One less big Samoan

Say it ain’t so, Chester.  I’m truly bummed, but wish the best for you.

Lots of rumors that he ran afoul of Georgia’s new anti-immigration law and its scholarship restrictions.  If that’s true, talk about your unintended consequences – I bet there are more than a few pro-Dawg legislators who didn’t see this one coming.

*******************************************************************************

UPDATE:  So much for one argument.

https://twitter.com/#!/ajcuga/status/161976645098549248

*******************************************************************************

UPDATE #2:  It’s not the statute.  It’s the Board of Regents policy.

… a variety of people with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to the AJC on Tuesday that Brown’s change of heart was because his admissions application to UGA was rejected because of a controversial Board of Regents policy that was adopted in October 2010.

That policy, created in the wake of the Jessica Colotl uproar at Kennesaw State earlier that year, states that an undocumented student can’t take the seat of an otherwise academically qualified Georgia resident who has been turned away because of capacity constraints.

103 Comments

Filed under Georgia Football, Political Wankery, Recruiting

103 responses to “One less big Samoan

  1. TennesseeDawg

    The nerds have a commit from Australia but somehow a kid from the Bradwell Institute can’t get in?

    Like

  2. I wanna Red Cup

    We sure don’t want these furrien Samoans taking the CFB jobs and scollyships away from good ‘merican boys. If you let him in the university of Jawja, they be gettin free medicine from the health clinic resultin in more cost to us good ole GA taxpayers. Damn straight Senator.

    Like

    • AthensHomerDawg

      No more coffee for you! There are plenty of athletes playing tennis and swimming at UGa that leads me to believe that it must be something other than his American National status leading to his change of mind. He has stated that it has to do with family …. whatever that means. Law-Dawgs what say you?

      Like

      • EC

        Yes, there are a number of “international,” students on scholarship at UGA. However, they are likely on student visa’s. Which they go through the application process before coming to UGA.

        Like

  3. Nathan Deal

    Hey. Sumbody needs to tale that boy that, in Georgia, we’re only bigoted against non-football players!

    If you can play ball ‘tween the hedges, you’re fine. If not, get the hell out.

    Like

  4. Merv

    Georgia’s new immigration law prohibits the state, counties, cities, and public institutions from providing benefits to unregistered or illegal aliens. The University cannot give a scholarship to anyone who is not a citizen or a registered legal alien. The burden is on the public employee to make certain of the legal status of anyone receiving a public benefit to verify the status of everyone who receives any kind of public benefit, including a scholarship.

    If Brown cannot verify that he is here legally then the University cannot give him a scholarship.

    Like

    • Macallanlover

      And they shouldn’t give a scholly if he does not have legal status in this country. To argue for not enforcing the laws is really a strange position to people to take, yet we have many who like to selectively choose which law is appropriate for them. A society cannot work that way, no more than we can require some to Stop on red, Go on green, and others to do their own thing. Don’t really understand why we have decided to not be a nation of all our laws any longer.

      I don’t know anything about Chester’s immigration status, but I do know wanting to enforce the law is not bigoted, but saying it is can easily be classified as dumb..

      Like

      • And they shouldn’t give a scholly if he does not have legal status in this country.

        If he has skills useful to our society, why not?

        Like

        • TennesseeDawg

          If he makes 1st team OL then his skills will be deemed useful.

          Like

          • And if he doesn’t, Mitt Romney would say he could always self-deport.

            Like

            • H-Town Dawg

              That’s Michael Adams-quality humor right there… But how is it relevant in this case since as American nationals there are no entry restrictions for Samoans. They’re not citizens but neither are they here illegally.

              Like

              • Once more: American Samoa and Samoa are two different entities. If Big Chester hails from the latter, he’s not an American national.

                Like

                • H-Town Dawg

                  Then somebody needs to figure it out. All I ever saw about him referred to him as a “native Samoan.” A few more facts would be welcomed but instead let’s inject some politics in the football blog. That’s always useful.

                  Like

                • Why is it you guys only complain when it’s the politics of the right which get injected?

                  Like

                • It bugs the hell out of me, too. But, you can’t win.

