Knoxville Democratic Mayor Madeline Anne Rogero is one of 90 U.S. mayors who have pleaded with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to allow the country to take in more refugees.
Rogero signed a letter making her case alongside other mayors including Bill de Blasio of New York City, Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, and LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans, among many others.
No other Tennessee mayors, including Democratic Mayor John Cooper of Nashville, signed the letter.
“Mayors across the nation recognize the many contributions refugees make to their cities and to our nation as a whole. They strengthen our economy and enhance our culture. We write to urge the Administration to rescind the September 26 executive order and return this year’s refugee admissions to previous annual levels,” Rogero and the other mayors said in the letter.
“For years, the United States has been a world leader in welcoming people who have fled violence and persecution and are seeking a safe place to call home. Since our refugee admissions program was established nearly 40 years ago, most administrations have recognized the global need for resettlement and determined the yearly admissions ceiling in consultation with Congress to fulfill the U.S. commitment.”
The mayors went on to say that “U.S. cities have long benefited from the annual arrival of refugees.”
“Once they are resettled, refugees learn the new language, adjust to the different culture, and strive to establish a new life. In the process, they also enrich and bring cultural vibrancy and diversity to their local communities,” the mayors said.
“Refugees contribute meaningfully to our economy as earners and taxpayers. While they receive initial assistance upon arriving in the United States, they see significant income increases in subsequent years. Their entrepreneurship rate is greater than that of other immigrants, as are their long-term investments in the country, including founding companies, earning citizenship, and buying homes.”
As The Tennessee Star reported last week, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee is currently trying to decide whether the state will continue to allow refugees to resettle in the state, per an executive order from President Donald Trump.
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 Tennessee Star 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.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mayor Anne Rogero” and “Knoxville” by the City of Knoxville.
Mayor,
How about taking care of the homeless AMERICANS that are living under a bridge in the middle Knoxville!
These people deserve your care way before more homeless “immigrants” are shipped into the city. Get out of your high tower and actually take a tour of Knoxville. Not just a window tour but a serious walk around downtown and see the American citizens that you are slapping in the face by your actions/inactions for their plight.
Sure, you’ll authorize areas for them to sleep and to even do their heroin and other illegal substances. However, will you have food or even pallets of water taken to them during the blistering hot summers that we have here? NO! You don’t!
Mayor, take care of the America citizens FIRST!!!
We Knoxvillians have seen your utter disregard for the important matters of this great city and it will surely reflect in the upcoming Mayoral election!
Dear Mayor. We have noted your actions and for the next election.
VETERANS and HOMELESS Poor before Refugees.
Americans do not have need of Vetting
But have Housing, Food, Clothing, Transportation, Education and Medical Care that is deserved as Citizen.
Focus Upon the Needs of Family First.
These are Knoxvillians in need.
Appropriate $500,000. for Care of these and not for construction of Rainbow Colored Pavilion in the City.
How Does Any Mayor, Democrat or Republican choose to Spend Tax Payer Dollars upon such without the Vote of it’s Citizens.
How does any Mayor have the Right to Decide that Knoxville Needs more Refugees?
Citizens cannot be helped adequately even though KARM, VMC, Salvation Army, Lost Sheep Ministries and Volunteers try to help fill needs of Homeless.
How can Tax Payers Afford to Refugees?
How Can Knoxville Remain Safe?
More Police? More Firemen and Emergency Help? More Hospitals and More Diseases?
KNOXVILLIANS STAND UP AGAINST
THE PROPOSITIONS THAT DEFEAT ITS CITIZENS RIGHTS.
Dear Claremont United Methodist Church;
You do not speak for, neither do you represent Christians across the Nation, when you depict Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in separate cages in your so called Nativity scene. I will gladly explain why!
Jesus wants us to use some common sense, whether or not, these terrorists are allowed to come and live among us. HE knows that most of them are up to no good, and they want to invade our peaceful lands in the name of their false gods, so they can abuse, rape, steal our blessings, and murder HIS people. Matthew 24:43-47 (KJV) “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up”. HE wants us to use wisdom here!
Maybe your church does not really know true scriptures, and there’s reasons, these people have their own lands, and live in their own lands where God put them when he created them. My God could have easily destroyed them ALL, when he saw through Moses the wicked deeds they did, and Aaron his brother allowed through the hardness of their hearts. As they worshipped their false gods. (Exodus 32). Disappointed and hurt beyond words Moses flung down the 10 Commandment tablets, and God later fixed new ones. Our 10 Commandments (Exodus 20) from God are still just as real today as they were back then, when we all came from Adam, and then we were the children of Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqjoAvkf_U4
But the devil and his angels were, and still are allowed to live in evil people, and work his will in those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ. Because our God does not force his will upon others. Back to Immigration, explaining why it’s not a good idea for the terrorists to come here. First of all, we believe it is okay for people to come LEGALLY, and prove themselves, to be good stewards, as does our President Donald J. Trump. But they need to get jobs, become citizens, and pay tax into our system and be assimilated to our Constitution.
