The Biden-Harris administration worked with former Nashville Mayor John Cooper and non-profit organizations to move thousands of illegal immigrants from federal facilities in Louisiana to Nashville, according to internal emails and documents published Wednesday by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, whose office successfully sued to stop the practice.
A press release from the attorney general’s office reveals that the plan was enacted by officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with cooperation from Cooper’s office. However, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), as well as Governor Bill Lee, opposed it.
While Skrmetti’s lawsuit was successful in forcing ICE to abandon its plans, the press release revealed that more than 7,000 illegal immigrant detainees were released from the federal facility to unknown destinations before the plan was stopped.
Additionally, 30 of these illegal immigrants “were assigned ICE’s highest security-level threat,” while others had “criminal records, including homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, armed robbery, kidnapping, smuggling aliens, drug trafficking, burglary, and fraud.”
In a statement, Skrmetti said the lawsuit was proof the Biden-Harris administration is failing to uphold the key functions of government.
“The federal government’s single most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country and instead it has let killers and rapists illegally cross our border and walk free on our streets,” said Skrmetti. “While the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my Office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability.”
Emails exchanged between ICE officials and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) reveal the organization had extensive access to federal officials.
“I’m following up on whether your organization or partner(s) could be interested in supporting released noncitizens,” an ICE official wrote in an email to the executive director of TIRCC on December 6, 2022.
The executive director replied, “Would it be possible to meet at your offices tomorrow? I’m available to meet in the morning before 11 am?”
Subsequent emails confirm the meeting was promptly arranged by ICE staff and occurred on December 7, 2022.
Weeks later, emails suggest federal officials were not surprised to learn Lee did not approve of its plans.
While sending a Fox News article containing comments by Lee about the plans to release illegal immigrants in Tennessee, which was published following a meeting between ICE officials and the governor, one official wrote, “that didn’t take long.”
Another replied to the email, “In my opinion, the meeting we had went well and they appreciated us reaching out but they were opposed to any ICE releases.”
Lee later wrote about the plans in a thread posted to X, calling the now-abandoned plans “a threat to the safety of Tennesseans.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
So when will arrest warrants be issued for Coope for conspiring to violate the laws for aiding and abetting illegals in our countryr??? Also, Our state has been funding Catholic Charities for years and it needs to STOP.
this mess started with Karl Dean and you can bet that Fast Freddie is still doing everything he can to keep it goin.
Amazing how Cooper and the nonprofits (that rack in tons of our tax dollars) have no shrewd of integrity.
All fine and well however our state gave Catholic Charities 7.3 Million in late 2020 knowing that they are involved with bringing in illegal aliens especially children to Tennessee. And while refugees are not the same as illegal aliens Catholic Charities is the entity that the federal government uses to resettle refugees in Tennessee despite our state ending our official participation in the refugee program during the Bredesen admin. Our state legislature sued the federal government on 10th Amendment grounds during the Haslams administration over this issue and the 6th District Court told the legislature they did not have standing. Let’s not forget that Catholic Charities and other NGO’s that bring in illegal aliens have been allowed by our state to operate here . So glad we stopped 7,000 but how many have the Lee Admin funded and allowed to come here with state tax dollars and permission. Let’s not forget the state legislature passed and Lee signed legislation allowing illegal aliens to get professional licenses in 22. Fortunately Sen Roberts was able to get that repealed this pass session. Our state and Governor have to to a lot more to prove they are serious. Groveling before fed courts is nothing to brag about when your stare is being invaded with the assistance of the feds.
If Americas prayers are answered, and President Trump is reelected, we can then start the process of ridding out country of these free loaders. I am very confident that legal Americans would have no problem turning these people in.