Tag: Bill Lee

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Is Mark Green Conflating Illegal Aliens With Refugees?

It’s anybody’s best guess why Green’s explanation of his bill, H.R.3500, doesn’t match what he’s telling folks it’s supposed to do.

Green’s press release about his new bill, “Leads Fight to Block Refugee Resettlement Without State Consent” states in part:

“Last week, in the dead of night, unaccompanied migrant children were flown into Tennessee without our approval or consent. I am alarmed that the Biden Administration would use taxpayer resources to transport refugees into Tennessee without transparency or coordination with state authorities. This overreach and secrecy has to stop.”

In a recent interview with WRCBtv Chattanooga, Green said that he drafted the bill in response to what happened in Chattanooga and that “this bill would mandate permission of the state before they move illegal migrants to Tennessee.”

One really obvious problem is that U.S. law recognizes refugees as legal immigrants who enter the country with express permission of the U.S. government in conformance to specific criteria in U.S. law defining who is a refugee.

The “illegal migrants” Green refers to are Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) who are either dumped at the border by human traffickers or like 16-year old killer Edwin Mejia who was sent to his illegal alien brother in Tennessee, cross the border on their own.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) which refers to itself as Congress’ “think tank” writes, “[u]naccompanied alien children are statutorily defined as children who lack lawful immigration status in the United States, are under age 18, and lack a parent or legal guardian in the United States or a parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody.”

If the UAC is from a contiguous country, meaning Canada or Mexico and is not a victim of trafficking, Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) can send them back. If however, the UAC is from a non-contiguous country, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) takes custody. These UACs can apply for asylum or other relief like the Special Immigrant Juvenile Visa (SIJV) which allows them to remain in the U.S. and puts them on a path to citizenship.

Unlike refugees who are legally admissible to the U.S. before they arrive, UACs are subject to removal until and only if they end up with a legal immigration status.

Importantly, the transfer to ORR custody does not in any way convert the UAC into a refugee. In 2002, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act which did many things including moving custody of the UACs from the former Immigration & Naturalization Services to ORR. This change evolved from a series of lawsuits and consent decrees but did not magically make UACs refugees.

An April 2021 CRS paper notes that “[a]ccording to CBP data, almost all apprehended UAC originate from Mexico and the ‘Northern Triangle’ countries – Honduras, ElSalvador, and Guatemala” and that up until FY19 most UACs were coming from Mexico but then flipped to 86% coming from the Northern Triangle countries.

This is a very important data point relating to Green’s bill. Whether he realizes it or not, the way he explains his bill’s purpose is precisely what the Obama administration tried to do in 2014, with the Central American Minors (CAM) program to administratively expand U.S. law on refugees and create a refugee resettlement program for this group. Refugees and asylees must show persecution on account of membership in certain groups, such as nationality or race. The CAM program allowed the ill-defined “particular social group” category to be applicable for various new conditions, such as single motherhood. If it were to be applied system-wide to refugee resettlement it would represent the largest expansion of the definition of the term “refugee” ever seen in the history of the resettlement program. 

 As Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry said:

“I am pleased to announce that we have plans to expand the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in order to help vulnerable families and individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and offer them a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey that many are tempted to begin, making them at that instant easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits.”

Trump ended the CAM program in 2017. 

Looking at Obama’s attempt to expand who qualifies as a refugee, Center for Immigration Studies senior researcher Dr. Nayla Rush questioned whether Central American children even meet the legal definition of refugee. She makes the following points :

    • “the UN says most are not refugees” 
    • the Migration Policy Institute* appears to agree that – “…being forced to join a gang or experiencing violence do not generally qualify as a basis for refugee status or fall readily into one the the [U.S. law] refugee definition categories.”
    • out of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world in 2015 (excluding those undergoing a war), four are in the United States: St Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans.25 Latin America, it is true, remains far ahead, with 41 cities included in the ranking. But are children who flee gang violence in St. Louis, Baltimore, or the other American cities that made it into the top of the most dangerous cities chart ‘potential refugees’? No one would even think to make that claim. 

One of the problems with Obama’s CAM program was that the parent had to be in the U.S. legally to obtain the coveted refugee status for  their child in Central America. In fact, many of the parents in the CAM program are themselves illegal aliens. 

In her conclusion Rush lets the real genie out of the bottle – it’s the children who, if they obtain refugee status, offer the route through which parents and siblings may obtain legal status in the U.S.

The libertarian Niskanen Center think tank also acknowledges that UACs are ineligible for refugee status. They argue that UACs could get refugee status if U.S. law would expand to include forced conscription, gang recruitment and gender discrimination.

It is a very real possibility that the Biden administration will like Obama, use administrative actions to expand who qualifies as a refugee. This is precisely how the U.S. refugee admissions program under Obama created the resettlement program for the LGBT refugee. 

