowlife.
No wonder you hide behind aliases.
Billy & Kathy Inman are two beautiful human beings that I am proud to call friends.
You have no idea who the Tea Party is, where they meet of just who makes up the membership.
You have already demonstrated your ignorance. In order to not add stupidity to it, please just shut up, until yu know what you are talkluing about.
It's a good thing you don't give your name, otherwise you would not have the nerve to mock the grief the Inmans still feel over the loss of their son.
BTW, if the illegal immmigrant criminal had stopped at the border, they would not have let him across and he would not have been in this country to kill Dustin.
If the immigrant who crashed into the Inmans had stopped at the Rio Grande and signed some papers on his way into the United States country, Justin still would have died in that car crash. That is what happens in car crashes. Millions of American people are maimed annually and around 45,000 American people die in crashes involving cars. You and/or I might die today in a car crash. You don't even need to leave the house to be killed by a car. These things even come barging into living rooms and stores killing people!
The public sees the daily car-nage on the news and gets outraged over immigrants and outraged over guns (or the, um, lack of guns, depending on which way you swing), but nobody can escape their own denial long enough to even CONSIDER that cars are the big problem around here.
If it weren't for cars, would fools have bought McMansions they couldn't afford on property 30 miles from anywhere? No. If people were not able to do buy McMansions in West Cobb East Cobb Polk and Paulding etc, would the Millennium Depression have happened? No.
If we weren't constantly working on roads for our cars, would so many immigrants come here illegally to work on our roads? No.
Do the Inmans see the unfortunate irony that they were themselves driving in a car that help bring Gonzalo Harrell-Gonzalez here to Georiga (for road work)? Hell no they don't.
D-E-N-I-A-L
If you really want illegal immigrants to go away, hang up your car keys.
CARS is a four letter word and we'd all better redneckanize.
The Inmans are legally licensed, trained drivers, who have driven cars most of their lives and have never killed anyone. That is what licensing and insurance and road training is all about - safety for yourself and others.
Illegal aliens only care about themselves and what is good for them - and it is clearly obvious. The illegal workforce today are busy having many children, who frequently have no desire to work, want things for free and become the gangbangers destroying our formerly quiet suburban neighborhoods.
If that illegal alien coward wasn’t allowed into the US, offered a job, given a drivers license by N Carolina and as I hear, released from police custody twice before killing 16 year old Dustin, the Inman’s would likely be grandparents by now and Mrs. Inman wouldn’t be trapped in a wheelchair.
We see here the “love” and appreciation for “humanity” offered up by the nuts on the far left. I have lived too long when I see this smut be allowed to be posted on the newspapers comments section. Trash like this is written by trash who shows us the true attitude of the “loving left”.
I saw something in the paper today from Lisa Cupid about “cry me a river” on illegal immigration and her admitting that illegals take jobs from Black Americans. But that it was OK because the county could get cheaper labor. Maybe this was written by Lisa Cupid?