ICE raid exposes US & GOP shortcomings on immigration policy

All the work (to his credit!) that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has done to make Georgia a green energy and electric vehicle manufacturing hub are slowly being undone by Trump 2.0 white nationalist tendencies.

The recent Hyundai raid in southeast Georgia performed by ICE was launched to snag Latin American migrant workers but also - oops - ensnared Korean and Japanese visa waiver employees, putting strain on U.S.-Korean and Georgia-Korean relations. It also creates an unnecessary impediment towards completing the construction of the plant soon to hire 8000 Georgians. You know ICE wasn't prepared to deal with Koreans when you realize they had not one Korean interpreter among them.

But here's the thing: among the few dozen Hispanic construction workers that were swept up, some may have legal status and the others appear to be hires of quickly-popped up LLCs who appeared days before or after the announcement of the plant's construction, leaving local contractors receiving far less of the economic impact they were expecting.

Through it all, though, the currency of choice for Trump 2.0 - fear and intimidation - has people here legally, as well, cowering.

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Brad Raffensperger hasn't announced what his 2026 political aspirations are, but his former chief operating officer - Gabriel Sterling - has. So far, no Democrat has announced their intention to seek the office of Secretary of State as Sterling and two other Democrats have, and it's my view that it may not matter if the party fielded a candidate at all but someone needs to step up quickly and start making the case.

Raffensperger, meanwhile, has made it clear he's running for something, that "something" likely the governor's office, which presents an interesting and tantalizing opportunity for Democrats to cross lines and vote for the far lesser of the batch of evils in the GOP gubernatorial race - if Democrats manage to have a clear favorite by primary election day.

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The decision by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to shutter its print operations by the end of the year is unsurprising, but has me concerned about access for the poor, but also got me to talking about the trajectory even radio is headed towards - which might not necessarily be a bad thing given talk radio being mostly gripped by right wing extremism. Indulge me, if you will, while I also take the opportunity to tout what this show does and plans for the station it airs on out of Atlanta.