If you care about this issue, then this information can be used for the 2022 Tennessee state House member primaries. 

If you care about getting rid of “Tennesseeans Last” legislators, then this information is for you.

The Biden-Harris administration is working overtime to make sure that the idea of illegal immigration becomes a thing of the past.  The flurry of executive orders is a mere taste of what is to come. Consider that on his first day in office, Biden signed 6 executive orders undoing some of President Trump’s best policies to protect Americans and preserve jobs for Americans.

Tonight, Biden issued three more executive orders designed to massively expand legal and illegal immigration. His directive to the Census Bureau that the report to Congress for apportionment must include all illegal aliens is clearly intended to keep radical Democrats controlling Congress for decades to come.

Abetted by DC RINOs, don’t be surprised when the DC elite legislate a pathway to citizenship for the otherwise illegal immigrants known as DACA. Watch at how easily the parents who entered the U.S. by violating our laws and created the pool known as DACA, are granted amnesty. This is precisely the long game which groups like the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and all their affiliated groups, have been playing.

Opening the borders to anyone and everyone who is a potential Democrat cheating voter, will be welcome. But make no mistake, the establishment-elite – GOPee, wants this cheap labor as well and is willing to sell out the deplorables who supported President Trump’s immigration agenda and policies.

The Tennessee General Assembly has its own Republican illegal immigration protectionist legislators.

The two most reprehensible GOP state House members on the issue of illegal immigration are Rep. Bob Ramsey (R- Maryville) and Rep. Patsy Hazlewood (R- Signal Mountain). These two stand in a virtual tie for having the worst voting record on key legislation addressing illegal immigration.

In 2007, when Tennessee Democrats held the majority and still opposed illegal immigration, laws against illegal immigration were passed with strong bipartisan support. In fact, many of the bills were passed with unanimous votes in the House and only one or two Democrat “no” votes in the Senate.

However, when the Republicans became the majority party in both the Senate and House of the Tennessee General Assembly, all that bipartisanship opposition to illegal immigration went out the window.

No different than in DC, Tennessee Democrats have turned to fiercely protecting, rewarding and endorsing illegal immigration – and they are joined by some Tennessee “R”s.

In 2018, the General Assembly passed a strong anti-sanctuary city bill. To no great surprise, then Governor Haslam who campaigned as a hawk on illegal immigration, let it go into law without his signature.

That year, Hazlewood served on both the subcommittee and full committee of the House Finance, Ways & Means committee. She consistently sided with Democrats opposing the sanctuary city bill and actually tried to sideline the bill during the committee process.

But before the bill got to Hazlewood’s committee, it had to pass through the State Government committee chaired by Bob Ramsey where he chose to not vote for or against the bill. On the House  floor, Ramsey, who was definitely there, having voted to stop debate and got a final vote on the bill, again passed on voting to address the problem of criminal illegal aliens in Tennessee.

Biden has halted the deportation of criminal aliens, the same result of Hazlewood and Ramsey’s failure to vote in support of the anti-sanctuary city bill. 

Ramsey repeated the same pattern – voted on the motion for the previous question but failed to vote for SJR467, the joint Senate-House resolution authorizing the Tenth Amendment challenge to the federal refugee resettlement program.

The bills to award in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students

The next two worst GOP legislators on issues related to illegal immigration, are Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) and Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R- Chattanooga). These two legislators are responsible for the multiple bills filed between 2015 and 2018, trying to award in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students residing in Tennessee.

The first White-Gardenhire bill filed in 2015, HB675/SB612, failed to pass the House by a single vote since a 50-vote minimum is required by the state Constitution.

Hazlewood and Ramsey both voted for this bill, along with a bunch of other R’s, some of whom were re-elected this past November.

Rep. Pat Marsh (R-Shelbyville) also voted for this in-state tuition bill. In fact, he spoke passionately in support of it by openly insulting every U.S. citizen and legal immigrant student in his district. While glorifying the achievements of the students who would benefit from the White-Gardenhire bill, he conveniently ignored the fact that these students were living in Tennessee in violation of U.S. immigration law. Marsh said  – “I live in Bedford County and our schools are probably 25 percent immigrants there. We’re already paying for these students. I go into the local schools and see these immigrants in leadership roles in our schools. They’re the star athletes. They’re the star students. They deserve a chance to move forward in their lives …”

Marsh should have to answer to his county GOP for this vote and another more recent vote addressed below.

The three subsequent White-Gardenhire bills (HB660/SB635, HB863/SB104 and HB2429/SB2263), failed in their respective committees. On the last one, even with White abusing his sub-committee chairmanship, he could not strong-arm enough votes to get the bill all the way through the committee process.

In 2019, Hazlewood, Marsh and White (of the in-state tuition bills), voted with Democrats against HB1239/SB1165, a bill which modestly improved the Tennessee Lawful Employment Act (commonly referred to as “E-verify”). The Senate didn’t even bother to take up the bill in committee.

E-verify is a tool which helps stop illegal immigration by cutting off access to employment for illegal aliens. The other direct benefit of E-verify is that it “protects American workers by ensuring employers only hire individuals authorized to work in the United States.”

During the committee discussion, Rep. Mike Sparks (R- Smyrna) complained about the fines levied on employers who failed to follow the law.

There are plenty of Republicans in Congress who readily turn their backs on law-abiding Americans and all too willingly seek to cut deals that put their political interests before the interests of those they were elected to serve. Washington, DC appears to be beyond repair. The Tennessee General Assembly may still be salvaged – 2022 is not that far away.