NC House Turning Blind Eye To Secretary of State Certifying Illegal Aliens As Notaries

RALEIGH – Almost two years ago, this author broke a story about Democrat N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, a two-decade incumbent, flouting federal law and certifying illegal aliens as notaries. The bombshell report prompted then-House member Rep. Chris Millis (R-Pender) to investigate the matter further. When Millis’ digging yielded evidence that Marshall was indeed breaking the law he spearheaded the push to form a special committee to investigate her for possible impeachable offenses.

The issue at hand was something that is actually very topical in the current day – DACA recipients. These illegal immigrants were granted temporary status to shield them from deportation by former President Barack Obama. As part of the executive order the recipients received special work authorizations from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Though these authorizations allowed the illegal aliens to work in the U.S., DHS was clear in stating that the actions in no way gave the recipients legal status or residence.

In North Carolina, legal permanent residence is required by state law to become certified as a notary public. Notaries act in a quasi-legal capacity to certify property transactions, and other official acts such as certifying absentee ballots for elections.

Marshall’s office was accepting DACA work authorizations from DHS as proof of residency, and certifying these illegal aliens as notaries. One was working as a notary in a county Register of Deeds office and another of those certified notaries even had active DHS deportation orders outstanding at the time of certification by Marshall’s office!

When the news broke, and Millis convinced House leadership to back a special investigation, Marshall downplayed the revelations as a political witch hunt.

Now, campaign finance reports show just how worried Marshall was about the her case. According to filings, Marshall set up a special legal defense fund, retained law firm Womble Carlyle, and raised over $20,000 to defend herself.

I say ‘was’ because it seems that Speaker Tim Moore and Republican legislative leadership have no intentions of following through on the investigation to hold Marshall accountable for her illegal actions.

The Secretary of State has intimated that she learned there was “no appetite” in the General Assembly for moving forward.

So what happened? Well, for starters, the redistricting process carried out by N.C> House leadership curiously landed Chris Millis an altered district that contained a whole lot more Democrats in it, thus seriously hindering his re-election prospects. Shortly thereafter, Millis resigned.

Apparently, with out Millis, there is no one left in the House that has enough courage to explore Marshall’s transgressions and consider impeachment. It is a typical attribute of Establishment Republicans that they don’t want to rock the boat, even when the evidence of Marshall’s illegal practices is clear.

If the N.C. House abandons an investigation to at least establish whether or not there was wrongdoing on the part of Elaine Marshall in conferring state certifications upon illegal aliens against state law, then they might as well be complicit in the act.

Notary public is not an insignificant designation. It gives the certificate holder power to certify myriad legal interactions, and abuse of those limited powers has long been a problem in the immigrant community. Not to mention the power that certifying absentee ballots affords illegal aliens, especially when some recent elections have been decided by a single vote.

If the Republicans on Jones Street want to earn another legislative majority, they might start by holding accountable those Democrat politicians who knowingly break state laws in order to advance Leftist causes like normalizing illegal immigration.