Category: Illegal Immigration

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Rep. Dennis Powers’ Pointless Resolution

You really can’t make this stuff up. Powers’ resolution HJR840 is a waste of time and paper. Legislators’ efforts would, without question, be better spent repealing the gratuitous Shane Reeves law which incentivizes Biden’s migrants and Obama’s DACAs – all of whom do not have any lawful immigration status, from settling in Tennessee.

Among the most inane parts of Powers’ resolution is recommending to Congress that to “combat illegal immigration”, they should pass a law that works like this:

(1) An illegal alien should be given a one-year grace period in which to order his or her affairs, leave the United States, and return to his or her country of lawful residence.
and then,
(2) If an illegal alien complies with these provisions, that person should be allowed to apply for legal readmission into the United States.

The first and most important question for Rep. Powers specifically is, who does he consider to be an “illegal alien”?

Last year Powers had his bill HB1247 in committee. The bill was intended to prohibit illegal aliens from living on state-owned property. During the March 29, 2023, committee hearing, a DACA recipient who, under federal immigration law has no lawful immigration status, complained to the committee that the bill would prohibit her from living in a state college dorm.

Rep. Rebecca Alexander who showed that she has swallowed the TIRRC kool-aid and knows nothing about DACA, asked, “so if you have DACA, then you are not considered illegal, is that correct?”

The TIRRC advocate responded that “DACA students currently have a legal status”. Except they don’t.

In fact, the U.S. Citizens & Immigration Services (USCIS) states clearly about DACA that, “deferred action does not confer lawful immigration status”.

Powers then made it clear that he wants to protect DACA recipients and any other illegal aliens who are “documented” and are here “legally”. Huh?

The rules and criteria required to be approved for the DACA two-year temporary deferral from deportation requires that they prove that they were in the U.S. with no lawful immigration status when Obama put the legally invalid DACA program in place.

DACA grantees are removable at any time and do not have any lawful immigration status under federal immigration law and Congress has not decided to give them any. They are by definition, illegal aliens.

This year Rep. Jake McCalmon has the House companion bill, HB2774, to Ferrell Haile’s bill on illegal immigration. That bill has a comprehensive and accurate definition of “illegal alien” based on immigration status and which specifically includes anyone granted deferred deportation which includes DACA.

Rebecca Alexander has signed on as a co-sponsor to McCalmon’s bill. Does she see herself coming and going?

The bumbling and fumbling that goes on with legislators when it comes to illegal immigration is simply pathetic.

So, regarding Powers’ HJR840, inquiring minds want to know, how are you finding these illegal aliens that you think should self-deport? Is there any time limit for living here in violation of the law, say like five years, ten years or more, that would disqualify them from legally re-entering the U.S.? Are you planning to create an exception for DACA?

Are you, Rep. Powers going to support Rep. McCalmon’s bill on illegal immigration even though it outs your protected DACA recipients as illegal aliens?

 

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Another TN GOP Immigration Bill That Does a lot of NOTHING

 

It may be that the only thing SB2158/HB2774 does is show how worried Ferrell Haile is about winning his primary election.

The fake conservative Haile has a strong primary opponent who has the added bonus of being endorsed by the proven conservative John Rich.

So because Haile has voted to reward illegal aliens with the state public benefits of in-state tuition (the 2015 bill that passed the Senate but failed in House by a single vote), and the more recent reward of commercial and professional licenses, he now has to pretend that he really is opposed to endorsing Biden’s agenda on illegal immigration.

Haile’s SB2158 is going to require all the state agencies which btw, are funded by the legislature’s appropriations, to tell the legislature how much illegal immigration costs the state.

Does this mean that the legislature plans to send Biden a bill?

But Haile’s real hypocrisy or the fact that he really doesn’t know squat when he votes on immigration related bills and just does follows the marching order from Randy McNally, Jack Johnson, the NFIB or the Chamber, is exposed in his new bill.

Haile’s new bill would add yet another definition of “illegal alien” to the Tennessee Code. The bill says:

(g) As used in this section: (1) “Illegal alien” means an alien as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 101(a)(3), who is present in the United States without lawful immigration status and therefore subject to removal pursuant to federal law. An alien granted parole under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5), temporary protected status, deferred action, deferred enforced departure, or similar exercise of administrative grace or prosecutorial discretion is not deemed to have lawful immigration status;

These are the very same “illegal alien[s]” that in 2022, Haile voted to give them state public benefits.

For example, “deferred action” in Haile’s definition applies to DACA recipients. The DACA and temporary protected status folks were the two groups of illegal aliens who Shane Reeves told the Senate were the intended beneficiaries of his 2022 commercial and professional licensing bill.

Never mind that Reeve’s bill, now law, rewards many other groups who have no lawful immigration status because his law applies to any illegal alien who has work authorization.

Haile’s definition of illegal alien also includes the migrants granted “parole” by the Biden administration’s gross abuse of the discretionary parole authority. In fact, Tennessee AG Skrmetti joined Tennessee to a multi-state lawsuit challenging Biden’s action to bring hundreds of thousands more illegal aliens into the U.S. using parole. https://klp.wnv.mybluehost.me/tn-ag-makes-weak-showing-in-multi-state-lawsuit-challenging-biden-new-parole-program/

What Haile and his cronies may not be prepared for though is the dollars and cents response likely to be generated by the very emboldened pro-illegal immigration groups in Tennessee. Just watch the response from TIRRC and their counterparts like Catholic Charities of TN which the legislature gifted with $7.3 million dollars to help them expand into new Tennessee territory. https://klp.wnv.mybluehost.me/tn-state-funds-catholic-charities-infrastructure-for-refugee-resettlement/

As far back as 2016, pro-legal and illegal advocacy groups like the Republican heavy Partnership for a New American Economy (later shorted to New American Economy), were churning out state reports to show how much money the legal immigrants and the “undocumented”, aka, migrants without lawful immigration status, were generating for state coffers.

