NOTE: In a recent column, I criticized Georgia anti-immigration activists who are trying to block the confirmation of DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez to the federal bench. Below is the response to that column by D.A. King of Cobb County.
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By D.A. King
Writing on the Obama judicial nomination of GALEO’s Dax Lopez, Jay Bookman’s smear attack on me and my friend Phil Kent in the AJC serves as a brilliant reminder of the mindset of most liberals on immigration and politics.
Bookman makes it clear that he looks at the world through the lens of race, skin color and ethnicity. Not only does he intentionally muddle those categories, he assumes that the rest of us suffer from the same disability. We don’t.
"Hispanic" is not the opposite of "white" (or black) and is not a race. Neither is "illegal." Nor am I "anti-immigrant." Like most of the mainstream, this proud American supports legal, sustainable and reasonable levels of immigration that benefits the United States and protects Americans. Including immigrants. My adopted sister is an immigrant. That sacred term legally describes someone who entered the U.S. lawfully.
Like the late Barbara Jordan, it is my long-held – and public - position that we cannot honor real immigrants or our immigration system unless and until we adhere to a policy of an equal application of our immigration laws. Bookman provides useful insight by labeling that view “extremist.”
Since it seems to matter, as a political independent, I am also a member of the Federalist Society. So is Phil Kent. I expect that more than a few of the many Republican legislators and sheriffs who have written to our U.S. senators in opposition to Lopez are as well.
Bookman’s attack is yet another attempt from the far-left to blur the lines between immigrants and what the federal government, including the Supreme Court, refers to as “illegal aliens.” I personally target illegal employers more than illegal aliens. It would be helpful if Jay Bookman did the same.
The panels from which Georgia’s U.S. senators accepted vetting information on Lopez mostly failed to include information easily accessed on the GALEO website. I am proud to have provided both senate offices with facts and statements taken directly from that source after President Obama nominated Lopez for a lifetime seat on the federal bench.
The confirmation of Dax Lopez is not being opposed because of his ethnicity, and also contrary to what Bookman writes, opposition is directly connected to what Lopez has said and done. As a director of the GALEO corporation for eleven years, state court judge Dax Lopez's position as treasurer there and his willingness to not only help form and advance the agenda of that group while assisting in raising operating funds does not a "conservative" make. It should be enough to drive most conservatives -including Republicans - away from silent acceptance of his confirmation.
Since 2003, the corporate-funded GALEO has viciously condemned any law enforcement office that dares to enforce immigration laws. Dax Lopez’s statement that he “agrees with their mission” must always be viewed with the knowledge that GALEO Inc. has marched in the streets of Georgia in opposition to enforcement, lobbied against state E-Verify laws designed to protect legal workers, lobbied against local jails honoring ICE holds for criminal aliens and vehemently opposed voter ID. And they lobby against English as our official language.
No wonder activist Lopez is not speaking to the press.
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D.A. King, of Marietta, is president of the Dustin Inman Society.
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