Following reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are planning to bus an unknown number of illegal immigrants to Tennessee this week, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti released a statement condemning the federal government for the action and confirming that his office is “exploring all options” to administer the situation.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced earlier this week that his office was notified that “ICE facilities in New Orleans are scheduled to begin transporting an unknown number of single adult detainees to Tennessee this week to await court proceedings,” as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
The Attorney General's Office joins @GovBillLee and our federal delegation in demanding the administration abandon their plan to release detainees into our state.
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) December 20, 2022
Stating that his office learned of the federal government’s plan to bus illegal immigrants into Tennessee on Monday evening, Skrmetti added, “Tennesseans should not be forced to bear the burden of the federal government’s ongoing failure to secure the border.”
Skrmetti is joining Governor Bill Lee and Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) in calling on the Biden administration to reverse their plan for detainee relocation.”
“As a prosecutor, I saw first-hand the opportunities our porous border created for child sex traffickers. As Attorney General, I have seen how our porous border has allowed the opioid epidemic to metastasize into a fentanyl epidemic as Mexican factories turn Chinese chemicals into drugs that kill thousands of Americans. Every day that we fail to secure our border, we allow these terrible harms to continue,” Skrmetti added.
Skrmetti said, “We are exploring all options. The lack of appropriate notice and the lack of transparency by both the federal government and its local partners means we must work quickly, but we are committed to ensuring the safety of Tennessee’s citizens.”
On Wednesday, Senators Blackburn and Hagerty sent a letter to ICE expressing “deep concern” and requested that the department “provide more information” regarding the situation.
My fellow TN Senate GOP colleague, @MarshaBlackburn, & I sent a letter to @ICEGov expressing deep concern regarding ICE's plan to release an unspecified number of illegal immigrants into Tennessee. It's unacceptable that Biden has decided to impose his crisis on the people of TN. pic.twitter.com/zV83MtR1W1
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) December 21, 2022
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Billy and state legislators will only blather on, Skrmetti may file some-such-or-other-whatever that will take many months to be heard in a court with a liberal judge dismissing the the very idea of blocking the marxist administration
Nope.
Dealing with this criminal behavior will fall to the governors to enforce states rights against a tyrannical marxist federal government
Unfortunately our governor is weak and lacks vision
Now is the time for the State of Tennessee to push back on these federal encroachments. It’s not going to get any easier and the feds are going to push harder to strip we the people of our God given rights. Tennesseans will not tolerate a weak State government. Lines have been crossed, sides are being taken!
…and excellent opportunity to invoke the Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates in defense of State autonomy.
Send them back to California, Martha’s Vineyard, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave or Mexico.
Well if he’s serious about it maybe he could encourage the Tennessee General Assembly to repeal the bill they passed last session to give professional licenses to illegal aliens? Maybe he could encourage them to pass a serious everify bill. Maybe he suggest our state not license or fund organizations like Catholic Charities and others known to facilitate the settling of illegal aliens in Tennessee. And while he’s at it maybe he could take the lead among state AG’s challenging the Plyler v Doe decision that the USC forced on states in the 1980’s requiring states to cover the cost of educating illegal alien children. Just some ideas.
Wonderful recommendations. We all need to send these demands to our state legislators. Oue supposed government representatives – starting with Little Billy Lee, are as bad as the ones in the DC swamp when it comes to paying for and encouraging wetbacks to come to Tennessee.
Our elected officials better stand strong and do something or we the people will start eradicating the criminal varmint ourselves. We have had enough!
The only way to stop this will be the national guard with weapons greeting the buses.