For example, the 2016 NAE Tennessee report says that over 10,000 “undocumented entrepreneurs” generated $244.3 million dollars and overall in 2014, Tennessee’s “undocumented immigrants” earned $2.1 billion dollars, paying the tidy sum of $71.1 million dollars in state and local taxes, “leaving them with $1.8 B in spending power.”

Now of course this report says nothing about the remittance money that diverts a large portion of that discretionary cash. Has anyone’s state legislator ever mentioned the $625 million in 2020 and $748 million in 2021, that permanently left Tennessee’s economy in overseas remittances?

The American Immigration Council (AIC) which advocates for legalizing illegal aliens, issued its own report regarding “immigrants” in Tennessee. Their report claims that the subset of “undocumented” have paid $267.1 million in taxes with $104.2 million going to state and local taxes leaving these same households with $2.5 billion in spending power.

Of course what’s not clear from any of these reports is how much of the “spending power” is recycled public assistance which illegal aliens who have U.S. born children are able to access along with tax breaks like the child tax credit.

On the House side, freshman legislator Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) is carrying HB2774, the companion bill to Haile’s bill.

McCalmon’s bill has a bunch of co-sponsors including several, who, like Haile, voted in 2022, to give illegal aliens the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses. Just like Haile, House members Rebecca Alexander, Michele Carringer, Bud Hulsey, Iris Rudder and Clark Boyd, are now supporting a bill in which they effectively admit that the same groups they call out as “illegal aliens” and who they think cost the state money, are the very same ones they rewarded in 2022.

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OH (Ferrell) Haile NOOOOOOO!

Haile is another uber liberal Republican running for re-election to his state Senate seat. He should be sweating because he has an uber CONSERVATIVE  primary challenger in Chris Spencer who is endorsed by the uber CONSERVATIVE John Rich along with other known solid conservatives.

YAY, YAY, AND MORE YAY!

And Haile should be very worried because he cannot either hide, deny or justify his terrible, anti-conservative vote record.

Incentivizing illegal immigration and rewarding state public benefits to people who have no lawful immigration status – Ferrell Haile is as bad as the blue state governor of Massachusetts whose program of “tuition equity” will give college financial aid to illegal aliens or the GOP leadership in the U.S. Senate whose leaked draft border deal with the White House would continue releasing illegal border crossers, providing them with work permits and the continued abuse of granting parole which Tennessee AG Skrmetti has sued to stop.

Tennessee’s Haile is just as bad as his Senate comrade Becky Duncan Massey. 

Haile is just another uber liberal Republican who boasts about being “recognized with a perfect voting record for supporting small businesses by the National Federation of Independent Business organization.”

NFIB, along with the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce were among the lobbyists pushing the Shane Reeves bill awarding the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses for anyone with federal work authorization even if they have no lawful immigration status.

Haile’s “perfect [NFIB] voting record” included voting YES for SB2464, the bill signed into law by Bill Lee. This may be the single worst bill passed by Republicans which abets the disastrous and destructive immigration policies and practices of the Biden administration.

One year after Haile was crowned “champion of commerce” by the TN Chamber of Commerce, he voted YES for the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce supported bill (SB612), giving the state public benefit of in-state tuition to students without lawful immigration status.

Anti-parent vaccine bill – it gets even worse for Haile. In 2020, Haile answered some of Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection questions including this one:

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
His response – “Truth, honesty, and integrity”.

So “truth, honesty and integrity” must be the reason that Haile, as vice-chair of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, voted YES for the Richard Briggs HPV vaccine bill that would have authorized and expanded the options for healthcare providers to not just treat minors for STDs, but to provide “treatment to a minor to prevent STDs, without the knowledge or consent of the parents or legal guardians of the minor.”

The treatment to prevent STDs was exposed in the House to include giving the HPV vaccine to a minor without parental knowledge or consent.

Don’t for one minute forget that Becky Massey, another member of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, also voted for this bill.

This bill alone, should be the one the ends the political careers of both Massey and Haile.

All together now – Haile NO!

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Will Someone Please Run Against Shane Reeves?

And win.

No different than just about every would-be Tennessee politician who runs as a Republican, Reeves claimed to be a “conservative” and opposed to illegal immigration.

In fact, Reeves goes further on the illegal immigration issue as posted on his “Reeves State Senate” website, claiming that he is “fighting to stop illegal immigration in Tennessee.” https://www.reevesfortn.com/the-issues/

A worthy question for his voting constituents would be: how does sponsoring and passing legislation rewarding people who don’t have lawful immigration status (meaning they are illegal aliens under the controlling federal law as determined by Congress) with state issued commercial and professional licenses, help stop illegal immigration in Tennessee?

Worse yet, it sounds like Reeves knew that the Obama DACA beneficiaries who were the main target of his bill, have absolutely none, zero, nada, lawful immigration status. On the Senate floor, Reeves was asked whether people covered by his bill are here illegally. Not surprisingly, he side-stepped the question but admitted that the bill “does not change anyone’s immigration status”.

Then he pulled out the open border advocates’ favorite feint to the left to help confuse his colleagues and said that DACA recipients are “lawfully present”. Even the Biden administration has admitted that “lawful presence” for DACA recipients does not give them any lawful immigration status.

Almost a full year before Reeves decided to reward illegal aliens living in and/or arriving to Tennessee, a federal district court in Texas in a 70+ page, detailed opinion, ruled that the Obama DACA program was procedurally and substantively invalid and violates federal immigration law. After the ruling was affirmed by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Biden’s Dept. of Homeland Security issued a new rule on DACA.

