It is the duty of the Board of Directors to investigate and investigate complaints “related to illegal immigration” and to take corrective action. Since its inception in 2011, the IERB has received 34 complaints, over 30 of which were submitted by King. Only one complaint has resulted in a sanction since the Board’s inception.
King, who founded the anti-immigrant hate group Dustin Inman Society (DIS) in 2003, has close ties with both state lawmakers and white nationalists in Georgia and played an important role in founding the IERB.
History of the IERB
In 2011, Republican MP Matt Ramsey drafted HB 87, one of the most controversial immigration laws in Georgia. King was quick to claim he helped write HB 87, which enables law enforcement to stop and seek identification from anyone they consider “suspicious” and makes it illegal for any person to “prosecute undocumented immigrants” accommodate “. (This provision was deleted in Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights v. Deal 2012 in 2012). The bill also makes E-Verify mandatory for companies with more than 10 employees and makes it illegal to use false information when applying for a job.
Ramsey told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that King was a “firm believer in immigration law enforcement,” who supported HB 87, which in turn founded the Immigration Enforcement Review Board in 2011.
Connections with white nationalists
King, who pleaded guilty to interstate gambling charges in 1977, has an argument with “criminal illegal aliens” whom he has termed “criminal migrants”.
In addition to English-language legislation, the DIS and King advocate “attrition through enforcement,” a concept first popularized by the anti-immigrant hate group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). “The federal immigration authorities must also enforce the law so that no undocumented immigrants come and stay,” he explains.
In 2007, DIS accepted $ 5,000 from US Inc., the John Tanton Foundation. Tanton is a Michigan ophthalmologist who turned white nationalist and built a network of anti-immigration organizations. One organization, Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) lists DA King as one of their senior writing fellows. Another, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a hate group designated by the SPLC, previously listed DA King as a contact for the state. Roy Beck, the head of NumbersUSA, another anti-immigrant organization that was founded in Tanton’s network, has regular “strategy talks” with King. Beck once said, “I can’t think of anyone in my 20 years on this subject who has been more adept at working within the state legislature to actually pass the legislation … He’s just sort of at the forefront of the state Haufens nationwide in terms of local activists. ” King also regularly cites the work of the CIS, using terminology such as “wear and tear by enforcement”.
King has written for the white nationalist hate group known by the SPLC, VDARE, an organization “committed to preserving our historical unity as Americans into the 21st century.”
“For me the impulse to personally deport these third world intruders while standing a few meters from one group after the other was almost uncontrollable,” wrote King in a June 2006 VDARE article. In September 2006, King attempted to distance himself from the white nationalist anti-immigration organization and urged the website to remove his name from the editorial collective but keep an archive of his previous articles.
Fred Elbel, who sits on the board of directors of the Dustin Inman Society and acts as webmater, once said in an email:
Damn right. I hate them all – Negroes, Wasps, Shit, Eskimos, Jews, Honkies, Krauts, Ruskies, Ethopians, Pakis, Hunkies, Pollocks, and Marxists; there are far too many of them. I am everything for trout, elephants, bacteria, whales, wolves, birds, parrot fish, foliage and mollusks. Time to rebalance the planet, bleeding heart liberals, damn it.
Both Elbel and King wrote for Tanton’s Social Contract Journal. King also spoke at the 2008 Social Contract Press Writers Workshop.
Among other appointments from Governor Nathan Deal and spokesman David Ralston was Phil Kent, friend of DA King, author of the DIS blog and spokesman for the anti-immigration hate group Americans for Immigration Control. Kent’s article appeared in the nativist Middle American News and even in Citizens Informer, the tabloid of the white nationalist group Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter, claimed the CCC was his gateway to white nationalism. Kent defended the group in a 1999 article describing the CCC as a good conservative group that “seeks demonization by the political leadership of the left and its media allies”.
Complaints and costs to the state
King essentially created a personal public investigative agency. Recent complaints from King include elementary schools offering English classes to students’ parents without verifying immigration status. A May 2017 complaint alleged Marietta City Schools used the services of La Amistad, a nonprofit nonprofit that works to empower members of the Latino community without receiving the e-verification number or the statement that they adhere to E-Verify. Marietta schools required that they require written assurances that La Amistad was upholding the system. The city also has the e-verify number on record. Such frivolous complaints cost the country and district concerned time and money.
SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project is explained in a letter signed by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 2012.
The Board’s proposed power of subpoena allows the privacy of individuals to be invaded by a non-judicial, unelected body that can compel participation and testimony solely on the basis of the request of a private citizen under the unclear standard of “good cause shown”. This can allow personal agendas to lead to subpoenas.
The IERB is costly to the state of Georgia because any county or city where a complaint is filed is instantly subject to a subpoena that cannot be appealed. Hatewatch spoke to Lucy Sheftall, the assistant prosecutor in Columbus, Georgia, who filed a complaint from DA King in 2013. King alleged Columbus improperly used the state’s Systemtic Alien Verification for Entitements Program (SAVE). in the administration of benefits in 2010 and 2011. The city not only demonstrated compliance, but also identified “significant procedural deficiencies in the lawsuit”. Among other things, Columbus alleged that King’s complaint did not meet the requirements for a substantive review by the Board. IERB Rule 291-2-01 (3) (c) states that the complaint must contain “sufficient facts regarding the alleged violation or non-enforcement of the eligibility status provision.” Columbus concludes that King did not file a factual complaint and, under the rule above, it is up to the party filing the complaint to provide “sufficient evidence regarding the alleged infringement.”
The lawsuit was dismissed, but Sheftall claims it took over 40 hours in legal fees and six to nine months to process the allegation.
Tom Edwards, associate legislative director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, said: “The original language of the bill empowered the injured parties to bring lawsuits and hear their complaints, including unfounded ones, in court…. and what should be worrying is that the legislature had no means by which counties could recoup legal and litigation costs for unsubstantiated claims. “
Board member Shawn Hanley also raised the issue at the last meeting. “Some of these ailments are pretty loose. Small counties pay a lot of money to defend themselves against frivolous complaints. I don’t think these complaints are frivolous, but some of them are pretty close. We take complaints seriously and also take the protection of taxpayers’ money seriously… ”However, Kent replied:“ We don’t have to do anything, we can reject complaints.
The Board will meet again on March 15 to discuss five complaints that were not heard at the previous meeting.
