Next time you eat food prepared by a Conexion Americas culinary entrepreneur, thank Randy Boyd for his $250,000 donation that helped expand the kitchen incubator program. When asked about his donation during a radio interview , Boyd gushed, “I’m all about supporting entrepreneurs and creating spaces for entrepreneurs.”
The Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE), of which Boyd is a named member, last year issued a Tennessee report estimating that approximately 10,612 “undocumented entrepreneurs” in the state have started businesses:
Large numbers of undocumented immigrants in Tennessee have also managed to overcome licensing and financing obstacles to start small businesses. In 2014, an estimated 10.3 percent of the state’s working-age undocumented immigrants were selfemployed — meaning Tennessee was the unique state where unauthorized immigrants boasted higher rates of entrepreneurship than either legal permanent residents or immigrant citizens of the same age group. Almost 11,000 undocumented immigrants in Tennessee were self-employed in 2014, many providing jobs and economic opportunities to others in their community. Undocumented entrepreneurs in the state also earned an estimated $244.3 million in business income that year.
Boyd’s donation to Conexion Americas which renamed the space to “Conexion Americas Mesa Komal Kitchen & The Randy and Jenny Boyd Culinary Incubator,” reflects an alignment with the PNAE’s approach to legal immigrants and illegal aliens.
During his radio interview, Boyd inferred that he is okay with illegal aliens using the culinary incubator to start businesses when he compared it to policing dog parks:
We in Knox County can’t be policing our dog parks and make sure that only the people we think should use them use them.
Conexion’s co-founder and director, Renata Soto, confirmed that the immigration status of its kitchen entrepreneurs, is not relevant even though her Nashville organization provides services and advocacy for illegal aliens, consistent with the positions and goals of the National Council of La Raza (La Raza), an organization she currently leads as chairman of the board and of which Conexion is a named affiliate.
The PNAE report does not explain how illegal aliens in Tennessee get around licensing requirements and financing needs for business start-ups. However, stories of illegal aliens “making up a social security number” or using fake documents like forged green cards are not uncommon. A 2012 prosecution exposed the sale by a Tennessee DMV supervisor of state licenses and identification cards for resale to illegal aliens.
But federal tax identification numbers legally obtainable by illegal aliens can also get them a Tennessee business license.
Using documents like a birth certificate or a foreign identification document like a passport, illegal aliens can apply for a tax processing number called an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) issued by the IRS to foreign nationals who do not have, or are not eligible to obtain a social security number.
An ITIN can be a valuable identifier to an illegal alien. In addition to paying taxes, it can be used to open a bank account, establish length of residency in the U.S., (useful in case an amnesty bill gets passed), and apply for certain federal cash programs like the Child Tax credit. Â For illegal alien entrepreneurs, the ITIN can be used to apply for a federal Employer Identification Number needed by most businesses to apply for a license in Tennessee.
As part of its entrepreneurship program, Conexion Americas offers “Negocio Próspero (Prosperous Business),” a Spanish language class for aspiring small business owners. In 2014, Conexion’s “Open Doors” class reached out to holders of an ITIN to help them buy a home with a loan secured through Conexion’s partnership with The Housing Fund.
[…] in Conexion’s Casa Azafran community center for pre-K classrooms, Randy Boyd and his wife donated $250,000 to expand the commercial kitchen in the same […]
[…] Council, and the Financial Empowerment Center are located. It is the same building where the “Randy & Jenny Boyd Culinary Incubator” was created with the Boyds’ quarter of a million dollar […]
[…] with PNAE’s Tennessee report, Boyd’s donation to Conexion Americas also helped illegal aliens in Tennessee secure […]
[…] Boyd and his wife made the $250,000 donation to her Nashville organization Conexion Americas which serves legal immigrants and illegal aliens. The same month Boyd was gifting money to Soto’s organization, he founded his education […]
[…] support for Soto’s organization which serves legal immigrants and illegal aliens and Soto’s leadership with La Raza, has earned Boyd the nickname “La Raza […]
[…] has used his philanthropy to help expand an entrepreneurship program whose services are available to illegal […]
So why have laws at all? Why do we still have a police force, lawyers or judges? If they don’t have to follow the law and instead are rewarded by breaking the law, why do i, or anyone else, have to follow the law?
Well, that’s real cozy! La Raza Randy and the Board chair of his favorite non-profit, La Raza (the Race), Renata Soto, have teamed up to make sure that it’s all smooth sailing for the illegal aliens to start businesses and buy homes through Conexion Americas. Bet some poor black and white Nashville citizens would like some help too.
These two run with the big money men like $oros, and the well funded leftist orgs like the Tides Foundation, to keep their identity politics well greased.
Hate to break it to you two kids, but identity politics is a racist concept. Making decisions on the basis of race, like La Raza does, is bigoted and hateful and offensive to the rest of us, especially those immigrants who obeyed the law to come here.
La Raza is a big project for Megan Berry