The new rule was reported by the Center for Immigration Studies to be almost identical to the original Obama administration rule. More importantly, the new Biden rule stated unequivocally that lawful presence (used by Reeves to confuse his colleagues), is only a specialized term of art distinct from lawful status, that DACA recipients only have a temporary two-year grant of deferred deportation, remain inadmissible illegal aliens subject to removal, and are not considered lawfully present under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). From page 16 of the new Biden administration rule for DACA:

a noncitizen who has been granted deferred action is considered “lawfully present”—a specialized term of art that does not in any way confer “lawful status” or authorization to remain in the United States https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2022-18401.pdf

Reeves filed his illegal immigration reward bill as a caption bill to make sure that unsuspecting legislators and/or the voting public wouldn’t know what he was up to until it was too late. https://klp.wnv.mybluehost.me/tennessees-elected-gop-are-redefining-the-word-conservative/

Maybe he thought his constituents wouldn’t appreciate his campaign platform flip-flop? For sure though the NFIB (small business lobby) which lobbied this bill along with the TN Chamber of Commerce was probably thrilled that he fulfilled his commitment to them.

The secret no-parents-need-to-know-or-consent vaccine bill for minors

Given that Reeves apparently wasn’t concerned about transparency with his own bill, it didn’t stop him from voting for not one, but two bills which taken together, authorized dentists and other licensed healthcare providers to administer the HPV vaccine to minors without parental knowledge or consent. Once the intent of these bills became known (and the likely negative public reaction), bill sponsor Sen. Bill Powers added consent from the parent or legal guardian to his bill before a dentist could administer the vaccine.

Sen. Richard Briggs who sponsored the other bill which authorized certain licensed healthcare providers to give the HPV vaccine to a minor without consent from a parent or legal guardian was not changed to include consent. https://klp.wnv.mybluehost.me/tennessees-elected-gop-are-redefining-the-word-conservative/

Both bills were recommended for passage and scheduling to go to the Senate floor but never made it because they were both taken off notice in the House.

Both Briggs and Powers were co-sponsors of Reeves’ licenses for illegal aliens bill and Reeves as a member of the Senate Health Committee voted for both HPV bills.

During this last legislative session Reeves sponsored a bill to enlarge the scope of practice of pharmacists like himself. The bill, SB869, would essentially let pharmacists stand in place of a physician for purposes of prescribing certain types of medications if the pharmacist decides the person needs it.

Included in the expanded list constituting the “practice of pharmacy”, are “[a]gents for active immunization when prescribed for susceptible individuals who are six (6) years of age or older for the protection from communicable disease”.

Since the HPV bills were never passed, is it possible that Reeves’ expanded pharmacy practice bill is the new back door to make this happen? The bill is still pending in the Senate Health & Welfare Committee where Reeves serves as (the gender neutral) 2nd vice-chairperson.

Is this really the type of representation voters of District 14 want or deserve?

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Raising Money for a Revolution of Hate – Highlander Center – Part 8

It’s incredible how Marxists can raise millions of dollars by spewing hate. 

For the Highlander Center, hate is BIG business! Highlander’s latest available financial report boasts a 12% increase in income bringing their 20/21 fiscal year take to almost $5 million dollars and a total revenue of over $31 million dollars.

Amazingly, the IRS is waaaaay too busy to process 990 filings since 20/21 and the anti-capitalist Highlander Center is waaaaay too busy raking in the cash to post an annual report with updated financials since 20/21.

After all, it’s all about the Benjamins – right?

It’s truly ironic that the Highlander iconoclasts of capitalism don’t mind having the fruits of the system deposited in its bank account or adding it to their “investments” including their relatively new “Fund for the Highlander Education and Research Center”, which as of the 20/21 had assets of over $3 million.  Nor do they mind taking proceeds from the accumulated wealth of the Soros Open Society Foundations, the corrupt Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, or the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Not bad for a group of people that literally produce NOTHING and provide NO SERVICES. The “training” and “jobs” funded by Highlander institutionalize and exist to perpetuate hate – hate for white people, hate for traditional values, hate for the state, hate for the country, and absolute hate for the Constitution and the rule of law. And above all, hate for whitey. 

In June, Highlander co-director Ash-Lee Henderson made time in her busy hate-filled schedule to spend it with like-minded Marxist and domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers. In addition, Ayers and Ash-Lee share an active hatred of all things Israel and Jews.

Predictably, “Under the Tree: A Seminar on Freedom with Bill Ayers” podcast includes defunding the police, eliminating prisons and “armed agents of the state” and, an appearance by the “legendary activist Bernardine Dohrn”.

In case anyone may have forgotten, Ayers was a leader in the bomb-building Weather Underground. “Characterizing WU as “an American Red Army,” Ayers summed up the organization’s ideology as follows: ‘[k]ill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents.’ One of Ayers’ fellow WU leaders was Bernardine Dohrn, the woman who would later become his wife.”

You can read more on Discover the Networks about this sick twisted individual’s destructive fantasies:

“In his 2001 memoir Fugitive Days, Ayers recounts his life as a Sixties radical and boasts that he ‘participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972.’ Of the day he bombed the Pentagon, Ayers writes, ‘Everything was absolutely ideal…. The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.’ He further recalls his fascination with the fact that a ‘good bomb’ could render even ‘big buildings and wide streets … fragile and destructible,’ leaving behind a ‘majestic scene’ of utter destruction.”

“All told, Ayers and the Weather Underground were responsible for 30 bombings aimed at destroying the defense and security infrastructures of the U.S.  ‘I don’t regret setting bombs,’ said Ayers in 2001, ‘I feel we didn’t do enough.’ Contemplating whether or not he might again use bombs against the U.S. sometime in the future, he stated: ‘I can’t imagine entirely dismissing the possibility.'”

Ayers’ wife Dohrn and Weather Underground accomplice, became a lawyer and an organizer for the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), an organization seemingly at odds with protecting the liberties and freedom secured by the U.S. Constitution. More recently, the NLG student chapter at Stanford law school demonstrated that freedom of speech is reserved only to those with whom they agree.

Both Dohrn and Ayers eventually took positions in higher education; she at a law school, he at a university. They also had a relationship with Obama.

There is no doubt that Ash-Lee Henderson sees herself as carrying forward the desired destruction and anarchy desired by Ayers. Ash-Lee has turned the once former Highlander folk school into one of the most radical-destruction-seeking wealthy institutions in Tennessee. For those like Ash-Lee that idolize the likes of Ayers, “ends justifying the means” may well mean that “good trouble” and physical violence like that used by the BLM riots, is just the beginning.

