A North Carolina state representative is calling for the resignation of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall after he found hundreds of cases of illegal immigrants improperly becoming notaries public.
State law requires a notary public to “reside legally in the United States.” Marshall, a Democrat, has commissioned 320 individuals as notaries who are not either legal permanent residents or citizens, according to records provided to North Carolina state Rep. Chris Millis.
The legislator received records from the North Carolina secretary of state’s office which showed 250 illegal immigrants who received amnesty have become notaries public. Another 72 other immigrants who have become notaries public are not permanent resident aliens. Marshall’s office also gave Millis a document which stated that one alien who received a license is under a final order of deportation
While President Obama’s executive amnesty for illegal immigrants, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, grants recipients work authorization and protection from deportation, it doesn’t give legal status. This was the opinion of President Obama’s administration.
The Republican legislator said in a Monday letter to Marshall, “It is clear that you have commissioned to many types of aliens (including illegal aliens) the authority as notaries public over the last nine years.”
Millis added, “you and your office granted notary commissions to these aliens in conflict with the letter and the spirit of North Carolina law and United State law.”
She and her office have previously defended themselves by saying that they can accept a work authorization as sole proof of legal residence. “The Attorney General of this state has issued an opinion that we are doing is correct,” Marshall said in an interview October. “We have not, we are not issuing commissions to illegal aliens,” the secretary of state said, adding, “We don’t have a DACA card in the file.”
All of three of these statements however are false. An attorney with the North Carolina Attorney General’s office did put out an “advisory letter,” but it contained a caveat which said it had “been reviewed and approved in accordance with the procedures for issuing an official Attorney General’s opinion.”
Regarding Marshall’s statement about DACA cards, the nickname for work authorizations given to DACA recipients, Mills found 350 DACA cards in the documents Marshall’s office gave to him. And while the secretary of state claimed she had not given notary public commissions to illegal aliens, at least two have received them since.
“Because of your failures, along with the fact that your actions have been masked from the public through both false and misleading statements, I am compelled to call for your immediate resignation from the office of Secretary of State,” Millis wrote in his letter. He wrote that if Marshall does not choose to resign he will take all take all lawful steps including impeachment to remove her from office.
Marshall said in a statement: “This is simply a rehashing of the political attack used by my opponent in the recent election. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has authorized the specifically mentioned notaries to work here lawfully. That federally authorized status continues to be unchanged by the new Presidential administration.”