Editor’s note: This event has been postponed to a date uncertain.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy will cut the ribbon on the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s new Office of Citizenship Assistance in midtown Anchorage on Monday at 2 p.m. It will be a place where legal immigrants will have access to job placement and career training assistance, information about workplace safety, and it will serve as a navigation center to connect legal immigrants to other services that allow them to integrate into Alaska and become productive citizens more quickly, the governor’s office said.
Also attending the ribbon cutting will be Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development Cathy Munoz, Deputy Commissioner Nelson San Juan, and Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. No details were disclosed about the cost of the center or why it is needed.
Alaska has a small community of immigrants, many of whom are from Samoa and the Philippines. About 7.5 percent of the state’s residents are foreign-born.
Who is paying for this training?
State funds or Federal grants with all the control strings?
In the end it’s taxpayer money. Alaska…quit spending money you don’t have, quit stealing it from my permanent fund dividend…just stop spending.
Everyone has to put something in the kitty.
Are the drug addicted homeless contributing? If they’d clean up and work, maybe we wouldn’t need “job centers”?
Need more information, this sounds suspicious. Are they planning on shipping in more?
I hope this state has an attorney to file a lawsuit against this administration for the unequal treatment of immigrants. This office needs to be shut down….before it gets started.
Legislators considered this new government program a budget priority this year. They ran out of money for school bond debt reimbursement, senior/veteran property tax reimbursement, the PFD, and some other “not important” things, but they still found enough money left over to spend $437,800 on this.
The vote was 35-5 to make this a spending priority this year. The only legislators who opposed this were Allard, Carpenter, Eastman, Rauscher, Stapp.
Amendment #117
‘https://www.akleg.gov/PDF/33/A/HB0268-H117.PDF
Roll Call Vote
‘https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Journal/Pages/33?Chamber=H&Bill=HB%20268&Page=02231#2231
You 5 are the only ones who should remain in our state legislature. Skipping past the fact that government has NO role in job centers for anyone, it is unfathomable that there are elected officials in this state that would fund something like this for foreigners.
Rep. Eastman, I don’t have a problem with legal immigrants, however, I have to wonder, when, as you mentioned, they can’t find money for basic things, but they came up with this. I’m guessing legislators didn’t do this on their own. Was this a result of pressure from special interest groups?
Maybe you should start paying attention to how the Harris/biden regime has been redefining “legal immigrants” to accommodate their invasion scheme. Anyone coming to this country should not be a burden to the existing population and we need to demand changes to immigration laws that only allow productive people who believe in our constitution to come here-we cannot be the welfare state to every sad luck case.
Beyond that point though, it is not government’s role to provide employment services for anyone and we have to start holding these politicians accountable for this overreach of government.
M.John, the first thought that ran through my mind about “legal” is how quickly did they become legal? Through the White House plan to legalize them all immediately?
Amendment #117
‘https://www.akleg.gov/PDF/33/A/HB0268-H117.PDF
Roll Call Vote
‘https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Journal/Pages/33?Chamber=H&Bill=HB%20268&Page=02231#2231
Did dunleavy become a socialist? Or perhaps he always was?
What kind of help does Samoa and Philippines offer American are looking for work?
As I understand it, a request to leave and find work elsewhere.
And they should be told that they will have to endure 7 months of cold, ice and snow, dark, hard living, high rent and utilities and a cost of living that tops the nations average, Bear and Moose encounters, unsafe traveling conditions, worlds strongest earthquakes, high crime rates, and Alaska is not for everybody.
Yeah, well that does it for me.
Well, that certainly cements my feelings about Dunleavy….WTF.
Exactly. 2 weeks late reporting for the election, no signature verification for mail ins, no meaningful clearance of the voter rolls. Decreasing the PFD, defined benefits for state employees and now this.
It’s almost like voting Republican is against your best interests.