Funding start-up groups to expand the reach of Highlander’s goals, training college students, serving as the “activist-in-residence” at Texas Prairie View A&M University, and indoctrinating children with the Highlander’s summer “Justice Camps” is how the Highlander’s Marxists-training will be the revolution’s army of today moving forward and perhaps even, the fulfillment of Ayer’s long-ago dream of “transforming” the U.S.

Just like Hitler said, “he alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”

No low is too low for Ash-Lee: bastardizing Martin Luther King’s beliefs are on the table

In 1957, Martin Luther King helped celebrate Highlander’s 25th anniversary by participating in a leadership training conference.

Eleven years later, MLK made two defining statements reflecting his position on Israel and Jews. In response to a student at Harvard in 1968 who attacked Zionism, MLK responded: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”

That same year, just ten days before he was assassinated, MLK joined in a conversation with the Jewish conservative organization called the Rabbinical Assembly at their 68th annual convention. In response to the question about Black-Jewish communal relations and antisemitic and anti-Israel activity within Black leadership, MLK said:

On the Middle East crisis, we have had various responses. The re­sponse of some of the so-called young militants again does not represent the position of the vast majority of Negroes. There are some who are color-consumed and they see a kind of mystique in being colored, and anything non-colored is condemned. We do not follow that course in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and certainly most of the organizations in the civil rights movement do not follow that course.

I think it is necessary to say that what is basic and what is needed in the Middle East is peace. Peace for Israel is one thing. Peace for the Arab side of that world is another thing. Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous ex­ ample of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.

In a 2002 oped, another civil rights icon, Rep. John Lewis, attested to MLK’s “special bond with Israel” and repeated MLK’s understanding that attacking Zionism does not give cover for antisemitism.

Fast forward to 2023, to see the panel “Reimagining King’s Vision”. One issues that unites at least three of the panelists is their anti-Zionist animus justified by a platform of black liberation which they claim includes Palestinians.

Or as MLK would see it, is simply their antisemitism.

  • Ash-Lee’s antisemitism has been detailed in Part 7.
  • CodePink founder Medea Benjamin, who at one time loved living in Castro’s Cuba, is sadly, among other things, a Jewish anti-Israel activist.
  • Tiffany Loftin from the NAACP keeps company with the likes of Ahmad Abuzinaid and Phillip Agnew (now named Umi Selah), both of whom are leaders in the Jew-hating business of BDS (boycott, divestment & sanctions against Israel the goal of which is to eliminate the state of Israel).
  • Rev. Liz Theoharis, a director of the Kairos Center is a compatriot of Rev. William Barber who has no love of what he calls white Christian nationalism and his own issues with Israel and Jews. Barber buddies with community agitator Justin Jones.

Southern Power Fund

Ash-Lee tells her comrades (her term of endearment), “organize the South to save the country.” She describes Highlander’s perspective of the South this way:

“We recognize white supremacy, capitalism, imperialism, and colonization as harmful systems that are designed to oppress and divide our communities for the sake of hoarding and maintaining power for the white, wealthy elite.”

Along with her Highlander co-director Allyn, Ash-Lee and representatives from pillar organizations are raising and spreading millions of Benjamins using the Southern Power Fund.

 According to the four anchor organizations – the Highlander Center, Southerners on New Ground (SONG), Project South and Alternate Routes, institutional philanthropy and funder practices “can often prop up white supremacist values and inhibit the very work we need right now”.

Included in “racist and white supremacist policies and actions” is any application of U.S. law that would obstruct the advance of illegal immigration and awarding immigration benefits to illegal aliens.

Highlander has a long-standing relationship with the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC). Both groups benefit from illegal immigration by increasing their constituencies. Never forget, however, that the mainstream/RINO/establishment Republicans also want the benefit of cheap foreign labor.  Simply look at the policies Tennessee’s weak-kneed and mushy-middle Republicans endorse regarding illegal immigration. Feeding the pipeline of comrades for Highlander’s revolution of hate?

BIG business for all!

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2 GOP State Legislator-Lawyers Want Illegal Aliens to Practice Law in TN

Last year 35 House and 15 Senate Republicans voted to help Democrats pass Republican Shane Reeves’ bill that makes illegal aliens with temporary federal (as in Biden administration) work authorization, eligible to obtain commercial and professional licenses. Helping to advance Biden’s agenda on illegal immigration, Tennessee Republicans have enabled illegal aliens to now become  licensed teachers, doctors, lawyers, plumbers, general contractors, etc.

Bill Lee of course, rushed to sign it into law.

Sen. John Stevens and Rep. Andrew Farmer, both of whom are lawyers, both voted for the Shane Reeves bill to reward illegal aliens with this state public benefit. It apparently didn’t matter to these two Republican lawyers that the illegal aliens they have rewarded, do not have lawful presence for purposes of getting state public benefits.

Surely they knew, being lawyers and all, that being granted work authorization by the federal government doesn’t change an illegal alien’s immigration status or make them somehow lawfully present in the U.S. for purposes of getting state public benefits.

While Sen. Reeves may not have understood that his target group of Obama’s DACA recipients are not lawfully present for purposes of getting state public benefits, how is it that two lawyer-legislators didn’t know this? Or did they know and chose anyway to vote in favor of rewarding DACA illegal aliens with a public benefit?

Regardless, the bill that Bill Lee signed into law applies to other illegal aliens with work authorization beyond DACA recipients.

Rep. Farmer is pretty soft when it comes to bills dealing with illegal immigration. Hypocritically, when one of the bills sponsored by Rep. Dan Howell dealing with the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) being smuggled into Tennessee was in the committee Farmer was chairing, and after Howell admitted that UACs have no lawful immigration status but lamented that his new child care license is “all that we can do” in the face of federal jurisdiction over immigration, Farmer reminded everyone that the federal government has “exclusive jurisdiction even though we are a sovereign state”.