Green’s bill and his explanation of its purpose confuse UACs with refugees – precisely what Obama and the open border leftists want and the reason they categorize every illegal alien as a “refugee”. 

Even if Green is trying to “cleverly” pre-empt a move by the Biden administration to recreate an Obamaesque CAM program, the mandate that “States Have a Say” will fall on deaf ears for the majority of Republican governors who turned down President Trump’s refugee resettlement opt out in 2019.

 

The plain language of Green’s bill says it will amend 8 USC 1522 – the section of federal law that addresses refugee admissions and which by reference to another section of the code, defines the legal term “refugee” – a term which does not include Green’s “illegal migrants”.

Even assuming Green is relying on the language of Trump’s presidential determination on refugee admissions for FY2021, UACs would still have to meet specific criteria to qualify as a refugee.

All of the legal mumbo jumbo aside, what Tennessee taxpayers should really be concerned about with Green conflating UACs and  refugee resettlement, is the lessons learned from Tennessee’s 10th Amendment challenge to the federal resettlement program. The big take-aways simply put are:

    • upon arrival to the U.S. refugees are immediately able to access all forms of public assistance  on the same basis as U.S. citizens
    • refugees must adjust their status to legal permanent resident (green card) status at year one after admission
    • the federal government has admitted that it shifts the massive cost of this program to state governments
    • and, BILL LEE HAS PASSIONATELY DEFENDED BRINGING MORE REFUGEES TO TENNESSEE 

If one accepts Green’s explanation of his bill, then any objection voiced by Bill Lee to the UACs should be questioned. When Trump gave Lee the choice to say “no” to continued refugee resettlement in Tennessee, Lee abandoned the state’s sovereignty in favor of his personal agenda regarding refugees. Then when he was challenged on his decision, he doubled down and in contravention of Trump’s Executive Order, claimed he had the authority to consent to refugee resettlement for the entire state.

Tennessee’s Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House have decided to convene a joint study committee prompted by the delivery of UACs to the state. Lt. Gov. McNally’s office issued a press release about the joint study committee and seems to be the lone voice at this time that understands that refugees, migrants and immigrants are not all the same and have different immigration statuses.

As a first, they need to change the name of the study committee from the misnomered “Joint Study Committee on Refugee Issues” to the more accurate “Joint Study Committee on Refugees, Illegal Aliens, Migrants & Immigrants”.

And as seems to have become the norm, the news about what the Lee administration’s role in another mishandled and mangled state government function, is not good. It seems that another one of Lee’s departments may have facilitated the arrival of the UACs. Some reports suggest that Lee’s Department of Children’s Services knew and approved that the Chattanooga facility applying for a state license was “to provide housing, personal care, supervision and monitoring to up to 100 unaccompanied minor children . . . ideally up to 30 days, until they are reunited with a sponsor home or appear at an immigration hearing.”

Sounds just like the set-up to receive and care for UACs.

If this report is accurate, Lee put some big egg on the faces of every Tennessee U.S. and state elected official yelling for transparency.

At the very least, we can only hope that the new joint study committee looks to real experts in the field on these issues. As for Mark Green, he should take a cue from the Lt. Governor and get some help from experts like Dr. Rush and figure out what he’s really trying to do with his bill. 

For starters though, Green should stop advancing the idea that there is a legitimate connection between illegally entering UACs and refugees and would do well to recall the multiple documented instances when MS-13 gang members entered the U.S. as UACs and were then awarded with refugee status – here, here and here. This should be of paramount concern now that under Biden, USCIS will stop asking about gang-related information when evaluating adjustment to legal permanent resident, aka, the green card which UACs who are awarded either asylum or the SIJV status are eligible to apply for.

At the very least, Green’s voters should expect an informed discussion of the issue.

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*”The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is 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. Migration Policy Institute receives funding from a variety of left-of-center ideological funders, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.”

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Illegal Immigration Spread in Tennessee

It’s true that Tennessee’s illegal immigration problem is anchored in Davidson and Shelby counties. These blue urbans are run by “progressive”, ie, socialists who endorse Biden’s agenda to flood Southern states with legal immigrants like refugees and illegal aliens.

The most recent available numbers as of February 2020, from the data trackers show that among urban counties, Davidson was tracked to 5,355 removable illegal alien cases beating out Shelby county with 3,875 cases.

Removal proceedings happen in immigration courts and is an administrative process whereby an administrative law judge determines whether an illegal alien is deportable or for some reason, gets to stay.

It’s also true that the Tennessee General Assembly’s drift to center (the Senate may already have crossed the line to center-left), enabled by a Chamber of Commerce and refugee expansionist governor, willingly ignore the growing problem and cost of illegal immigrant numbers in the state.

costs calculated in 2017 – how much higher today?

