The lawsuit filed by two illegal aliens challenging Tennessee’s law making it a state offense to remain in the state in defiance of a final federal deportation order is unlikely to succeed and may not even survive initial procedural hurdles, according to The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter Tom Pappert.
During an appearance Thursday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert said the threshold issue before the court may be whether the plaintiffs can proceed with their claims at all, arguing that the fact both have remained in the United States illegally for roughly two decades despite final deportation orders makes the case difficult to justify.
“I don’t think this has a lot of chance to succeed. In fact, I think the real question is going to be, does this have a procedural hurdle before the arguments themselves are even considered? Because the simple idea of two people that have been in our country illegally for somewhere around 26 years… it seems bizarre and absurd… that these two people are suing the state of Tennessee in the first place. That does not seem like something that should happen. It seems like if you’ve been breaking the law for 26 years, I don’t know, you shouldn’t be allowed into the civil court system,” Pappert said.
Pappert made the remarks while discussing the recently refiled lawsuit brought by two pseudonymous plaintiffs, “Lucy” and “Benjamin,” who acknowledge they have remained in the United States despite final federal deportation orders that have been in effect since 2006.
Pappert explained that the lawsuit is the second challenge filed against Tennessee’s new law after U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson dismissed the original complaint in June for lack of standing.
“This is actually the second iteration of the lawsuit. It was filed earlier this year over Tennessee’s new law which makes it a state-level offense to remain in Tennessee in defiance of a federal final deportation order,” Pappert said.
According to Pappert, the newly filed complaint attempts to address the deficiencies identified by Richardson by including additional details about the plaintiffs’ immigration histories.
“According to Judge Eli Richardson, Trump-appointed judge, he dismissed their first lawsuit in June stating that they failed to state that they have a standing. They never determined how they would be impacted by this new law,” Pappert said.
Pappert said the revised filing reveals that “Lucy” entered the United States on a visitor’s visa in 2000 before overstaying her visa and ultimately receiving a final deportation order after unsuccessfully appealing her case through the federal immigration system.
“Lucy specifically admits to entering the United States on a tourist visa, a visitor’s visa, all the way back in the year 2000… Lucy was ordered deported for the first time in 2003. She went through the appeals process… She was denied. She went to the Sixth Court of Appeals. She also was denied, and yet she remained in the country. Since 2006, this order has been effective, so for 20 years, two solid decades, Lucy has remained in the country in defiance of our laws,” Pappert said.
He added that the second plaintiff, “Benjamin,” has a nearly identical immigration history.
“The same is true for Benjamin, who the filing states entered the country as a very young child sometime… we know that he was deported, his entire family was ordered deported, I should say, as with Lucy in 2003. They went through the appeals process. By 2006, the final order of deportation was final, and yet they have remained in the country for 20 years,” Pappert said.
Pappert also noted that one of Lucy’s sons was recently deported under the same immigration case.
“Lucy, in fact, has remained even after the Trump administration recently deported another of her sons. Some of her sons are U.S. citizens. One was just deported, though, as a result of the same case that resulted in her final deportation order,” he said.
Discussing the legal arguments, Pappert said the plaintiffs contend Tennessee’s law violates the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause by creating what amounts to a state immigration enforcement system alongside the federal government.
“The claim… is that because they are in fact illegal aliens who could be deported at any minute by the Trump administration, it is prejudicial to them for Tennessee law enforcement to be able to enforce a law regarding their federal deportation orders. And they actually argue this is a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, and that Tennessee is stepping on the federal government’s toes by attempting to help it enforce the law,” Pappert said.
Asked who is financing the litigation, Pappert said the lawsuit currently appears to be backed by organizations based in Memphis.
“Now it seems to be a collection of organizations based in Memphis, Memphis nonprofits that are backing this one. I expect, though, if this gets any traction, we’re going to see the usual suspects, the major left-wing law firms jump at the opportunity to make this more than just a Memphis-area affair,” he said.
While acknowledging the constitutional argument being advanced by the plaintiffs, Pappert questioned whether it would persuade Richardson.
“The argument is that Tennessee has created its own immigration system in addition to the federal system by making it a law that you cannot be in the state in defiance of a federal deportation order. And so because this is now a state-level immigration system, Tennessee is violating the Constitution. I could see perhaps an Obama or… a Biden-appointed judge going with this. I’m not so sure with Richardson,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Deportation orders should come with immediate detention and forced deportation. Why does anyone believe that these illegals will leave on their own?