But there is no federal mandate to give illegal aliens state public benefits like professional licenses. Farmer also voted YES in 2015, to give illegal aliens the state public benefit of in-state tuition; the bill failed by a single vote in the House.

While Stevens voted NO on the 2015 in-state tuition bill, he did vote YES on the UAC bill last year.

Word has it that a bill giving the public benefit of in-state tuition to illegal aliens may have enough support this year to finally pass. Reporting as of 2018, noted that at least five states that give illegal aliens in-state tuition also allow them to get a license to practice law.

Will Tennessee become state #6?

Regardless, Stevens and Farmer deserve to be asked why they want to help illegal aliens become licensed to practice law in Tennessee.

sen.john.stevens@capitol.tn.gov
rep.andrew.farmer@capitol.tn.gov

 

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TN AG Makes Weak Showing in Multi-State Lawsuit Challenging Biden New Parole Program

The real question is when will Tennessee’s new Attorney General turn his attention to how the legislature and governor are helping Biden violate U.S. immigration law?

On January 24, 2023, twenty states led by Texas, filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s new program to bring hundreds of thousands more illegal aliens into the U.S..

Tennessee is one of the states suing. The other nineteen states are Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Tennessee is represented in this lawsuit by the new Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.

These states are asking a federal court in Texas to “enjoin, declare unlawful and set aside the Department [of Homeland Security]’s lawless parole program.”

The parole program addressed by this lawsuit will allow up to an additional 30,000 aliens per month (or 360,000 per year) from Venezuela, Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, into the United States without explicit authorization from Congress.

Critically as it relates to Tennessee, migrants admitted under this this new illegal Biden program, will be automatically eligible to apply for work authorization and can stay in the United States for up to two years.”

The Shane Reeves “Workforce Expansion Act” passed by Republicans and Democrats and signed into law by Bill Lee, says that if you have work authorization, you are now eligible for commercial and professional licenses in Tennessee.

Tennessee Republicans have made work authorization the golden ticket for illegal aliens.

The lawsuit

The lawsuit document is structured with each state stating how the new program causes “substantial harm” to their state.  Tennessee’s portion begins on p.27 of the lawsuit in paragraph 124.

Eight of the supposedly “red” states, Tennessee included, use illegal alien population data from the Migration Policy Institute, a self-described non-partisan think tank whose funders include, the George Soros Open Society Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration & Refugee Services, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights, the Ford Foundation, the U.S. State Department, the Catholic League Immigration Network, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the JM Kaplan Fund, just to name a few.

Back in 2015, the JM Kaplan Fund paid $50,00 to help the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), produce a report titled Countering the Backlash, Strategies for Responding to Anti-Refugee and Xenophobic Activity from the New South. The $50,000 was funneled through the Migration Policy Institute.

Influence Watch describes the Migration Policy Institute as “a think tank that produces research and policy analysis advocating for permanent legal residence for undocumented immigrants in the United States and increased legal rights for migrants and refugees worldwide.”

MPI has also advocated that state and local governments need to provide better services for Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs), with an emphasis on legal representation to help ensure that illegal alien minors can stay in the U.S..

None of the twenty states that are suing use the relevant data from conservative immigration sources like FAIR or the Center for Immigration Studies.

Census-based estimates of illegal aliens living in Tennessee range from FAIR’s 162,000 (218,000 with their U.S. born children), as compared to MPI’s outdated 128,000.

In citing cost of public school education in Tennessee no mention is made directly about the annually escalating cost in the millions to teach English to non-English speaking students who may also be illiterate in their native language but the lawsuit does refer to the “approximately $46.7 million [expenditure] on healthcare coverage for undocumented immigrants in its CoverKids (CHIP) program”.

Bad proofreading? “Undocumented immigrants” is the left’s language.

As the lawsuit explains, Biden’s new parole program requires new illegal aliens to have a U.S.  “supporter” act as a sponsor. The lawsuit explains that “supporters” can include “individuals with Temporary Protected Status [TPS] and beneficiaries of deferred action (including DACA)”.

FAIR makes clear, that both TPS and DACA recipients “have not been granted ‘lawful status’. Rather, federal immigration authorities have acknowledged their unlawful presence and are opting to temporarily defer their removal from the country.”

This means that Biden’s new program would enable illegal aliens in Tennessee to sponsor bringing new illegal aliens to Tennessee.

Texas governor Abbott puts it simply – Biden’s new program is “flat-out contrary to federal law”. Tennessee’s “Workforce Expansion Act” is also contrary to federal law, and worse yet, abets Biden’s destructive immigration programs and policies.

Attorney General Skrmetti is taking on the new Biden program – any chance he’ll address what Tennessee lawmakers have done to his own state?

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TN GOP Lawmakers Help Biden Violate US immigration law

Republican state lawmakers like Rep. Mark White, Sen. Todd Gardenhire, Rep. Patsy Hazelwood, and others, have long been advocating for the interests of illegal aliens.

Not to be outdone, last year Tennessee’s pro-illegal-immigration lawmakers and enough Republicans including House caucus chairman Jeremy Faison, joined Democrats in advancing Biden’s agenda on illegal immigration by officially making federal work authorization the golden ticket for illegal aliens to settle in Tennessee.

GOP Sen. Shane Reeves and Democrat House member Bob Freeman convinced enough Republicans to help Democrats pass “The Workforce Expansion Act”. And of course, Bill Lee rushed to sign it into law. (consider that former Nebraska Republican governor Pete Ricketts recently appointed to take Ben Sasse’s seat in the U.S. Senate, vetoed a similar bill passed by his state legislature. Ricketts said it wasn’t fair to immigrants who followed the law to come to the U.S. Unfortunately, the foolish legislators overrode his veto).

The new law gives illegal aliens with federal work permits the public benefit of getting commercial and professional licenses.

In typical fashion, Tennessee’s lawmakers didn’t bother to consider the far-reaching implications of this new law or consider how it advances the left’s agenda on illegal immigration.