Well surprise, surprise, or not, but illegal immigration has already spread to rural Tennessee. Bedford county was reported to have 477 individuals in removal proceedings and Sevier 951 cases.

The status of Bean Station’s (East Tennessee) illegal alien community is not entirely clear after the 2018 ICE raid at the Southeast Provision meat-packing plant. What was reported, however, was the community’s protectionist attitude to illegal immigration.

Aiding and abetting illegal immigrants to Tennessee, are well-funded groups like the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), Justice for Our Neighbors, Latino Memphis, Conexion Americas, La Paz (Chattanooga), and Centro Hispano (Knoxville) among others.

 

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TN State Funds Catholic Charities’ Infrastructure for Refugee Resettlement

In November 2020, Tennessee’s Department of Human Services used the state’s bloated TANF fund to award Catholic Charities of Tennessee (CCTN) a $7.3 million dollar grant. The money will be used to help Catholic Charities expand its operations in Middle Tennessee by establishing family resource centers in ten locations – Montgomery, Maury, Marshall, Bedford, Coffee Grundy, Warren, White, Dekalb and Putnam counties.

Family resource centers in Davidson County are staffed to assist individuals including refugees to access public benefits and services. In fact, one such center specializes in assisting refugees. Last year CCTN moved its South Nashville family resource center into the Conexion Americas Casa Asafran building. It now shares space with the Global Education Center and Metro Public Schools, the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC), and Justice For Our Neighbors (JFON), an organization which advocates for illegal alien “rights” including Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)* who are currently being transported and housed in Chattanooga.**

As part of their services, CCTN assists in connecting UACs dropped off at the border, to family members in Tennessee who may have also entered the U.S. in violation of immigration laws like the case of Edwin Mejia in Tennessee.

CCTN’s former State Refugee Coordinator Holly Johnson admitted that her agency helps link UACs to their family members in Tennessee. At the US Conference of Catholic Bishops level, taking custody of the UACs is the “doing well by doing good” business – over $23 million dollars in 2019, quite a haul considering that the UAC numbers were extremely low compared to what the Biden administration has unleashed.

Regarding the resettlement of refugees from overseas, it is no secret that Bill Lee is a passionate supporter  for spreading them throughout the state. He is joined in his support for the federal program by state Sen. Page Walley who works for an organization that makes money providing refugee resettlement services.

Over the years the refugee mileage placement rules have enabled CCTN to place refugees in many of the counties that the $7.3 million dollars in state money is now funding to help CCTN expand and set up more formal operations.

50-100 miles covers almost the whole state

CCTN’s executive director thanked Governor Lee and the DHS for their largesse in giving them the largest grant in the history of the organization assuming of course that the multi-millions received year after year from the federal government, is ignored.

CCTN wears several hats in Tennessee including operating as the State Refugee Coordinator (SRC) overseeing the federal contractors paid to bring refugees to the state. In 2008, then governor Phil Bredesen formally withdrew the state from the federal program after which the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement chose CCTN to continue the state’s refugee resettlement program.

Once Catholic Charities took over the program opening the TN Office for Refugees and employing the State Refugee Coordinator, the number of refugees being brought to the state increased by over 60% even as numbers were declining nationally.

CCTN’s state plan was to increase the number of agencies resettling refugees so they could increase the number of refugees being brought to Tennessee.This federal program has been a cash cow for CCTN and the federal contractors resettling refugees.

Government funding, in particular for work related to refugee resettlement, has dominated CCTN’s work. For example, the last available CCTN report, FY2015-16, shows just under $10 million dollars in refugee resettlement grants which come from the federal government.

The financial breakdown clearly showing the heavy dependence on refugee resettlement funds was available on CCTN’s website until 2018 – it has now been removed making the organization’s operations much less transparent.

However, according to the financials posted on the Tennessee Secretary of State website, CCTN’s budget appears to continue to be heavily dependent on government funding.

None of the resettlement contractors operating in Tennessee, including CCTN and the SRC, consult with or are accountable to the state legislature which is forced to expend state dollars to operationalize the refugee resettlement program.

For this reason alone there are reasonable and legitimate questions about why the Tennessee state government chose CCTN of all organizations, to infuse with big dollars. Asked another way, why hasn’t the state simply taken back the SRC function so the state can control the number of refugees brought to the state and the amount of state dollars used for the federal program?

On April 16th, Biden signed a memo intended to speed up the arrival of refugees but left Trump’s FY21 low cap in place – that was until the religious groups who need to fill their coffers, raised the roof. By the afternoon of the 16th, Biden caved and promised that by mid-May, the cap for the remainder of the fiscal year, would be raised to over 60,000.