                  Like

                • AthensHomerDawg

                  Let’s pout it all to bed! “Financial difficulties brought the Brown family to the United States from Samoa in the mid-1990s. In fact, already with four boys and a girl before Chester was born, the Browns were faced with some tough decisions.

                  They nearly gave their youngest son to a family member for adoption — a maternal uncle already living in California named Chester was supposed to take the newborn in, hence the non-traditional Samoan namesake. “Fletcher Page
                  Dawg Post
                  Posted Aug 26, 2011

                  Born in Long Beach, California. If the above post is correct.

                  Now we can all be friends again!

                  Like

                • True, but it’s a “family” decision. Maybe his immediate family members aren’t here legally, and he was worried about them travelling to and from games in a state that would deport them if they were “caught”.

                  Like

                • AthensHomerDawg

                  So they have lived in Georgia a 6-7 years and now that is a concern? Maybe so.

                  Like

        • Macallanlover

          I have nothing against immigration, the US has always benefited from the talents of immigrants. I also have nothing against making exceptions for people who are gifted (not athletically of course) and could enhance society by developing their talent here. But illegal immigration is just that, and we will either improve on enforcing those laws or sink because of it. A significant portion of our debt in certain states can be attributed to the costs of illegal immigrants, not blaming the debt crisis on this one issue, but it may become the straw in some areas…and it is growing. Georgia, Arizona, and the dozen other states taking stands on this are wiser than those sticking their heads in the sand. Kum ba Yah to the haters.

          Like

          • Which portion of the debt are citing in those states? Are they really wiser?
            Two agricultural groups in GA have cited the 30% reduction in the migrant workforce of documented and undocumented workers who harvest GA’s fruit and vegetables crops as the primary reason for $70 million in crop losses for spring 2011 and the total economic loss of $390 million. This was just the impact on agriculture for one season.

            So how much debt did the state incur from undocumented immigrants? Do you have some details there?

            The truth is when the economy started go bad, those in power decided they needed to find some scapegoats to place blame (and/or provide some sleight of hand on the voting public) and one easy target were immigrants. It is an American tradition and a pretty common practice since about well the 1700’s.

            Also, you clearly have no idea about the origin or meaning of song Kum ba Yah. Given the times we are currently in, I would rather we all be singing Kum ba Yah than slinging the rhetoric that is currently persavive in our country & world.

            Like

            • AthensHomerDawg

              There is a difference between immigrant and undocumented worker/illegal alien. My neighbor from South Africa is an immigrant. “Furthermore, who wants to support an industry that uses modern day indentured labor, choosing to employ non-English speaking , undocumented workers because they are easier to exploit.” Lot of those losses you quote were due to extreme drought conditions, fire, blight and summer rot diseases.

              Like

              • Actually the losses were for the spring harvest so the drought, fire, blight and summer rot were considered a minor portion of the loss – GA farms experienced between a 30-50% drop in available labor for the May harvest. Even though the law did not go into effect until July 1, a significant portion of the labor force left the winter harvest in FL by bypassed GA altogether to go to other states with less restrictive laws.

                While there has been documentation of human trafficking and indentured servitude in the agriculture industry, why pass along that is restrictive to the worker? Why not work to create a system that improves the plight of the worker?

                Also, if this is now a workers rights issue & not one of racial politics, have you also stopped buying chocolate, rice, fish, coffee? What about cell phones, Christmas decorations and athletic equipment? All of these industries have had cases where some of the workers producing these goods have been forced to work.

                The state introduced this law to punish law-breakers and reduce negative economic impact from those who are here illegally. However, it also had a negative impact on an industry just as important to our state’s economy.