Pathetic
Brilliant move, Dunleavy. 👍
But expect to get sued by the wacko Democrats who will file discrimination and civil rights lawsuits against you and the state for not letting
“illegals” participate. Yes, the America-haters live here in Alaska too.
Is it just me, or does this sound weird? The story doesn’t have many details, so it’s not clear, but it looks like a celebration of the unnecessary.
The DOL has historically had an Office of Citizenship Assistance aimed at helping people with legal green card status to obtain job training and citizenship. Most of the program funds were awarded to non-government training centers that have existing facilities for a broad array of services like job training, GED, English, etc. This sounds like new government infrastructure… since AKDOL gets a majority of its funds from the feds, I’m wondering if this isn’t some Biden regime funding mechanism to further the integration and voter registration of all the illegal immigrants who have been ushered into the country. Sadly, state bureaucrats have a tough time saying no to “free” federal grant money. The problem is that it always comes with federal oversight and requirements for future state matching funds to maintain the bureaucracy. I guess we’ll find out more as details emerge.
He is part of immigration cabal no doubt more on the way and more homeless on the streets.
Of course he is. He’s a broken man who does what the democrats tell him to do.
Standing small on Alaska.
Color me surprised dunleavy and dahlstrom showing their true colors, they are both spineless rinos.
Follow Jesus Christ’s teachings all ye Republicans, especially all ye bright red ones!
“……He who does not work, neither shall he eat………”
2 Thessalonians 3:10
Open a new job center for LEGAL immigrants after our current homeless are working.
Tighten up on Christ’s teachings: that passage cannot be attributed to Jesus!
MORE free crap for parasitic criminals. A half million??? But screw our seniors and veterans?? OUT F-ING RAGEOUS!!
I’m done with Dunleavy!!! Are these immigrants legally in the US????????
Don’t know the immigration status of the Philippines, but Samoa has been our territory for 124 years. Jeez!
It’s true that you are the negative Nellie here, but at least try to be accurate. American Samoa is a territory of the United States. Samoa is an independent nation. How in the world did you ever teach school in Alaska, or are you the reason we have such dumb graduates?
Aren’t we talking about American Samoa?
Are American Samoans “immigrants”?
Technically.
I was a shop teacher for 1 1/2 years working under a class c certificate before covid shut down the schools. How dare you claim I was a teacher! I’m not smart enough to do that and neither are you you moose.
Who said they’re talking about Samoans and Filipinos?
“many of whom are from Samoa and the Philippines” DOES NOT MEAN this office is FOR them!
If that were the case, this office would have been open long ago.
Besides, do you know a lot of Filipinos that don’t work? I’m in S.E., so I don’t know any Samoans, but we have a large population of Filipinos, & most of them have 2+ jobs.
I suspect it is another way to launder money, or bribe some AK gov’t official to accept illegals.
This is another ridiculous mischarachterization by Eastman. Here is the sum total of the amendment. No One trusts him to explain what he is doing. He does not bring it to anyone prior to offering it on the floor and it often does not do what he says it does. In addition, HB268 is a budget bill. We should not be setting policy in a budget bill… A budget bill lasts for a single budget year.
This amendment and his half truth about it’s effect is a goofy attempt to grandstand to his worshipers by Eastman. And it is why many of us just vote no on his amendments – they have no force of law or policy in a budget bill. I vote no because I do not trust him, he has not sufficiently explained it to me, and his floor speech describing the amendment is insufficient. If he wants to accomplish something like this then put in a bill and do the work required to get the bill passed. #nopolicychangeinbudgetbills
Amendment No. 117 was offered by Representative Eastman:
Page 21, line 30:
Delete “37,532,200”
Insert “37,094,400”
Delete “14,696,700”
Insert “14,258,900”
Page 22, lines 6 – 7:
Delete all material.
Adjust fund sources and totals accordingly.
Representative Eastman moved and asked unanimous consent that
Amendment No. 117 be adopted.
Representative D. Johnson objected.