In fact, “The Workforce Expansion Act” rewards federal work permits being issued under a Biden immigration program that isn’t legal.

So using federal work authorization as “cover” to justify appeasing NFIB and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce no longer passes the smell test.

Tennessee’s new law directly abets Biden’s border program granting parole to Venezuelan, Ukranian, Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan migrants – a program which immigration experts note will continue to flood the country with “‘up to’” an additional 30,000 aliens per month (or 360,000 per year) into the United States without explicit authorization from Congress. Aliens paroled into the United States under these programs will be automatically eligible to apply for work authorization and can stay in the United States for up to two years.”

This program among others like Obama’s DACA program, violate U.S. immigration law meaning that illegal aliens are granted immigration benefits that Congress never authorized them to receive. Simply put, these groups of illegal aliens have no legal or lawful access to these benefits.

At the same time, GOP lawmakers focused on advancing the interests of Obama’s DACA grantees, have chosen to deliberately ignore the fact that these individuals also have no legal, Congressionally authorized immigration status. They are also ignoring the fact that in July 2021,  a Texas U.S. District Court ruled that the DACA program was procedurally and substantively invalid and in violation of U.S. immigration law. This ruling was affirmed by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

And yet, Tennessee’s state government voted to give the DACA illegal aliens a state public benefit.

It’s difficult to understand why Tennessee legislators support facilitating illegal immigration. In 2018, GOP Rep. Patsy Hazelwood tried to kill the anti-sanctuary city bill to protect crime committing illegal aliens from deportation and in 2015, Rep. Pat Marsh was glorifying illegal aliens as the “star athletes” and “star students” while he was voting to give them the public benefit of in-state tuition.

It remains to be seen when Rep. Mark White and Sen. Todd Gardenhire once again try to secure in-state tuition for illegal aliens. The big question on this issue is whether they will ignore another federal law that would require Tennessee to give in-state tuition to any U.S. citizen from any state if they give in-state tuition to illegal aliens. How would in-state tuition advocate former gubernatorial candidate now UT President Randy Boyd feel about the lost dollars?

When it serves their purposes Tennessee lawmakers defer to federal jurisdiction over immigration. But when they pass laws which gratuitously advance the interests of illegal aliens, they are effectively nullifying U.S. immigration laws. It’s bad enough that the Biden administration is doing everything in its power to side-step, over-ride and openly violate the immigration laws that are supposed to protect U.S. citizens, but why are Tennessee lawmakers helping Biden with that agenda?

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally who supports giving in-state tuition to illegal alien students is concerned that  “we’re headed for a downturn in the economy”. And yet, he voted to make Tennessee more attractive to the cheap foreign labor awarded with Biden’s work authorization instead of protecting jobs for Americans and legal immigrants.

Former Chairman of The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, U.S. Congressman Barbara Jordan, a black Democrat from Texas, better represents Tennessee voters concerned about the impact of illegal immigration, than the current Republican super-majority Tennessee General Assembly.

Jordan was known for looking at illegal immigration through the lens of the “national interest”. As Chairman Jordan told a House committee in 1994, “for immigration to continue to serve our national interest, it must be lawful. There are people who argue that some illegal aliens contribute to our community because they may work, pay taxes, send their children to our schools, and in all respects except one, obey the law. Let me be clear: that is not enough.”

When will GOP lawmakers step up and follow Barbara Jordan’s lead?

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Why is The Tennessee Conservative Giving Cover to the NON-Conservative TN Chapter of Americans for Prosperity?

Next week, The Tennessee Conservative will host its second Freedom Summit billed as “A Gathering of Tennessee’s Most Influential Conservatives in Media, Policy, Advocacy & Activism”. 

Brandon Lewis, founder of The Tennessee Conservative, will speak at the summit on “Corporatism Vs. Conservatism: Reclaiming the TNGOP”. Given the stated theme of the summit and in particular Lewis’ subject, it is ironic that a representative of the Koch-backed AFP whose immigration agenda is intended “to benefit big business and corporate interests”, will also be speaking at the summit.

AFP-TN state director Tori Venable, who was featured at last year’s summit, will be back again this year. Venable works for and represents the Koch-backed AFP. She also helps to promote the immigration agenda of AFP’s LIBRE Initiative.

It is at best confusing that AFP-TN is being lumped in with the state’s “most influential conservatives” since AFP goes to great lengths to NOT promote itself as a conservative organization. The reason AFP doesn’t promote itself as a conservative anything, is because it isn’t. Neither are its founders, largest funders or positions on critical issues like illegal and legal immigration. 

This year AFP’s Venable wears two hats in her listing – as a representative of AFP and something called the “conservative braintrust panel”. The term “braintrust” may be used to designate a pool or network of individuals with a specific talent or expertise. For sure, AFP-TN has a “talent” for hiding AFP’s agenda on illegal immigration from Tennessee conservatives – unless of course you remember Venable’s 2019 oped about finding “common ground” on illegal immigration.

AFP’s Illegal and Legal Immigration Agenda

It is reported that the bulk of AFP and the AFP Foundation’s backing come from personal foundations funded and controlled by billionaires Charles Koch and his late brother David who used to chair the AFP Foundation board. AFP Action PAC is also heavily financed with Koch money.

Keeping it all in the “family”, Mark Holden, general counsel and senior vice president of Koch Industries who now chairs the AFP Foundation Board, co-chaired with David for the two years preceding David’s death in 2019. 

AFP is a 501(c)(4) and the foundation is a 501(c)(3), which helps to shield its money sources.

While the Koch brothers were reputed to be fiscally conservative, David was a self-described “social liberal” who was pro-abortion. In 1980, David ran as a libertarian vice-presidential candidate promoting “full legalization of abortion”. The remaining Koch brother Charles appears to agree with his brother’s positions.

AFP characterizes its positions on legal and illegal immigration as intended to reform a broken immigration system. 