                Like

                • AthensHomerDawg

                  We are both off topic here but as long as the Senator doesn’t mind I’ll get on my soap box for a moment. I’ve lived and worked a lot overseas. I don’t like the idea of 5 and 6 year old African kids picking cocoa beans for my chocolate or Vietnamese kids working in sweat shops for Nike so that we all can enjoy those designer football uniforms at the Peach Bowl or the Chinese gulags with forced unpaid labor making my tools. That being said: that ain’t in the US of A. This modern indentured labor is. We good on that?
                  “Why not work to create a system that improves the plight of the worker?”
                  “The CIW decided to try an end run around the growers by going directly
                  to the biggest customers and asking them to pay one cent more per pound directly to the workers. Small change to supermarket chains and fast-food corporations, but it would add about twenty dollars to the fifty a picker makes on a good day, the difference between barely scraping by and earning a livable wage. The Campaign for Fair Food, as it is called, first took aim at Yum! Brands, owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s, and A&W. After four years of pressure, Yum! agreed to the one-cent raise in 2005 and, importantly, pledged to make sure that no worker who picked its tomatoes was being exploited. McDonald’s came aboard in 2007, and in 2008 Burger King, Whole Foods Market, and Subway followed, with more expected to join up this year. But the program faces a major obstacle. Claiming that the farmers are not party to the arrangement, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, an agricultural cooperative that represents some 90 percent of the state’s producers, has refused to be a conduit for the raise, citing legal concerns.
                  Well there ya go. So that has failed.”
                  If you’ve ever been part of the ag or building industry you might understand my earlier point. Immigration reform can also be about making these “worker” less vulnerable to predatory practices.
                  .” Tomato harvesting involves rummaging through staked vines until you have filled a bushel basket to the brim with hard, green fruits. You hoist the basket over your shoulder, trot across the field, and heave it overhead to a worker in an open trailer the size of the bed of a gravel truck. For every 32-pound basket you pick, you receive a token typically worth about 45 cents—almost the same rate you would have gotten 30 years ago. Working at breakneck speed, you might be able to pick a ton of tomatoes on a good day, netting about $50. But a lot can go wrong. If it rains, you can’t pick. If the dew is heavy, you sit and wait until it evaporates. If trucks aren’t available to transport the harvest, you’re out of luck. You receive neither overtime nor benefits. If you are injured (a common occurrence, given the pace of the job), you have to pay for your own medical care.”

                  I am off my soap box. Thanks for your patience and this venue. I will try and focus more on the Dawgs. In my defense, we do have two sons in college at the UGa and they and their friends are at our home often borrowing my frig,stereo and my grill. I spend time in my basement office during these intrusions but on occasion I listen to a lot of their debates. And yes they seem to have a lot to debate about!

                  Like

                • Dog in Fla

                  Will the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange* and Florida Tomato Committee** still be able to get their iPad 3’s on time?

                  “Chinese workers living in squalor and working in slave-like conditions at Apple-supplier Foxconn are reportedly working 24 hours a day churning out iPad 3s so the largest corporation in the world can have plenty of devices on hand for the product’s release date.

                  In a situation that is sadly ironic, oppressed Chinese workers are dying to build iPad 3s while American consumers are dying to buy iPad 3s. By most accounts the predicament of the former group is much worse than the latter.”

                  http://www.helium.com/items/2280915-report-ipad-3-to-have-4g

                  *http://www.thenation.com/blog/162307/trouble-tomato-slave-labor

                  **http://www.floridatomatoes.org/AboutUs.aspx

                  Like

                • AthensHomerDawg

                  Me thinks Apple has no reason to be concerned. ;-(
                  “Continuing to dominate the tablet field, Apple sold more than 15 million iPads in the first quarter, up 111 percent from the previous year’s Q1 report. This is the largest amount of iPads sold in a single fiscal quarter to date, and far more than any of Apple’s Android competitors.”

                  Like

                • I for one have enjoyed the debate and thank the Senator for indulging us. Given the fact that we only have recruiting to pretty much discuss – this seems a bit more interesting at the moment.

                  Just to be clear .. you are fine with indentured labor practices, slavery, and child labor in other countries – just not the USA – provided that the US economy has its supply of consumer goods?

                  Yes there are modern day indentured labor practices taking place in the US – I agree with you on it. But if the government were so concerned about helping the plight of indentured – why develop & enact a law that is more restrictive on the workforce? The penalties for those in violation of this law are far more restrictive on the worker than restrictive to the employer.

                  Also, this immigration law does nothing to really address the plight of documented migrant workers in GA. What the immigration law has really done is discourage migrant work crews (many of whom are a blend of documented and undocumented workers) from seeking work in GA. If you are a documented migrant worker who wants to pick vegetables, you still could be subjected to unfair labor practices.

