In a straightforward statement today, GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) said “we need to uncouple illegal immigration and Tennessee”:
The recent arrest of illegal aliens working at the Bean Station slaughterhouse is a red flag that Tennessee has been allowed to become a magnet for illegal aliens despite an E-verify law which I voted for when I was in the state Senate. The attempt by a city government last year to skirt our current sanctuary city law, which I also voted for, is another flag that we need to uncouple illegal immigration and Tennessee. Our current sanctuary city law needs strengthening and the Green-Reedy bill is sound public policy that should be signed into law.
Black has zeroed in on the fact that Tennessee is offering what illegal aliens are looking for – the ability to live, work and go to school in communities where officials who have promised to uphold the law, simply look the other way.
With pressure from well funded organizations that advocate for illegal immigration and Republican legislators softening to demands for state benefits like in-state college tuition for illegal alien students, a proposal publicly backed by Governor Haslam, Tennessee looks like a very “welcoming state.”
According to Black, however, it’s become more like “a magnet for illegal aliens.”
Candidate Bill Haslam made big promises about pushing back against illegal immigration in Tennessee when he campaigned for governor in 2009. During his two terms, however, instead of decreasing the number of illegal aliens living, working and going to school in the state, the number increased.
Estimates from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) for the first year of the Haslam administration put the 2010 population of illegal aliens in Tennessee at 120,000 costing state taxpayers approximately $547 million that year.
By 2017, FAIR estimated the number of illegal aliens in the state had grown to 135,000 and at an estimated cost of $793 million.
A detailed account in Grainger Today about the Bean Station operation and the raid mentions that the suspiciously very large multi-million dollar cash withdrawals that ultimately led to the 2018 investigation were on-going since 2008; before the Haslam administration but continuing for the full two terms since his election.
The Metro Nashville Council and the Shelby County Commission have tipped their hands about resisting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
And despite all of this, Governor Haslam can’t seem to make up his mind about whether to sign the Green-Reedy bill.
Should anyone be surprised that TIRRC and it’s allies brazenly chant “we are here to stay” and “sin papeles y sin miedo” (no papers no fear)? Some call it a homesteading approach to accessing all the same benefits as citizens.
Beth Harwell voted for the anti-sanctuary city bill but has made no public statement about whether she thinks the Governor should sign it.
The Tennessee Star received a statement from Randy Boyd’s campaign spokesman which offered no opinion about whether the Governor should sign the bill but did promise that if elected, Boyd would enforce the law. There’s justifiable skepticism about what Boyd’s post-election positions might be on illegal immigration given the organizations he has chosen to join and to fund.
Bill Lee said that if he were Governor, he’d sign it. His business relationship with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce could also require a different outcome post-election.
Diane Black called on Haslam to sign the bill and circulated a petition urging him to sign.
Sanctuary policies and practices elevate the interests and welfare of criminal illegal aliens over citizens and legal residents. The Governor has three more days, until this Tuesday, May 22nd, to set the trend of his administration in reverse.
Critics of the governor are concerned he will bend to the desires of the vocal and disruptive left wing groups who want him to reject the views of the overwhelming majority of Tennesseans, expressed through the Tennessee General Assembly’s legislation that now sits on his desk.
Others are willing to give the governor the benefit of the doubt.
By Tuesday evening, at the very latest, all Tennesseans will know which path Gov. Haslam has chosen.
What many of us have been trying to do in stopping illegal migration and in reducing legal immigration has been to prevent a disastrous weakening and fragmentation of our nation. We predicted this fragmentation 30 to 40 years ago. Much of the forecast has already come to pass, sooner than we thought it would, and we expect further fragmentation and a revolution.
We tried to prevent this course direction by speaking up and taking the abuse we have taken for it. It has not been pleasant, and I, for one, certainly didn’t get anything out of it except the personal peace of being able to look at my grandchildren without guilt.
We know the future will vindicate, but it will be no consolation. Americans have failed in protecting this nation, the best hope for humanity. We will lose Europe, also. Many, many people will be left vulnerable, because, barring an intervention of some sort, the hub of guiding ideals will be gone.
Our generosity has been used against us. Our good nature. Evil uses many instruments and takes many forms, and is a master at using our own best intentions against us.
But we have also been lax and lacking in allowing a few profiteers to damage the many and to derail a better quality of life for the many in the future.
Naturalization is not a state issue – it is, and always has been, a federal issue. It is one of those few enumerated powers that we grant the federal government. State and local officials that harbor or otherwise facilitate illegal aliens are subject to prosecution for a federal felony under Title 8, U.S.C. 1324(a) – penalties range from 5 years imprisonment, up to and including the death penalty.
https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-1907-title-8-usc-1324a-offenses
California right now is being sued for their SB54 – prohibiting cooperation with the prosecution of illegal aliens, as well they should – it is an act of open insurrection against the United States law.
We don’t need legislators to write new laws, nor executives to sign them (or not.) What we need is restoring respect for the existing law. Interestingly, the county sheriff, as chief law enforcement officer for those matters unique to the welfare and safety of county residents, has the legislated power to arrest all illegal aliens in your county and refer them to ICE for detention and prosecution. That’s where the focus needs to be. Solicit your sheriff’s position on illegal aliens, and compare that position to his/her actual actions.
There is a direct, and well-researched link between heroin trafficking and illegal aliens. Read “Dreamland” by Sam Quinones, which describes the link in depth.
The E-Verify bills our legislature passed don’t cover all employers and do have loopholes and weak penalties for the employers the laws do claim to cover.
As my grandmothers would say, “I done told y’all.”
It was my experience that most of the legislators did and do not understand this.
Tennessee is a longtime magnet to illegal aliens. Both Democrats and Republicans, in service to the business lobby, which influenced — changed — the E-Verify bills some of us were trying to get, have made sure of that.
Politicians always make promises. They seem to believe promises are made to be broken, just like laws.
Will Gov. Haslam sign the anti-sanctuary bill? My guess is that he won’t but he won’t veto it either.
Haslam, billionaire businessman and the richest governor in the U.S., owes the cartel of big business and chambers of commerce/hospitality industry who want to entice illegal immigrants here for cheap labor. But his party has passed a bill in a majority vote to keep the Tennesseans safe and to follow the law of the land.
If he does sign the bill, it won’t be because he’s for it but because he’s trying to salvage some credibility for his lapdog candidate La Raza Randy Boyd.
Isn’t this fun! Waiting, waiting, waiting to see if our REPUBLICAN Governor will simply do the right thing that has the support of an overwhelming number of Republicans. Want eight more years of this fun? If not, may I suggest the ANYBODY BUT BOYD strategy.