The Koch position on illegal immigration was initially centered around amnesty for illegal aliens granted DACA.  More recently, the Koch network which includes the Koch-funded LIBRE discussed below, “are cheering President Joe Biden’s automatic extension of work permits for border crossers and illegal aliens….Many of the work permit categories eligible for this auto-extension are earmarked for illegal aliens, including those who simply filled an asylum application that the government has yet to adjudicate and those with TPS”.

The illegal aliens with federal work permits which are being cheered by the Koch network, are now eligible for commercial and professional licenses under the new Tennessee law sponsored by Republican state senator Shane Reeves. The new Tennessee law advances the agenda promoted by AFP and LIBRE.

AFP-TN Venable’s 2019 oped urging Tennesseans to find “common ground” on immigration was co-authored with the president of LIBRE. AFP-TN’s silence on the Reeves bill and deliberate omission to score his “Workforce Expansion Act” seems like an almost deliberate effort to pretend that AFP-TN somehow stands apart from its parent organization’s policy and political objectives. It looks very much like the salaries of AFP-TN’s director and deputy director are paid by AFP and here, with additional support from Stand Together which will be discussed below.

Does anyone really believe that AFP-TN can disavow the AFP-LIBRE immigration agenda?

With regard to legal paths for immigration the Koch AFP, joined by the George W. Bush Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a coalition including Bethany Christian Services, is pushing Biden to expand mass immigration to the U.S.. 

Bethany Christian Services is a Tennessee licensed provider of adoption and foster care services and operates in five locations in the state. They maintain a contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement to receive and provide transitional foster care services to Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) who are typically smuggled across the border by family members who themselves are here in violation of immigration laws. A Bethany representative testified to last summer’s Joint Study Committee convened by the Tennessee General Assembly. Several committee members praised the work of Bethany despite the fact that their movement of UACs facilitates illegal immigration to Tennessee.

When the Koch network of “donor class organizations” talk about helping employers who are “struggling to find workers to fill jobs in many industries”, they are talking about cheap foreign labor regardless of whether it undercuts the U.S. working and middle class.

AFP has also made it clear that they will use their super PAC AFP-Action to endorse any candidate who supports AFP’s amnesty agenda. So, it is no coincidence that AFP-Action endorsed John Coryn from Texas and Thom Tillis from North Carolina, the two Senate Republicans who approached Democrats to resurrect discussions about amnesty for grantees of the illegal DACA program.

AFP-TN’s Venable also serves as an AFP-Action Senior Advisor who stumped for Marsha Blackburn in 2018.

AFP’s advocacy for illegal and legal immigration run through the veins and interlocking leadership of AFP, its sister organization LIBRE, it’s Uniting for Immigration Reform PAC and their Stand Together initiative.

The LIBRE Initiative

In 2011, Daniel Garza launched the LIBRE initiative with almost $10 million dollars from the Koch’s Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. LIBRE’s primary mission was to convert Latinos into Republican voters. Much like AFP, “[i]n an investigation [in 2015], ProPublica found that LIBRE not only receives millions of dollars of funding from the Koch network but appears to be controlled by it as well.”

As far back as 2013, LIBRE’s President Daniel Garza (who served in the Bush administration), has endorsed amnesty for DREAMERs, i.e., beneficiaries of Obama’s illegal DACA program.

LIBRE’s early “statement of principles” seeking legal status for children brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents required the parents to be working legally in the U.S.. The current revised LIBRE position focuses solely on advocating for ”permanent status” for “DREAMers” and those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). It no longer matters whether the parents or whoever may have transported the “DREAMer” to the U.S., is themself here legally.

In fact, in last year’s case in federal court where the DACA program was ruled “illegal”, and DACA grantees were acknowledged to be illegal aliens per federal immigration law, a document introduced by the U.S. government showed that half of the DACA grantees were visa overstayers and many DACA grantees entered the U.S. on their own. DACA only requires that the individual be at least 15 years old when they apply and have entered the U.S. before turning 16. According to FAIR, “the age range of eligible beneficiaries spans from 24 to 40 years old. No DACA recipient or DACA-eligible alien in 2021 is a minor.”

The “permanent status” that LIBRE and AFP want for illegal aliens typically means green card also referred to as legal permanent resident (LPR). Green card holders after a certain number of years, can typically become citizens.

As to the “undocumented population”, LIBRE wants a “permanent legislative solution” so that they can “come out of the shadows and get right with the law.”

According to LIBRE’s 501(c)(3) arm called the LIBRE Institute, it operates in ten states including North Carolina, a state which has struggled mightily with crimes committed by illegal aliens. 

LIBRE is talking amnesties for both groups of illegal aliens. Amnesty does not always mean citizenship, but rather, forgiving illegal immigration status and providing an immigration status that enables the otherwise illegal alien to remain in the U.S. without threat of deportation. 

AFP and AFP Foundation’s tax filings from 2017 through the last available 2019, lists Garza as Executive Director. This is the same Garza with whom AFP-TN’s Venable co-authored the oped on finding common ground on immigration.

Using a similar model to AFP-Action, Garza serves as Senior Advisor to The LIBRE Initiative Action. Tori Venable serves as an AFP-Action Senior Advisor.

Jorge Lima, AFP’s Senior VP of Policy, listed as such in AFP and AFP Foundation’s tax filings from 2017 through the last available 2019, was variously the Executive Director and Policy Director of LIBRE between 2013 and 2018.

LIBRE’s position on amnesties tracks the 2013, bipartisan Gang of 8 comprehensive immigration reform bill which included a blanket amnesty called “registered provisional immigrant status” for illegal aliens in the U.S.. Even the Congressional Budget office agreed that the bill gave amnesty to illegal aliens, and also reported that the G of 8 plan would barely make a dent in reducing future illegal immigration.

The Gang of 8 bill also incorporated the goals of the DREAM Act to amnesty illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before age 16, whether brought by parents at a young age or entering on their own.

To no great surprise, Tennessee’s globicans Corker and Alexander voted for it.