                  Let’s be honest here … this issue of preventing indentured labor/encouraging fair labor practices was WAY down the list of reasons of supporting this new law. The economy in the country and state of GA went bad. Some of the most prominent industries for the GA economy – construction & housing, the textile industry (especially in NW GA), and agriculture and food industry – began to suffer and dump lots of workers. When the economy was doing well, there was marginal discussion about the problems of illegal immigration unless it was in reference national security.

                  Suddenly, policy makers decided that the “cost” of illegal immigration was too much. We were losing too much money in health care, they were taking up too much space in our colleges, and taking away too many jobs from honest hard working Americans. The policy makers claimed that we would see savings to the state budget and out of work disenfranchised poor would flock to fill of these jobs. I would love to see a comparison between the money saved vs the money lost.

                  TBTB just followed the same line that happened with the Irish in the 1800’s, the Southern Europeans at the turn of the century and the Eastern Europeans after WWI. It was politics based on race and class – except this time they just didn’t include a prohibition on alcohol with it.

                  Like

                • AthensHomerDawg

                  The Senator is a good sport.

                  “Just to be clear .. you are fine with indentured labor practices, slavery, and child labor in other countries – just not the USA – provided that the US economy has its supply of consumer goods?” Not at all sir and I alluded to as much in my first paragraph and that was a stretch including the later part of your comment. My point was that there was much to do and I could effect more change in the US of A than abroad.

                  While the immigration laws major intent may not have been helping migrant workers it certainly lends some legitamacy to those that are here as documented workers. Getting this untangled will take a lot of steps. Welcome to our country …. but do come here legally and obey our laws. Same rules that apply to those from Europe or Asia or Africa apply to Latino migrant workers. You break a law in Mexico my friend and you will be introduced to a nightmare. I don’t believe you can actually own land in Mexico if you are not a citizen.(I went on a tangent there)

                  People do cross our borders to have their children and game our system and it is a burden on our taxpayers. The two hospitals in ACC have duplicate services and are not that far from each other. One is private and one is public. The ER at one is more of an outpatient clinic serving the needs of those that don’t have health care such as expectant mothers to be that haven’t had regular prenatal care and are about to deliver a child. Who pays for that?

                  The last elementary school built in ACC was built to handle the overflow in elementary age children. It is 98% Latino and almost all on school free lunch program. Who pays for that? I know this because I was part of a Food Pantry there and read a lot of the stats about that school.

                  I’ve built and developed projects in the southeast and abroad. I know who supplies the labor for these projects in the Southeast . One thing that has always been consistent is that, those that speak English and are here legally can and do take advantage of those that can’t speak English and aren’t here legally.

                  From my conversations with my wife’s Mother….. the daughter of a Lithuanian immigrant who escaped Lithuania after her family was murdered and her Grandfather who was an O’Day from Ireland (and later changed his named to Day) met his wife on the boat over. Now that was some cultural diversity! English was the first thing they learned and an American citizenship was their 2nd goal. They worked hard and there was no system to game and certainly… no free lunches.You let people in illegally they will be the house guest that just won’t leave. You wanna stay in Mexico for an extended visit…. you will have to show them that you have brought your own pesos with you.

                  Textile industry has been gone for awhile now–it’s in Mexico. The carpet industry decline in NW GA is tied to the decline of the construction industry. The construction industry has lead us out of these recessions in the past .. but not this time. No capital.

                  “There are too many people riding in the wheel barrow and not enough people pushing it!” per my Dad -83 year old retired SAC WO.

                  just sayin’

                  Like

        • AthensHomerDawg

          Like EC said there are ways he could get around the illegal status and plenty of time to do so if that were the problem. I’m not sure what rights American Nationals have. I assume if he was born in Samoa or the Swain Islands and that he is an American National. It wouldn’t be a tedious path for him to get the proper paperwork in place to put those “skills useful to our society” into practice. If he didn’t handle it in the correct fashion and follow the rules/laws in place then he can’t attend UGa on a scholarship. We will miss him…. we will miss his skills.