Don’t be surprised if the enhanced vetting criteria put in place by Trump goes by the wayside. In 2016, after Obama announced that the U.S. would take 10,000 Syrian refugees, his administration “repeatedly shortened the timeframe” for vetting these refugees in order to get as close to that number as possible. So when refugee contractors claim that refugees are the most thoroughly vetted immigrants to the U.S…..

On thing is for certain – when the call comes that refugees are ready to come to Tennessee, CCTN will be ready!

 

*in line with the Biden administration’s unconstitutional rewrite of U.S. immigration law and erase the illegal immigration status of UACs, they are now referred to simply as “UC” – unaccompanied children.
**once UACs are released to sponsors in Tennessee, they are entitled to attend public school.

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Gov. Lee Wants Closer Ties to Communist China Despite Warnings

Even if Bill Lee chooses to ignore the Secretary of State and the U.S. Director of Intelligence, it doesn’t mean that our state legislators have to. Make sure to share this information with your state House and Senate members.

In February, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke at the February 2020 National Governors Association meeting and shared two pieces of cautionary information:

  • a Chinese government-backed think tank report has rated U.S. governors on their attitudes toward China and that “[m]any of you, indeed, in that report, are referenced by name.” 
  • that groups with seemingly benign names and objectives like the The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship in Foreign Countries, is actually “the public face of the Chinese Communist party’s official foreign influence agency, the United Front Work Department.”

This week, America’s Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, said that along with election interference and influence, China “poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation – economically, militarily and technologically.”

Consistent with Pompeo’s warning to governors, Ratcliffe emphasized that “[m]any of China‘s major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party.”

The 2013 Smithfield Foods sale to China proves their point about the very thin line between the communist Chinese government and so-called “private” Chinese companies. Shuanghui, the “private” Chinese enterprise which acquired Smithfield, had a much closer relationship to China’s communist government than Smithfield’s CEO claimed to know. A U.S. reporter investigating the sale wrote:

Despite its public listing in Hong Kong, Shuanghui answers to the Chinese government – going beyond regulatory compliance. It receives directives from Beijing, and it follows them… Here was conclusive proof. Robert Wan, son of Chairman Wan Long, confirmed this relationship to me…..The Chinese government acts like a de facto board of directors for the country’s domestic industries – even for publicly traded companies like Shuanghui. The Communist Party issues the five-year plan, and Shuanghui is expected to follow that direction.

In September, in response to media about the Tennessee session at the North American Chinese Investment Summit held in Beijing, Governor Lee indicated that the state was reviewing its policy regarding recruitment of investment in Tennessee from Chinese business owners.

On September 15, 2020, a Tennessee Government Operations Joint Subcommittee heard testimony from Economic & Community Development (ECD) Commissioner Bob Rolfe. During his testimony, Rolfe stated that regarding China and Tennessee’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) initiative, 40-plus companies operate in Tennessee representing approximately $600 million dollars invested in the state and employing about 6,000 Tennesseans.

These figures put China as the third largest FDI country doing business in Tennessee. According to Commissioner Rolfe, Tennessee was not doing business with China as a country but with private businesses from China. It’s not clear whether or even how the Commissioner has verified the status of these businesses.

The Department of Justice’s China Initiative has identified FDI as warranting a high level of transparency because of its potential to threaten U.S. infrastructure.

Rolfe also informed the Subcommittee that about $2 billion dollars annually of Tennessee goods are exported to China, while Tennessee imports approximately $28 billion dollars annually of goods made in China.

Common Core math applied to trade.

According to Rolfe, Bill Lee has asked ECD to “make sure Tennessee maintains its automotive ecosystem,” and that the state remain at the “forefront of recruiting any project related to electric vehicles.” Rolfe told the Subcommittee’s legislators that “most of this technology comes from private companies in China.”

Pompeo and Ratcliffe’s warnings suggest that on the economic front, Tennessee’s leadership is moving the state in a questionable direction. Moreover, these decisions do not account for the cultural and political inroads being made and championed by the Marxists and pro-Communist China Liberation Road agitators operating out of the Highlander Center near Knoxville.

Tennessee has already experienced at least two incidences, the latest in 2019, of Chinese nationals who became naturalized U.S. citizens being prosecuted for theft of trade secrets.

In February 2019, a grand jury indicted a U.S. naturalized Chinese national employed by the East Chemical company in Kingsport, Tennessee. She was working with a Chinese national living in China. Together, they conspired and almost successfully stole trade secrets owned by several companies estimated to have cost approximately $119,600,000 dollars to develop. This case also involved China’s Thousand Talents plan referenced by Secretary Pompeo in his address at the National Governors Association meeting. This Chinese program which helps harvest U.S. technology was implicated in the East Chemical case.

Three years earlier, a U.S. naturalized Chinese national attempted to steal Dupont/Chemours process for making the color white. At that time, the Chemours plant in New Johnsonville, Tennessee was one of the few Dupont plants making the color white using the trade secret which was almost stolen and exported back to China.