There’s workers of Satan who live everywhere even in America, so we don’t need any more murderers and thieves. This verse is hitting close to our leftist liberals, as well as the terrorists. John 10:10-29 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. The democrats are in cahoots with their terrorists to allow them to come and harm our Americans, and drink all of our milk and honey, and force our already burdened taxpayers to dance to their music from he11. And any so called church that will go along with this Charade against God’s children will pay the heavy price, for their lies and deceit. MAY GOD HAVE MERCY UPON US ALL, in Jesus name. AMEN!
Anonymous Author
If you speek out so honesty than be man enough to sign your words. GROW some balls.Don’t hide behind your words.🎄Or are you one of those Cristians who are afraid that other Cristians might judge you ? Or are you afraid of your image in the community ? BE REAL AND GET REAL .SINCERELY, Rick Gabel .🎅
I bet they won’t be moving to her neighborhood.
ummmm…..how can there possibly be a down side to taking in more refugees? We need the culture and they need the help. It’s not like we don’t have the money. Good for Knoxville!
As a resident of the city of Knoxville, I am embarrassed that this socialist nutbag even got elected and we have another nutbag coming in as soon as she leaves office. If this is the direction my town is going for the foreseeable future, I’m definitely moving somewhere else.
Amen!
Legal immigrants are welcome. Refugees not so much. Refugees are usually from the Middle East or Africa and don’t blend in with our culture.
Please Note: Rogero represents only the city of Knoxville ~42% of Knox County’s population. She certainly does not represent the general population of Knox County & East Tennessee. Now is the time for all citizens of East Tennessee to speak out via their local/county governments and provide meaningful guidance to Governor Lee.
What’s with her???
“Contributions”?
The only contributions refugees make is more crime, strain on education systems, and bleeding our social welfare system.
Charity begins at home. How bout we take care of our homeless veterans first?
There is another aspect to the refugee issue, and it has to do with accomplishing the most you can to relieve their plight, given available resource constraints, and simultaneously reducing the physical and emotional trauma that they are undergoing (by minimizing disruption), rather than exacerbating it.
First and foremost, studies have shown that housing refugees close to (or even within) their native land can be anywhere from 5, 10, or even 100’s of times less expensive than doing so here or in other developed Western countries. So for every refugee you take in here, you deny desperately needed refuge for 5, 10, or even 100’s of others in need. Where’s the compassion in that policy and who gets to choose who lives and who dies?
Second, it is much more compassionate to house refugees in a culture closest to their native land. A culture that shares, at least in part, their language, values, beliefs, social mores, diet, political constructs, religion, ethnicity, and climatology. Imagine for a moment that Canada had a complete breakdown in social order. Wouldn’t it be the more compassionate gesture to provide refuge here in the USA rather than say, oh, Somalia? A land where we speak the same language, have the same social mores, eat the same diet, and so forth. And wouldn’t it be more likely that they will return to rebuild their country once social order is restored?
It is no different for Syrians, Somalis, or, for that matter, Hondurans and Guatemalans. Housing refugees internally, or in neighboring regions, is the more compassionate and wise policy. So the current administration’s policy to have refugees seek asylum in the first host country they land in is a sound one, at least on the surface. It also helps weed out the predators and opportunists seeking to profit from our fellow man’s misfortune.
So, cui bono – who benefits? Well, the various “charitable” organizations, many faith-based, that profit handsomely at public expense. Then you have those who believe that nations should not exist at all, that we should be all part of one global “community” and, in that pursuit, you seek to demographically displace those native people who have deep roots in their community. I suspect that’s where the good mayor is coming from.
So refugees landing in that environment are almost guaranteed to be resented, isolated and, as such, form cloisters of their own. The Irish did so here, the Italians, the Poles, and so on. But eventually they assimilated and helped out nation prosper. Unlike, say, one prominent member of Congress whose mission is to destroy the very country that provided her refuge…much like many of her fellow refugees who have turned Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Portland (Maine) and countless other smaller communities into the same third-world craphole they came from. Now that Syria is restoring social order, where are the Syrians returning from, in order to rebuild their nation? Is it from France, Sweden, Germany. No way. It’s from Turkey and Jordan.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Maybe you should figure out how to take care of the homeless in Knoxville before you do anything else! How long since you’ve been under the bridge?
Interesting article. Well, Knoxville will have a new Mayor Dec. 20. Between Rogero pleading for more illegal aliens ie, immigrants to come to Knoxville, on her way out, and the new Mayor pleading for more grants to provide affordable low rent or no rent housing,on her way in, I think you can get a grasp of where the Section 8 housing builders, owners, and operators are trying to go.
These mayors have absolutely no compassion for the Americans who pay taxes, have to live among and fall victim to these so called “refugees”, who are not compatible with our society and are often times dangerous. Mayors can send their own money and volunteer their assistance in the “refugees” home countries, if they are so hell bent on adopting the world population. They fight in their own countries and come here and bring their wars with them. We can do without. We have our own problems and we’re full. We don’t need more dependants and more traffic. Have you seen the traffic in Colorado now days? Pathetic and sad.
How ignorant. Get rid of this nut case as fast as you can. Two socialist on their city council with this nut , Knoxville is in for a rough ride.