          Like

      • gastr1

        Mac, the thing that is dumb is when people create a new law, then say they are enforcing the law. So a law that didn’t exist was not being enforced? Huh. You might not like that illegals were receiving some kind of benefit but it wasn’t a matter of law until now.

        Like

      • EC

        Right, these damn kids who keep sneaking across our borders against their parents wishes and then have the gall to attend our public schools and perform at a level that deems them worthy of attending college are ruining this country. The law is backwards. As a teacher I’m watching kids work exponentially harder than many of their American peers only to have their dreams of going to college crapped on by short sighted legislation.
        Good thing we wont have the kid putting Fulmer Cup Points on the board for “breaking immigration laws.” Especially, because Brown has been described as “a tireless promoter of the Bulldogs and a vocal recruiter.” One UGA beat writer said of Brown, “In all my years I have never seen a kid that felt more grateful for the opportunity to play than Chester.”

        Totally, right giving him a scholarship would keep society from working properly.

        Like

        • adam

          “In all my years I have never seen a kid that felt more grateful for the opportunity to play than Chester.”

          I don’t this to be taken sarcastically, because i’m being absolutely sincere: that breaks my heart. That’s tragic.

          Like

      • Dorothy Mantooth

        We can always count on well-reasoned banter here in GTP. I agree, enforcing the law is not bigoted though the law is bigoted on its face, in its purpose and in its effect.

        Like

        • Biggus Rickus

          The law is not bigoted on its face. How is it racist to deny public assistance to people who have entered the country illegally?

          Like

          • Really? How do you suppose the police will go around and decide which people have to produce paperwork proving their citizenship?

            Like

            • H-Town Dawg

              For the same reason that I would have to produce certain documents if I get pulled over for speeding or some other traffic violation.

              Like

              • Right. How many times have you been asked to prove your citizenship during a routine traffic stop?

                Give me an effin’ break.

                Like

                • H-Town Dawg

                  I haven’t. But you asked how it would be determined who gets stopped. I answered it for you. Hell, I got stopped once for an expired tag and was approached by a cop with his gun drawn. And I’m not even brown. It’s amazing how that happens since only “brown” people get stopped in this country, apparently.

                  Like

                • The question isn’t about being stopped. It’s about being asked to provide papers. I doubt that’s been an issue for you.

                  Like

                • Biggus Rickus

                  What his showing a valid driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance if not “providing papers”?

                  Like

                • You don’t have to be a US citizen to obtain any of those documents.

                  Like

                • Debby Balcer

                  You do have to produce papers to legally get a driver’s license I know because I moved states and had to apply for a new driver’s license. My birth certificate is in German because I was born in Germany to American parents stationed there. I was born in a military hospital. I had to produce all kinds of documents before I could get my new license. I am white so it was not racial.

                  Like

                • Dog in Fla

                  The fact that Caucasians get caught in the document production dragnet for voter registration, driver’s licenses, passports, show me your papers, etc., purposes does not make regressive suppression laws non-discriminatory. For example:

                  “The purpose of new voter ID laws is to demobilize certain portions of electorate who are more likely to vote for Democrats, a goal laid out by ALEC founder, Paul Weyrich many decades ago who stated that “I don’t want everybody to vote… Our leverage in the elections goes up as the voting populus goes down.”

                  http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/09/voter-suppression-the-new-disenfranchisement/

                  Like

                • Keese

                  Hell yeah, provide the papers. If I get pulled over, I’ll be happy to provide any papers as part of a wide ranging solution. Sorta like airport security.

                  It’s a problem…a problem that our government is doing very little to rectify. There should not be a debate on any of this shit, period. Anyone that wants to be a lawful immigrant, great. If not, then it’s the government responsibilty to protect. Problem is…is that now you got too many hands in the pot now that illegal immigration has become such a political driven controversy. It embodies the ass-backward mentatlity that’s taking over this country. It’s the government that’s at fault though…not the immigrants. They are only doing what is allowed to happen by our impotent government.

                  Like

                • AthensHomerDawg

                  Papers please!

                  Like

                • Debby Balcer

                  Voter ID laws are not racist. I have to have ID to check out a library book so why should I not have to provide picture ID to vote. You have to have picture ID to buy sudafed. It is racist to assume that people other than whites don’t have photo ID.