In both cases, despite being a U.S. naturalized citizen, the Chinese national went back to the communist Chinese government to make the trade secrets and intellectual property they attempted to steal available to government officials.

More recently, during the same month that Secretary Pompeo was warning governors about the potential of being hoodwinked when dealing with Chinese entities, a researcher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was indicted for wire fraud and making false statements about his affiliation with a Chinese university “while receiving funding from NASA.” Federal law prohibits NASA from funding projects in collaboration with China or Chinese universities. Concealing the information caused UTK to falsely certify its compliance with federal law.

The Lee administration should be held to account to Tennesseans for his administration’s decisions and actions regarding business with Chinese companies – even those they believe are private entities. The Lee administration should be required to share with Tennesseans fully vetted and reliable information that the Chinese companies neither act at the direction of or are accountable to the Chinese Communist Party.

Tennesseans have good reason to be concerned especially if Joe Biden successfully steals the election.

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Nashville Metro Council Goes All Out Police State For Masks

First it was Metro Council member Sharon Hurt who wanted to criminalize not wearing a mask. Her idea was that if someone was outside not wearing a mask and someone else catches COVID, the non-mask wearer might be subject to criminal charges of attempted murder.

The Council’s director of legislative affairs advised her that it’s the state legislature’s job to define and set penalties for crimes and criminal behavior.

At Tuesday’s Council meeting a “late-filed” ordinance was presented. Given the contents and objective of this bill, it’s more likely that it was not timely filed so as to avoid public pushback …. or maybe state pushback.

As of this writing, the ordinance, which passed on first reading, has not been posted to the Metro government website but it’s not too hard to guess who the sponsors might be. What is known is that power-grabber and illegal alien protectionist Council member Bob Mendes, is a co-sponsor. This is the same Bob Mendes who back in 2017, sponsored a bill that had it passed, would have made Nashville the most liberal sanctuary city in the country, ie, illegal aliens committing crimes would be protected from deportation.

Mendes is the prime architect and sponsor of the 34% property tax increase passed by the Metro Council. He is assembling a record to run for mayor or Congress.

This new bill would allow Metro employees from pretty much any department to issue citations to anyone not wearing a mask.

Talk about abusing power under the cover of COVID. It’s also about enforcing the edicts of Nashville’s mayoral tyrant so that his subjects behave according to the little man’s orders.

The more you look at the actions of Nashville mayor John Cooper and the Council, the more it looks like they are carrying water for the Biden-Harris ticket. While Nashville is not currently being lit on fire by BLM Marxists, Cooper is pretty much on par with comrade NYC’s DiBlasio in taking down a once economically thriving city despite Cooper permitting hookah bars and strip clubs to stay in business.

From the start of COVID in Tennessee, Bill Lee said Metro Nashville could do whatever it wanted to manage the public health issue. Cooper’s “management” has Metro Nashville losing an estimated $100 million dollars weekly.

Lee’s lack of leadership is also costing the state millions. Davidson County is pretty much the cash cow for the state’s different tax collections which ultimately effects all Tennessee taxpayers.

 

 

 

 

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Bill Lee’s Administration Joins BLM Culture War

The TN Council on Children and Youth (TCCY), its nine regional council members and anyone else that wants to participate, will access a free webinar on checking their white privilege.

The “free” webinar “Cultural Collisions” addressing “cultural competency” is being paid for by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS). This is the second webinar in a series on implicit bias and racial equity.

The third and final webinar is titled “Lets Talk Race.” The training objectives include “a safe and carefully led conversation about the history of slavery in the United States and its inevitable impact in present day”…and “the impact of racial constructs in legislation, policies, practices, and cultural identity.”

TDMHSAS Commissioner Marie Williams was originally appointed by Haslam and was reappointed by Bill Lee in January 2019.

The goal of “cultural competency” is to help white people understand and acknowledge their implicit biases across a wide range of issues which can include race, class, gender sexual orientation, sexual identity, religion, weight, discrimination and the mother of them all according to BLM, white privilege.

Last year, Williamson County teachers were shown a “Cultural Competency” video series as part of professional development, one of which addressed white privilege and how it causes “unintentional bias.”

The free webinar for Tennessee employees and TCCY council members addressing “cultural competency” includes free “CEUs” (continuing education units required to retain certain practice licenses), a sure draw for anyone needing the credits. Guest speaker Pastor Edward Palmer is a certified diversity trainer who has previously provided his course to Tennessee departments. He’s back for a repeat visit. Palmer’s focus area is juvenile justice systems.

Palmer and his wife co-pastor at The Sign of the Dove Church International located in Radcliff, Kentucky. From his bio:

“He is a Certified Diversity Trainer and works to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities within the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.  He most recently became a certified Racial and Ethnic Disparities Capstone Project Fellow through the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University.”

