James Magazine Online has been following efforts by Dustin Inman Society president and immigration expert D.A. King efforts to convince key state lawmakers to reform Georgia’s Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP). Judging from a state House Committee on Higher Education hearing yesterday, he may be making progress.
The “RAP” – part of the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) is administered by the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) and is billed as an “historic apprenticeship investment” by its proponents. “Providing opportunity for hardworking Georgians to thrive has always been and will remain a top priority for my administration,” said Gov. Brian Kemp. “Apprenticeships open doors both for our students to gain quality, on-the-job experience and for employers to fill their workforce needs. This innovative approach will ensure the next generation has the skills they need to succeed in the best state to live, work, and raise a family.”
State Rep. Chuck Martin
King notes that’s fine but says there is no system in place to check immigration status of either the participating employer or employee. And that foreign workers here lawfully on temporary visas should not be trained at taxpayer expense in the name of creating a future workforce. He seeks to require participating employers to be verified as U.S citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents and to prove they use the federal E-Verify system.
Significantly, Committee Chairman Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, was unsure about including temporary workers’ as participants. So was the committee attorney. At the same time, the TCSG’s Mark Peavy says “we are not aware of anyone illegally taking advantage of this program.”
Besides his concern that illegals would be taking up space in the program, King says he can find nothing that would stop an illegal alien employer from sending employees to be “upskilled” at taxpayer expense and then collecting the award offered by the state that can be as much as $50,000 for training completion. He also questions why any temporary foreign workers are being trained at taxpayer expense. Immigration expert and researcher Jessica Vaughn, of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, also sent an email to James Magazine Online echoing King’s points.
King wrote an in-depth JMO column last month detailing what he had learned in his investigation of the apprenticeship system. In it, he quoted one senior TCSG official as responding to his inquiry with the following: “Undocumented immigrants can participate in the Registered Apprenticeship Program.” King says another TCSG official explained to him that H-1B workers were also in the system created as workforce development.
In yesterday’s hearing (video), TCSG’s Mark Peavy was asked about illegal aliens in the RAP. He said the system isn’t aware of anyone illegally taking advantage of this program. Peavy said, “In order for someone to participate, they have to be a legal employee of a company that is participating in the program, uh, along with all the verified other requirements that come along. And so that company has to have legally hired and- and legally employed an individual before they could take part of the apprenticeship program.”
“How would they know?” Asked King in a phone conversation with James Magazine Online after the committee hearing. “I anticipated the assertion that the verification of Georgia’s 2006 lawful presence verification law, would be cited as a ‘don’t worry we have this in place.’ They don’t.”
King asked TCSG for all documents and forms required to apply for the apprenticeship program. He found none of the many documents required to do the verification process are being used, including the affidavit on which the applicant must swear to either U.S. citizenship or lawful presence as a non-citizen.
“The people telling us not to worry about illegal aliens sin the HDCI/RAP system don’t understand the state law well enough to realize why what they are saying is absurd and easily proven wrong” says King.
A transcript of King’s testimony yesterday shows he urged Martin and committee members to use HB 982 to create safeguards into the RPA and the High Demand Career Initiative.