                  Like

                • Dog in Fla

                  “[P]overty, coupled with both the fact that the number of African-Americans without state-issued photo ID is more than three times greater than whites and expenses associated with obtaining IDs, reveal a far greater likelihood that African-Americans will be disenfranchised by polling place photo ID restriction laws.

                  “Jim Crow is poll taxes,” NAACP Senior VP Hilary Shelton observed. With “James Crow Esquire it’s having to pay for an ID.”

                  http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9054

                  Like

            • Biggus Rickus

              As I understand them, laws like Arizona’s and Georgia’s tacitly forbid profiling, so your argument basically assumes officers will violate the law without penalty.

              Like

        • H-Town Dawg

          The law is not bigoted on its face. But of course there are those whose agenda discourages them from addressing the issue honestly. They find it useful to dismiss the things that they don’t agree with as “racist” or “bigoted.”

          Like

        • Silver Creek Dawg

          How is the law bigoted on its face when it’s an exact copy of federal law?

          I know AZ’s law is, I may be incorrect about GA’s.

          And,, I feel safe stating that few, if any, laws like this would have been passed if the Feds would simply enforce their own laws.

          Like

      • Spence

        The problem is not the executive arm, which enforces law, but the legislative arm, which makes law. You’re ignoring the distinction.

        Likely he wanted family to come with him and that’s causing the issues.

        Like

      • travis fain

        Do you honestly believe the laws of this country are appplied equally to its people?

        Like

        • Biggus Rickus

          No, but that’s not an argument against a law. If it were and if it were taken to its logical conclusion it would be an argument for anarchy.

          Like

  5. Go Dawgs!

    This sucks for UGA football, but I personally think it’s spectacular for the state legislature to have this issue blow up in their face. It’s too bad the kid’s not a five-star quarterback.

    Like

  6. Lrgk9

    Sounds like a more personal issue with his family to me.

    Wish him the best,

    Like

    • Evidently Normaltown

      If it’s a personal issue, why are Syracuse, Central Florida, and Tulane still on the table?

      Like

      • Carolinadawg

        And that list of schools is the main reason i can’t get too upset about missing out on him. Footballwise, he’s a project at best, it seems.

        Like

        • adam

          I think it has more to do with the fact that those schools are in New York, Louisiana, and Florida. He made most of his noise in camps. I think he has the drive, talent, and passion to be a great lineman.

          He could’ve gotten bigger offers by going to more camps, keeping his recruitment open, etc.

          The guy got his commit date tattooed on his arm. He was as solid as any commitment we’ve ever had. Hard to pick up a bunch of offers that way. And if immigration laws are the problem, then I’m sure his list of schools has more to do with location than the school itself. LSU probably never saw him in camp. Florida probably hasn’t either. They don’t know anything about him except that he was 100% UGA until now.

          I mean… He’s still talking about transferring here from whereever he ends up (or even going the JUCO route and coming here after) when these “family issues” are resolved. Chester Brown would’ve been a DGD and this is a shame.

          Like

  7. Man this one really hurts-I felt all along that Chester was the sleeper of this class ! Dang it man–Wish there was some way somebody could do something-Somebody posted about what if he was a 5 star QB–we need this guy more than another QB–somebody needs to catch it for this

    Like

  8. Irishdawg

    Samoans are US nationals, so Georgia’s law doesn’t apply, as Brown isn’t an illegal alien, and Georgia’s law targets ILLEGAL aliens.

    Like

  9. Dog in Fla

    Mitt* thinks this is how self-deportation should work if Chester had a one-way ticket to Samoa instead of Syracuse, Orlando or New Orleans.

    *Mitt is unaware that some would be happy if he self-deported

    Like

  10. Bevo

    Good post, Senator. Sadly ironic if true.

    Also unfortunate:

    1) Chester seems like a good kid that loves Georgia and wants to be a Dawg in the worst way.

    2) Recruitniks like Rusty Mansell have cited some glowing evaluations on this guy as an OL. Some think we’ll look back in a few years to see him as the best OL coming out of GA this year. There’s not a lot of film on Chester, so he was flying under the radar to some extent.