Palmer has a single entry on his blog, entitled, What is Race?

Race is a social construct used by some as an indicator of inferiority or superiority. Race as a social construct influences how individuals are perceived and treated by others and systems within society. Since as early as and even before the 1500s, the pseudoscientific idea that race defines who is less intelligent, less capable and of less value to humanity has been used to justify the violent, demeaning and harsh treatment of people on the bases of skin color….

 Because the consequences are real, race will continue to matter until we debunk and deconstruct the idea of race and the systems that have used this ideology to discriminate and depress people of the perceived minority group.

It is a laudable mission for resources to be directed to struggling and vulnerable children, young adults and their families. Successful interventions serve the larger community but the timing of this diversity training is highly suspect and too many actions are being justified under the COVID intervention umbrella.

The August TN Commission on Children and Youth (TCCY) newsletter includes the Commission’s statement on racial justice with the view that Tennessee is a racist state:

Another TCCY August newsletter focused on federal updates includes links to ultra-left Center for American Progress COVID information, the left-leaning Urban Institute which more often than not, pushes a progressive policy agenda, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which was a key funder of groups pushing Obamacare and has made grants to the Clinton Foundation.

To round it out, the TCCY federal update newsletter included a link to this anti-Trump piece put out by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, another group “widely regarded as being aligned with progressive and liberal positions.”

The TCCY is a state agency funded with public money and should not be using its access to state-wide employees to share its own overt political bias.

Richard Kennedy is the TCCY Executive Director and can be reached at (615) 741-2633 or tccy.info@tn.gov

Commissioner Marie Williams whose agency is paying for the cultural competency webinar series can be reached at 615) 532-6500, Marie.Williams@tn.gov

In 2012, AMAC activists trained DCS staff

 

 

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Do “Lee-vites” Have Voters’ Remorse Yet?

Refugee resettlement. Child wellness visits. Take your pick, Lee is neither a conservative nor a student of the U.S. or Tennessee Constitution.

First it was Lee’s failure to uphold Tennessee’s Tenth Amendment rights against the federal government forcing the state to pay for the refugee program even after the state had withdrawn.

Instead, Lee said he was committed to bringing more refugees to the state.

Even though he admitted he wasn’t a politician, he never disclosed during the campaign that he knows almost nothing about the U.S. and Tennessee Constitution. This only became known after he took office.

Lee’s proclamation to continue refugee resettlement violates the separation of powers since Lee can’t appropriate state dollars that are being used to pay for the federal program. Only the state legislature has the authority to do that.

Now Lee wants a “Child Wellbeing Task Force” to be put in place. And he’s having Penny Schwinn, TN Commissioner of Education to get guidelines written about how local school districts can come to your home and make sure your kids are okay.

“Goal: ALL Tennessee children will receive a wellbeing check. Purpose: Connect with each child to verify wellbeing and identify need. Expectation: It is encouraged that all children, birth to age 18, receive a wellbeing check.”

Get that ALL children.

And because school districts are all ready too busy trying to educate remotely, Lee’s “guidance” will allow for “third-parties (non-district employees)” to come to your home and evaluate whether your kids are okay.

And notice that well being check caseloads are to be “equitably” distributed among well being checkers. Just what you’d expect from California-bred Schwinn.

How much will this cost? What about interpreters? Will illegal aliens cooperate with the well-checkers for fear of being discovered? What about that little thing called government overreach?

Anyone else had enough of Bill Lee?

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Bill Lee Must Step Up and Help President Trump on Illegal Immigration

Last week Breitbart News reported that so far, four states – Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and South Dakota, have agreed to help the President’s effort to figure out the number of illegal aliens versus legal immigrants and American citizens who are living in the U.S.

These states have agreed to share driver license and state identification information with the Department of Commerce which tabulates and anonymizes the data per a directive from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

The administration had tried to get the citizenship question on the 2020 Census but was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“In response, Trump signed an executive order ordering the Department of Commerce to collect state and federal identification data to develop a fair count of the American citizen population.”

Nebraska officials were the first to voluntarily share their state’s information.

So far, it appears that Tennessee has not stepped forward to comply with the President’s executive order.

In light of the recent disclosure by Nashville’s “anti-police” Community Oversight Board, that 31,000 illegal aliens are living and working in Davidson County, it’s in the state’s best interest to provide the information requested by the President’s Executive Order.

It’s certainly possible that Governor Lee hasn’t learned about redistricting yet (remember, after he blind-sided the legislature’s leadership on his refugee resettlement consent he said he was still learning how to do his job?).

