“So what the governor’s letter is going to do is make Tennessee a magnet. Tennessee will be a magnet for refugees,” host Michael Patrick Leahy told listeners Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am.
Leahy: We’re talking about Bill Lee’s decision to welcome refugees here into the state of Tennessee even though the Tennessee General Assembly says we don’t want them. There’s a civil lawsuit to that effect. Silver Samuel tweets about Bill Lee, ” Yes, he’s a loser who parrots the Democrats’ narrative. He needs to stop wasting taxpayer money on a losing proposition.” Betsy good morning. You want to talk about refugees.
Betsy: Good morning. I just wanted to say if you’re talking about refugees. Catholic charities bring them in legally. Carol Swain talked about her church taking care of refugees. I’m just wondering because I didn’t get to hear the whole segment with Sexton yesterday. And I’m wondering what’s the plan for us to stop this? And thank you I’ll listen.
Leahy responded by stating,
OK, Betsy. That’s a very, very good question. And it leads into sort of the next step here on this. Actually the Catholic Charities are paid by the federal government to bring refugees here into Tennessee. And as we said, most of the ones that came in last year were from Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Which, by the way, is one of the highest burdens of tuberculosis in the world. I think just the highest. And Governor Lee didn’t talk about that. Now he wants to welcome all these refugees. Didn’t talk about the burden of TB countries which are countries of origin. Now as what can be done. That’s a very, very good question. And you have to get into the details of this.
I want to start out with a couple of things first. The executive order signed by the president said refugees can only come into a state and locality with the approval of the state and local governments. So Gov. Lee thumbing his nose at the general assembly here said as governor he wants them to come in even though the general assembly doesn’t.
So he sends a letter prematurely too. He didn’t need to send it. While undercutting the lawsuit that is currently pending in the federal courts filed by the entire Tennessee General Assembly but, the other aspect of this and this is the immediate action point that can be taken. First, there’s no reason why when it comes back into session in January that the Tennessee General Assembly couldn’t pass a resolution opposing Gov. Lee’s letter.
I think that ought of be the first order of business. And the reason is that a, the will of the people has been expressed through the legislation. They don’t want to pay for the refugees which they’re being forced to right now. Tenth Amendment violation. Secondly, despite his claims of the contrary has really thrown a curveball into this and hurts the state’s legitimate case against the federal government. Actively hurt the state with this pronouncement counter to what the Tennessee General Assembly wants to do.
That’s a. B, the other element of this executive order is the consent of local governments. And the local government has a burden here and the reason is that not only does the state pay cash and medical benefits and other benefits to the refugees.
The local governments have a burden, and that is teaching English to these refugees. Look at the ELL programs that are huge here in Nashville. I think there’s like 80 languages taught. That’s on the local taxpayers. So what the governor’s letter is going to do is making Tennessee a magnet. Tennessee will be a magnet for refugees.
Last fiscal school year there were 650. If you are one of these “non-profits”that makes money selling refugees, you’re going to go to Tennessee. Even though there are 18,000 in the country. They’re going to send a whole bunch of them here, probably 1,000-1,500 more because Tennsesse has become a magnet for refugees thanks to Gov. Lee. (Laughs)
But here’s the thing. What you can do Betsy and everyone. We’ve told you about this program. This program over time is going to lay out for you the kinds of things that you and the average everyday person can do to reassert your rights and to strengthen the constitutionally limited government in this country.
And the thing for you to do right now, wherever you live is going directly to your county commissioner and say, “I want you to introduce a resolution to oppose the resettlement of refugees in my county because we don’t have enough money to pay for the extra English language learning teachers in our local schools.” That’s a huge expense.
Every county in Tennessee is being forced by the governor to pay that extra money because he’s now made it a magnet for refugees. But if you go into your county commission and they pass such a resolution, under President Trump’s executive order, they can’t resettle there. Now, there are 95 counties.
If you are a listener right now in Wilson County, Williamson County, Rutherford County, Sumner County, Davidson County and other counties in Tennessee, the thing you should do right now, today is to call your county commissioner. I want you to introduce a resolution saying we don’t want any refugees in our county because it’s too much cost to local school districts to teach them all English. That is a fact. That is a fact.
Now, there are two left-leaning counties in the state. Davidson County here in Nashville. And Shelby County. Nashville is on the verge of bankruptcy, right? Justin Wilson state comptroller came in and said you’ve got to clean up your act or we’re going to take you into receivership. Last week, they had a plan. They said OK, we’ll accept that plan.
This letter that Bill Lee sent is going to put the city of Nashville in further financial jeopardy. Why? Because it’s going to make Tennessee a magnet for refugees, number one. Number two, where do the refugees go in Tennesee? About half go to the city of Nashville. OK? So, you’re going to see a ballooning of refugees in the city of Nashville from countries like Congo.
They don’t speak English there. There was some last year that came from Somalia and countries like that. Sudan. Those are actually still hotbeds of terrorism and they don’t speak English there. So there going to plop all these refugees mostly in downtown Nashville forcing local school districts.
The financially strapped school districts whose budget is approved by a Metro Council who doesn’t have any money anyway. They are going to increase the expenses there. And I think every Metro Council member and Mayor Cooper, if your listening, you should propose that until we know what the costs are of Gov. Lee’s welcoming all these refugees into the city of Nashville and the rest of Tennessee.
You should pass a resolution in the Metro Council saying until we have a cost structure we are opposing the resettlement of refugees in Nashville. It just makes economic sense, right? Now, Nashville we know is 65% left-wing lunatic liberal in terms of voters but even left-wing lunatic liberals know what the budget is. And they know they are on the verge of bankruptcy and this decision, this reckless financial decision by the governor is going to add to the expenses of an already broke city.
Listen to the full second hour:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Gov. Lee ran as a conservative and that is what got him elected. Now he is thumbing his nose at the general assembly and the Tax payers just like Congress is doing in washington. He is no different than the rest!
Tennessee became the No. 1 destination state amongst the grifters, drifters, medicaid fraudulent, , etc, when it first started Tenn Care back in the day. Then the federal courts started blocking any attempts to make medicaid in TN affordable. Those were bad times.
Doing the same thing over again and expecting different results is what some people call a definition of insanity.