Both candidates in Georgia's 2018 Gubernatorial primary talked about illegal immigration, but chose to focus on criminal aliens while totally ignoring the economic impact that the hiring of unauthorized workers has on Georgia workers.
During the campaign, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp neglected key issues, including the displacement of American workers, identity theft, and the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Instead, both Republican candidates limited the immigration debate specifically to "criminal illegal aliens" and "sanctuary cities," while shying away from the economic and fiscal effects of illegal immigration in order to avoid potential friction with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Says D.A. King of the Dustin Inman Society, a Georgia non-profit founded in 2005 to fight illegal against immigration:
"The powerful Georgia business lobby has long worked against protecting jobs and wages for legal workers, use of E-Verify, immigration enforcement and official English. Georgia ranks ahead of Arizona in its population of illegal aliens, according to estimates from DHS and the Pew Research Center....The current governor, two-term, business-first Republican Nathan Deal, has avoided the illegal immigration issue since his first year in office. But, Deal boasts that Georgia is named number-one state in which to do business by Site Selection magazine."
According to a 2015 statewide poll, 90% of Georgia Republicans said "Americans, including legal immigrants already here should get priority" for future jobs in Georgia. Without regard for the vast majority of Georgia Republicans and Despite the fact that U.S. employers' hiring of illegal aliens is the number one factor driving illegal immigration, neither Cagle or Kemp addressed the problem of the illegal jobs magnet or the need to protect American jobs.
Under state law, Georgia officials issued more than 20,000 drivers licenses and official state photo ID cards to illegal aliens classified by United States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) as "lacking lawful immigration status." The group included DACA beneficiaries and illegal aliens who had already been issued deportation proceedings. In doing so, the state violated the federal immigration law.
"Current law does not grant any legal status for the class of individuals who are current recipients of DACA. Recipients of DACA are currently unlawfully present in the U.S. with their removal deferred," USCIS states.
The same poll also showed that 80% of Georgia Republicans and 63% of all Georgians want to "stop the practice of giving drivers licenses and state ID cards to all illegal immigrants." Even so, both candidates failed to mention this issue even once in their campaign platforms.
With surging illegal immigration levels in the state and the influential Georgia business lobby's opposition to enforcement of immigration law, protection for American workers, and use of E-Verify, Georgians will most-likely elect Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams for the office of governor.
For more on this story, see thedustininmansociety.org.