In case Governor Lee is in the dark on the subject, the relationship between the Census, illegal aliens, redistricting and electoral votes is pretty straightforward and Breitbart makes it strikingly clear:

“Currently, those lines and votes are apportioned using a population count that includes non-citizens who are not eligible to vote, giving more power in Congress and elections to regions with significant foreign-born populations. The Census estimates that by 2060, about one-in-six residents will have been born outside the U.S.”

Since non-citizens are not eligible to vote, taking their numbers out of the equation helps restore the integrity and benefits of being a legal American citizen.

There’s simply no excuse that Bill Lee can provide to not comply with the President’s Executive Order on this issue. Contact his office and ask him whether Tennessee will comply.

It’s also campaign time and this is one perfect question to ask your current or soon-to-be new state representative and senator. If they value you as a voter, they should be able to commit to seeing to it that Tennessee turn in its data.

 

 

 

 

 

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Why Are TN’s Elected Using Our Money to Pay For Our Demise?

It’s no surprise that Tennessee’s elected elitists sold out Tennessee conservatives to New York lefties.

Former governor and never-Trumper Bill Haslam handed over $20+ million of Tennessee taxpayer dollars to get Alliance Bernstein (AB), a NYC investment management and research firm, to move its new corporate headquarters to Tennessee.

The move of course was to Mayor David Briley’s leftist Nashville since no self-respecting NYC transplant could possibly live someplace that didn’t have a Starbucks on every corner, organic food markets, or the trendiest restaurants.

While Haslam couldn’t conceal the $20 million fast track grant, the actual total of tax incentives for the AB deal were not disclosed, but months later, the Nashville Metro Council added their own $3.68 million dollar incentive package to lock in the AB deal. Regardless of the dollar and social cost (to be discussed below), both Lamar and Corker couldn’t heap enough praise on Haslam for bringing in more Yankees who want the benefits of living in a no-state income tax state.

“”Moving our corporate headquarters here allows us to offer advantages to our employees that we simply couldn’t in the New York metro area,’” president and CEO Seth Bernstein, said during a press conference. He noted lower living expenses, taxes and housing costs, shorter commute times and a more modern work facility.” https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/alliancebernstein-is-moving-to-nashville-from-manhattan-to-save-money.html

Along with AB’s promise to create 1,000 jobs, they also promised to spread philanthropic dollars in the city they planned to call home.

How AB’s philanthropy is being spread around Nashville is hard to document. But what is known, is that AB Vice-President, Daniel Weisman is serving as a board member of the Nashville-based Equity Alliance.

Founded in 2016, The Equity Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, employs state-wide and community organizers, communications and operational managers along with two co-executive directors. This group organizes around issues of alleged police brutality, equity for people of color, and like every other far left group, maintains a 501(c)(4) arm which is working to vote Trump out of office and elect progressive socialists.

The Equity Alliance’s 501(c)(4), Equity Alliance Action Fund, is a member of the Nashville Justice League coalition (NJL) along with TIRRC Votes, the affiliate of (the Soros-funneled money) TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition which advocates for illegal aliens and legal immigrants like refugees, and the Central Labor Council of Nashville & Middle TN (AFL-CIO).

The NJL formed a PAC shortly before the August 2019 election for the Nashville Metro Council with the goal of moving the city council further left. The NJL’s true intentions were exposed in the July 2019 Liberation Road Newsletter. Liberation Road is the continuation of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). The name was changed to Liberation Road at the group’s national congress in April 2019. FRSO is well-seated in Tennessee; the co-director of the Highlander Research & Education Center, the socialist training school just outside of Knoxville, is a longstanding participant with the FRSO.

Given the NJL’s core mission there is no surprise about the candidates they endorsed.

For example, Bob Mendes and Colby Sledge were the council members who in 2017, introduced two bills that if passed, would have made Nashville the most liberal sanctuary city in the country. Sledge is married to Lindsey Harris who until very recently, was a co-director of TIRRC.

The NJL also endorsed Zulfat Suara who resigned her leadership of the TN American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC) to run for the Metro Council. From the comfort of her new $650,000 home, Suara served as one of Bernie Sanders’ three Tennessee campaign co-chairs. Under Suara’s leadership, AMAC joined forces with Linda Sarsour, one of the most vocal anti-Semites in the U.S., featuring Sarsour at different AMAC events. Sarsour served as “Bernie Sanders’s Anti-Semitic Surrogate”.

Kyontze Toombs, who serves as Secretary and General Counsel for the Equity Alliance was endorsed and won her Metro Council race so they now have a front row seat at the table.

Gicola Lane, another NJL endorsed, but losing candidate, was paid by Black Voters Matter as a campaign coordinator in getting the anti-police Community Oversight Board on the ballot and passed. This year she is an electoral justice fellow with the Movement for Black Lives, the policy setting umbrella organization.

The same co-director of the Highlander Education Center who is a long-standing participant with FRSO, is also a member of the policy table leadership team of the Movement for Black Lives.

