Georgia Republicans Squeeze Migration-Friendly Bill Through Committee Vote

by NEIL MUNRO 1 Mar 2023

Establishment-backed Republican legislators in Georgia are trying to pass a bill that could allow illegal migrants to jump ahead of Americans for school-choice funding.

On Thursday, the state Senate Education and Youth committee held a surprise hearing and vote for the bill after silencing opposition from D.A. King, founder of the pro-American New Dustin Inman Society.

Next, “it will go through the Senate Rules Committee where the Senate rules chairman has one of the cosigners,” King told Breitbart News. “It’s a put-up job. … Then it will go to the floor,” King said. Advocates must pass the bill through the Senate by March 6.

Prior to the Tuesday vote, the committee chairman — Sen. Clint Dixon (R-Buford) — blocked King from speaking to the members and audience.

“I was speaker number one [on the speakers’ list] as the only immigration expert and the person who killed the bill last year,” said King. But “he started [taking statements] from the bottom of the list, and when we got near the top, he stopped at the second -from-top] speaker and he did not allow me to speak … [so] he ended the comment period when it was my turn to speak.

The bill, titled the “Georgia Promise Scholarship Act” is sponsored by Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Alpharetta) and several other Republican senators.

The bill offers a limited pot of taxpayer funds to American families for private schooling but does not explain how the money will be distributed if the funding cannot meet the demand. The lack of detail means American families can lose access to funding if the funding is diverted to some of President Joe Biden’s myriad migrants — including the fast-growing population of “parole pathway” migrants.

“This isn’t an ‘if ‘ situation — they are very clear they are using guidelines…[that include] inadmissible aliens [who are] given parole,” King said. “There are no guidelines at all on the immigration status of the [migrant] parents who are, in fact, the applicants for the new state grant … [which is called] the ‘Promise Scholarship.'”

“There’s plenty of opposition [and] there are a lot of [Democrat-aligned] people opposing the bill who think it’ll hurt public schools,” said King, adding:

But [Republican leaders] were not going to allow the immigration component to be recognized here.

They were not going to allow somebody who could demonstrate … there is no — zero — verification requirements for the parents who are going to request this money … There is no requirement above the Title 9 requirement that the student benefiting from the money have [legal] immigration status because parole [about parole] does not offer an immigration status.

“The reason that they did this bill at this late date is so exactly, things like this could happen,” King said.

The bill is backed by the allies of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the D.C.-based Cato Institute.

Dolezal’s office did not respond to questions from Breitbart News.

In January, 49 percent of Americans favored a decrease in government-managed legal immigration, while 43 percent favor an increase, according to a Fox News poll of 1,003 registered voters.

By a factor of more than two to one, Americans agree companies “should raise wages and try harder to recruit Americans even if it causes the prices of their products to rise,” said a July 20-22 poll by YouGov.com.

Just 28 percent of registered voters believe immigration has been positive for their local economy, according to an August 12-15 survey of 2,025 registered voters conducted for a pro-migration advocacy group. Only 38 percent say immigration is good for the United States, the poll added.

Migration in Georgia

Business groups want more migrants because it provides them with an alternative source of workers, plus many additional renters and customers.

For example, the Georgia Chamber’s “Global Talent Initiative” claims “Through strategic, targeted efforts, we can increase the number of skilled workers in our state. this will lead to better jobs, increased economic mobility, and a more prosperous state.”

The inflow of new workers is good for business owners — but it is also bad for ordinary Americans. For example, any flood of foreign workers tends to cut local wages, spike housing costs, and fracture their communities. Migration also pushes more Americans out of jobs and towards drug addiction and homelessness.

Many business advocates claim there is a shortage of workers in Georgia, despite the state’s huge and growing population of illegal migrants. But the federal reserve says that only 62 percent of working-age Georgians even hold jobs amid the mass inflow of cheap foreign workers. That percentage is sharply down from 68 percent in June 2008, ensuring more poverty and welfare costs.

In addition, despite claims of a labor shortage, Georgia companies are free to hire workers from other employers with the promise of more money or better conditions. But wages are also falling in many Georgia districts amid rising inflation, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Also, most migrants prefer to live in big cities in the major states, such as New York City and Los Angeles.

That skewed flow of migrant workers, renters, and consumers into the major population centers minimizes the free-market pressure on coastal investors and companies to hire Georgians for jobs at worksites in the many poor towns outside Atlanta.



https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...ommittee-vote/