    3) We going back to zero Samoans in our system.

    Like

  11. AthensHomerDawg

    Like

  12. are we really spending this much time talking about a rumor ,give me a break…The kid is an Ameican.( his linage is irrelavant if he was born in Long Beach CA) This is sounding like the lefties reaction to the shooting of US representative Gifford(its some Sarah Palin supporter,it has to be right…..WRONG) I suggest that given the scrutiny the UGA football gets that we can’t afford to get his family members quite as good a job as UCF etc.

    Like

  13. Irishdawg

    “The question isn’t about being stopped. It’s about being asked to provide papers. I doubt that’s been an issue for you.”

    Yet you assume it’s an issue for every Hispanic that gets stopped. My wife and mother in law are both from Peru, both have been stopped, neither have been asked to provide proof of citizenship. Cops WILL be likely to ask when they stop a guy with no license, no proof of insurance, and speaks 3 words of English.

    Cops are not universally looking to hassle Hispanics, despite what one website says.

    Like

  14. Will Trane

    A young player out of Bradwell Insitute HS in Hinesville, Georgia changes his mind. I dare say most north Georgia people have no clue where that is or what the classification is.
    But let’s think along this line for a moment…”lots of rumors that he ran afoul of Georgia’s new anti-immigration law and its scholarship restrictions.” Nowhere in that article does it say anything about it. The recruit represents it is a personal family matter. And he was willing to spend sometime answers a bank of questions that almost borders on an interrogation. Naturally, when it comes to UGA, that is the mind set of the AJC and metro Atlanta.
    What I would like to know in this matter is this. Where is the recruiting coordinator and the AD / A-Department? This recruit made an early verbal commitment. If there was an citizenship issue re the STATE of GEORGIA [let’s not imply Georgia’s, ie, UGA’s law] law, why did they not look into and resolve it. This where I have issues with the AD and the Department. In short, what in hell do those people do. Apparently, like most in academia, clueless. In today’s world they should be out front on this kind of issue, if that is the reason, rather than a “lot of rumors”.
    Is this site about politics and candidates or about sports at UGA. What I like about that story, which is what you see in a lot of left-wing, liberal media, is the play on facts. 5 players decommit…well, look at those reasons. It all gets back to the recruiting coordinator and AD. You have to know where a recruit will fall out about grades and eligibility before you run down the road with verbal commitments, costs, time, and effort that could have been devoted elsewhere.
    In the business world we have a saying for that. A piss poor use of assets. And just maybe a business grad / candidate might understand “assets” and a return on your investment.

    Like

  15. UGA70

    Senator,
    I’m not sure why he doesn’t or hasn’t been advised to go through the process of becoming a naturalized citizen, immigrants are being naturalized all during the year. I’ve been to many naturalization ceremonies at Monticello (TJ’s home) since moving to Charlottesville, VA in 1973. I believe he has time to go through the process before enrolling at UGA.

    Like

    • Derek

      You have to be legally present to be naturalized. That is why someone who was brought in at age 1 and has known no other country but the USA is supposed to go back to place of birth, apply and wait to approval to enter legally. This is what enforcement of the laws looks like and why Reagan was right to declare amnesty in the mid 1980’s.

      Like

  16. UGA70

    Derek,
    Thanks but I don’t know or haven’t read anywhere that Chester is here illegally. While this could certainly be the case, it’s never been raised. Regardless, I don’t think this will be last time, we or other State’s with similar immigration laws will encounter this issue and affect a potential recruit. I’m simply looking for solution or option to, hopefully, maintain his commitment.

    Like

  17. HVL Dawg

    Congratulations to the Senator for participating in this discussion.

    Like

  18. so in the end my most cherished rules of logic and argumentation is still alive and well,”No matter how much you think you know about a subject it’s usually more complicated than you know.” It wasn’t the law/new statute it was academia in its normal reactionary mode. And what happens to all our foreign tennis players and golfers?

    Like

  19. “capacity constraints” ,WTF do we have another georgia resident who is 6’6″ and weighs 340 that Mr Brown is stopping from get this football scholarship,

    Like