AFP- Backed “Stand Together” Initiative

In 2019, Charles Koch announced that he was reorganizing his variously funded entities to now be called “Stand Together”. One of the groups was the Seminar Network, “a network of nonprofits funded by Charles Koch and like-minded conservatives and libertarians who donate at least $100,000 annually to ‘help people improve their lives.’”

Along with many worthy issues affecting people’s lives such as encouraging businesses to hire formerly incarcerated individuals and help them restart their lives, the Seminar Network also tried to use its heft with Trump, to push amnesty for DACA.

In an effort to consolidate its influence, AFP put LIBRE and Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) under the AFP controlled “Stand Together”. Importantly, AFP reserved to itself, “all political and policy efforts of LIBRE and CVA.

This also means that wherever a state AFP chapter operates, so does LIBRE. AFP-Action and LIBRE Initiative Action also work together in state legislative races.

On the heels of this reorganization, AFP’s CEO and Senior Advisor for AFP-Action, issued a memo announcing four new super PACs that will “make contributions directly to candidates”. That way politicians seeking re-election and would-be politicians won’t be afraid of earning their AFP PAC money even if they make their constituents unhappy. 

The new PACs are, “Uniting for Economic Opportunity”, “Uniting for Free Expression”, “Uniting for Free Trade”, and “Uniting for Immigration Reform”.

Conclusion

While Tennesseans watch the General Assembly’s House chamber move toward the center and the Senate drift left, it makes it much more important for The Tennessee Conservative news outlet to remain credibly conservative. Featuring AFP and worse still, promoting AFP as a conservative organization, raises legitimate credibility questions.

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Tennessee’s Elected GOP Are Redefining the Word “Conservative”

Too many of the Tennessee General Assembly’s GOP are redefining the “conservative” label similar to how leftists have changed the definition of terms like “woman”, “recession”, and “illegal alien.”  

Three bills from the 2022 legislative session, one of which became law, leave little doubt that “what is to be conserved”, is instead, being trashed.

First is the professional and commercial licensing bill for illegal aliens (SB2464/HB2309), which was sponsored by Senator Shane Reeves who has characterized his bill as “consistent with conservative principles” and as a “conservative immigration and poverty solution”.  

Second is one of the HPV vaccine bills (SB2026/HB2032) which was sponsored by Senator Bill Powers whose campaign website promised that he would “use common sense and conservative values to make our state even greater.”

Note:  HPV stands for human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease which can cause genital warts and certain genital and cervical cancers. The CDC advises that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection. 

Third is the other HPV vaccine bill (SB148/HB946) sponsored by Senator Dr. Richard Briggs, who is promoting himself as a conservative in his recent facebook campaign ad. 

Each of these bills began as caption bills and all three were championed by a significant number of Republicans.

Backgound: what is a caption bill?

The Legislature’s website defines “caption” as a “[b]rief description of a bill’s contents appearing on a bill and the bill’s jacket. A bill’s content cannot be any broader than its caption.”

The critical part of the caption is the reference to the part of the state code to be amended. Whatever content is filled in below this heading often doesn’t relate to the language filed later as the “amendment to rewrite the bill”. This new language presented to a committee is what is intended to be the substance of the bill.

The problem for those who value transparency in government operations is that the amendment which “rewrites the bill”, i.e., the actual language of the bill, is not available for public review until after this amendment is adopted by the committee and subsequently posted on the legislature’s website.

This was precisely the case with all three bills referenced above. Each bill used bogus language such as filing or not filing an annual report or changing the number of days from 30 to 45.

Sometimes caption bills help legislators meet the bill filing deadline as a placeholder while bill language is still in process. Strategically using caption bills, however, to conceal a bill’s controversial subject-matter has been a long-standing practice by legislators. The caption bill satisfies the bill filing deadline and can shield the sponsor and their intended bill from potential bill-killing push-back. It also provides legislators time to gather support from their colleagues.

With this background and technical details addressed, consider the three following bills.  

The Reeves licensing bill for illegal aliens

Senator Reeves’ illegal alien benefit caption bill stated:         

Once the amendment to “rewrite the bill” was introduced and adopted by the committee, individuals with illegal immigration status who have a temporary federal work permit, were deemed eligible for the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses. 

Individuals with illegal immigration status who choose to make Tennessee their home can now apply for business licenses and become, for example, licensed teachers and lawyers.

Along with all Democrats present, 35 House and 15 Senate Republicans voted to pass this bill. 

The Briggs and Powers HPV vaccine bills

Senators Briggs and Powers’ HPV vaccine caption bills stated:

Once the amendment to rewrite each bill was filed and introduced in committee, these bills taken together authorized dentists and other licensed healthcare providers to administer the HPV vaccine to minors without parental knowledge or consent. Once the intent of these bills became known (and the likely negative public reaction), Powers added consent from the parent or legal guardian to his bill before a dentist could administer the vaccine. 

The Briggs bill, however, authorizing certain licensed healthcare providers to give the HPV vaccine to a minor without consent from a parent or legal guardian was not changed.

Both bills passed the Senate Health Committee. Both bills passed the House Health subcommittee but were ultimately stopped from moving forward by the House bill sponsor, ie, “taken off notice”.

Both Briggs and Powers were co-sponsors of Reeves’ licensing bill and Reeves as a member of the Senate Health Committee voted for both HPV bills.

As to the HPV vaccine bills, do generally understood conservative values which Senator Powers promised would guide him, support the state invading a parent’s right to manage their child’s healthcare? Does a self-described conservative like Senator Briggs believe it is good statecraft to give healthcare providers greater rights than parents or legal guardians, to make certain healthcare decisions for minors? Regarding the licensing bill, does Senator Reeves believe that it is a conservative principle or “solution” to ignore the law and reward illegal immigration? 

When GOP legislators Richard Briggs calls himself a conservative and Bill Powers and Shane Reeves sell their bills as reflecting some element of conservative thinking, they seem to have another definition of “conservative” from the one I and many other Tennesseans share. These legislators need to find a different word to justify their actions because I’m not giving up my conservative principles and values.