The question being: “Shall Amendment No. 117 be adopted?” The
roll was taken with the following result:
CSHB 268(FIN) am
Second Reading
Amendment No. 117
2024-04-10 House Journal Page 2232
YEAS: 5 NAYS: 35 EXCUSED: 0 ABSENT: 0
Yeas: Allard, Carpenter, Eastman, Rauscher, Stapp
Nays: Armstrong, Baker, Carrick, Coulombe, Cronk, Dibert, Edgmon,
Fields, Foster, Galvin, Gray, Groh, Hannan, Himschoot, C.Johnson,
D.Johnson, Josephson, McCabe, McCormick, McKay, Mears, Mina,
Ortiz, Prax, Ruffridge, Saddler, Schrage, Shaw, Story, Stutes, Sumner,
Tilton, Tomaszewski, Vance, Wright
And so, Amendment No. 117 was not adopted.
Could you please provide links for these facts that you spew?
‘https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Journal/Pages/33?Chamber=H&Bill=HB%20268&Page=02231#AM117
Thank you for posting the data from the link I provided above. Should we be thankful for your copying the data over from that page, Kevin?
It was ridiculous to add this to the budget this year. It should never have made it out of committee (the committee that you voted to put under Democrat control).
Worse, when we pointed it out, you still voted to prioritize this over other clearly more important things. Please start representing your constituents with your votes rather than your petty personal pet peeves.
You set policy with your vote by voting to keep this appropriation in the budget. That vote did not represent the voters in your district, or mine.
The devil’s in the details. My trust in Dunleavy is all gone. And i voted for him. Its been gone for a long time.
This begs the question of why. Why do we need this facility? Who’s funding this? What is the total annual cost to include staff? These are questions that need to be answered in detail. Its still taxpayer money whether its state or federal funds.
If a “legal” immigrant has a good work ethic, no bad habits, and can read & write english, there won’t be a problem finding employment on his/her own. It might be an entry level position, but you have to start somewhere.
Part of me thinks that this might be a gateway to navigate for publicly funded assistance.
The Great Replacement Theory is no longer a theory. Say hello to all of the “new Alaskans” that will be taking your jobs, your houses, your hard-earned money.
& your PFD
Ginny, they are definitely going to take our daughters and seduce our sons, just as surely as Lucifer already has his bony fingers on your quivering soul!
Kind of like folks did after the ruskies?
MeMe and Ginny, I completely get what you are saying. Biden/Harris is scrambling to push through “naturalization” for hoards of unvetted illegals. When I say that I don’t have a problem with legal immigrants, I mean those who are persuing citizenship through traditional means. I think of several J1 workers and others whom I have known who have become solid, productive citizens. My question to David Eastman was whether outside groups pushed this legislation through.
I agree with you M.John. I should have specified that. I was just thinking about the fact that the O’biden Harris regime wants to legalize everyone quickly because they need their votes. I don’t have a problem with legal immigrants and know a few myself who I appreciate for their hard work and their love for this country.
I appreciate your naïveté but you really need to understand what is happening in this country…. Over the past year, employment has fallen by 773,000 for native workers and risen by 1 million for the foreign-born.
Until we get a better policy and restrictions in place, I support stopping ALL immigration. I work in tech and my entire team of 20 people is foreign born. They are extreme leftists who are only in this country because of H-1B visas giving them job preference over qualified Americans. Theoretically, I have no problem with legal immigration but we need to focus on Americans – getting them off welfare, moving away from service and government industries to productive industries, and improving this country. Programs like this from Dunleavy are doing nothing for the kids I see in our state who are getting sub-standard educations, no skills, and never reaching their potentials.
What is the controversy on this? People are coming here legally, don’t we want to help them find jobs and be productive? We should be welcoming anyone who wants to come here and better their lives (and ours) by being productive. We NEED people to come here. There is a huge shortage of labor and we all benefit when people produce something others value. Either products or labor.
Interesting Eagle River is one of the largest communities and they shut our job center.