Members of Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s staff would not say Wednesday whether Lee might cave to immigration activists and members of the religious left on letting more refugees into the state.
As reported earlier this week, Lee has to decide, per an executive order from President Donald Trump.
A large contingent of Tennessee Star readers said this week on our website and our Facebook page that they do not want Lee to allow more refugees in. Readers said if Lee did so that he would make himself a one-term governor.
We asked the governor’s office Wednesday whether Lee’s staff members had received emails and phone calls from constituents wanting to discuss the issue? And, if so, what were people saying? And what does Lee say to people who are pleading with him not to cave on this issue?
No one in Lee’s office responded to our request for comment before Wednesday’s deadline.
As reported, Trump issued an executive order in September that asked states and cities to consent in writing if they want to continue refugee resettlements.
Lee spokeswoman Laine Arnold told The Star Monday there are two different deadlines – one for framework and another for consent.
“The federal government is in the process of providing further guidance on this executive order. There is a 90-day window from when an executive order drops and when that framework is put in place. In this case, that puts the deadline for framework at the end of December,” Arnold said.
“The state’s deadline for consent is January 21. We will continue working with the federal government to determine the best outcome for Tennessee.”
According to Nashville Public Radio, states such as Virginia and Utah have already said yes.
But because Tennessee has yet to respond, members of refugee organizations, such as the Catholic Charities of Tennessee, reportedly the largest resettlement agency in the state, are lobbying Lee to consent, Nashville Public Radio reported.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Gov. Lee, no more refugees in Tennessee PERIOD
Un believable- yes, I wrote a message to Mt Lee. “Business outcomes” are more like what he’s interested on- cheap, foreign labor.
Maybe we should welcome with open arms industrious, educated and financially secure white refugees from South Africa who are having their ancestral lands and business enterprises appropriated from them, without compensation, on the basis of their race.
Likewise ethnically native refugees from Sweden, Nederlands, UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Spain who are being demographically displaced and discriminated against for adhering to Christian values and western social mores, and persecuted for practicing their Christian faith on their ancestral homelands.
In exchange, we will be happy to expatriate those existing refugees of ours who are turning Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Portland (Maine), and countless smaller communities all over the nation, into pockets of third world misery and strife. A few members of our own U.S. Congress come to mind that should lead the way. Catholic Charities, et al, can then petition the EU to fund their financial empires and globalist ambitions; just not here.
I didn’t vote for Lee so that he would cave to the Left.
I sure as heck contacted his office to tell them to shut down this destructive scam.
The wiggle words from the governor: “the best outcome for Tennessee.” Notice there’s no definition of the “best outcome.”
Is that the best outcome for the big businesses who want cheap labor subsidized by State benefits while all the rest of the Tennesseans pay for those benefits and endure a shortage of affordable housing, decaying infrastructure and a reduction of their own deserved benefits?
No more refugees!!!!