As to Alliance Bernstein, it didn’t take long for the company which is ranked fifth among Nashville’s largest private employers, to try and use its economic weight to influence the Tennessee General Assembly’s work. In 2019, AB joined a chorus opposing several bills which they, Taylor Swift, Amazon, the Equality Project and the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce claimed discriminated against the LGBT community. Guess they don’t care about “Q.”

Tennessee politicians and their appointees continue to pour state taxpayer funds into Nashville. Between 2015 and 2020, the state has given Metro Nashville $99,581,919 in fast track economic development grants supporting more than 70 projects. Rewarding the out-of-control and irresponsible spending of the Nashville city government didn’t stop with the state’s FY2021 supposed COVID-driven austerity budget which directed $5 million to the San Fran on the Cumberland.

As to the can’t-figure-out-how-to-do-the-governor-job Bill Lee, he is blindly following along, thanking AB for its “ongoing commitment to Nashville and to our state.”

Is this really worth the price we will pay?

 

 

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Why Would a TN Republican Legislator Support Democrats’ Ballot Harvesting Bill?

Predictably, Shelby County Democrats Sen. Katrina Robinson and Rep. London Lamar, sponsored a ballot harvesting bill.

Their bill would allow a first-time registered voter to vote absentee.

Democrats in Tennessee have been trying different ways to undermine both the state’s voter ID law and the relatively narrow allowances for absentee voting.

It’s okay to stand in line to go to the grocery store and it’s even better to gather hundreds to protest and riot and risk COVID contamination, but never okay to stand in line and be socially distanced to vote.

As it is, both the voter ID law and the absentee mail in exemptions that are in effect, are easily circumvented.

On Tuesday, June 2nd, Sen. Robinson presented her bill in the Senate State & Local Government Committee chaired by Republican Sen. Steve Dickerson.

Dickerson and Democrat Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) were the only two votes in support of ballot harvesting.

Sadly, self-described conservative Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) couldn’t decide, so he passed. BTW, word is that Briggs was deeply involved, in fact deeply involved, in getting never-Trumper Democrat Eddie Mannis from Knoxville rebranded as a “bona fide” Republican so he can run in the primary for a Tennessee House seat against the actual Republican candidate Gina Oster.

Despite Briggs’ inability to vote against ballot harvesting, the bill failed because the committee’s other Republicans – Gardenhire, Jackson, Kelsey, Reeves, White, and Yager, voted against it. Kelsey deserves thanks from voters for his efforts in bringing down this bill.

In 2012, Dickerson campaigned as a “different Republican” and since being elected, he has worked hard to dilute any bill that remotely smacks of conservative principles. Instead, he supports a liberal Democrat agenda – the most recent being ballot harvesting.

Since being elected Dickerson has voted to give in-state tuition to illegal alien students, vote against the state’s Tenth Amendment lawsuit challenging the federal refugee resettlement program, and refused to support a bill that would help avoid using taxpayer money to fund elective abortions. He has worked to impair our Constitutional rights, siding with Democrats and sponsoring a red flag gun law.

“In 2016, [Dickerson] had the LOWEST rating at 57% from the American Conservative Union Foundation putting him even lower than the highest rated Democrat Senator at 75%” – but none of this stopped Bill Lee from donating to Dickerson’s campaign.

Dickerson remains the lowest rated Republican in the Tennessee legislature according to the ACUF ratings.

During two legislative sessions Dickerson has pushed creating an industry for medical marijuana which some say is the first step in legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Dickerson is also part owner of a pain management business and is being “sued by the federal government and Tennessee over alleged Medicare and TennCare fraud totaling at least $25 million.” Dickerson is alleged to have profited by about $6.5 million.

Of course he says he didn’t do anything wrong but the case has yet to be resolved.

Dickerson is up for re-election this year. Sadly he does not have a Republican primary opponent. There are, however, two Democrats in the primary, the winner of whom will challenge Dickerson for the seat. 

Combined with the lawsuit hanging over his head and a really lousy voting record, Dickerson is likely begging for the Governor and Lt. Governor to support his re-election even though he is the worst kind of “Republican.” He may be currying favor with the Governor by blocking SB2730 which is supposed to be in the committee he chairs. This is the bill that would prohibit Bill Lee from resettling refugees in Tennessee unless granted permission by the legislature.

Bill Lee and Steve Dickerson are aligned on the refugee issue. Bill Lee gave Dickerson campaign money even after Dickerson voted to give illegal alien students in-state tuition. Dickerson may be a “different kind of Republican” but he seems to be different enough to appeal to Bill Lee and other ignorant Republicans in his district. And shame on them all if they send Dickerson back to the Senate. After all, it’s no different than sending a liberal Democrat – so what’s really the difference?