The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) received about $300,000 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) as part of its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which allowed recipients to have their loans forgiven under specific circumstances.
While The Tennessee Star reported on Monday that TIRRC received nearly $3 million in government grant money before its recent donation to the “Belonging Fund,” an initiative Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell recently announced to support illegal immigrants, federal spending data showed TIRRC had only received one payment from the federal government, which was $303,879 from the SBA.
According to data made public by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, the amount loaned to TIRRC was $293,033. Facilitated by the SBA as a PPP loan, meant to allow employers to retain employees despite the conditions created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the money was provided by Trust Bank after being approved on March 20, 2020.
A total of $297,026 was ultimately forgiven, with SBA data indicating the forgiveness occurred one year later, showing that TIRRC repaid just $6,853, or about 2 percent of the total loan.
TIRRC has confirmed, through publicly available tax documents, that it received $2,725,078 in government grants from 2020-2023 and estimated it would receive another $891,089 last year. Thus, it has received up to $3,616,167 over the last five years. It seems likely that the majority of this funding may have been provided by state or local governments.
While the group’s director, Lisa Sherman Luna, has decried the recent joint immigration enforcement operation between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) as “kidnapping” immigrants “off the street based on nothing but the color of their skin,” TIRRC was previously approached by ICE under the Biden administration in 2022, when the federal agency sought the nonprofit’s help in facilitating the release of thousands of illegal immigrants into Tennessee.
That plan was halted after TIRRC recommended that ICE brief Governor Bill Lee on the Biden administration’s plans, which quickly led to a lawsuit brought by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
Tennessee was victorious in the legal action last year, when Skrmetti’s lawsuit resulted in the publication of communications between Biden-era ICE officials and the Tennessee nonprofit. The attorney general’s office said the messages showed collusion between ICE, Nashville, and TIRRC “to arrange for the mass release of detainees into Tennessee,” with the government originally planning “to release thousands of single, adult, non-citizens” into the Volunteer State.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Sign” by Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
The loan was approved under the Trump Administration, where PPP (a giant corporate welfare program) originated.
This should piss every Tennessean taxpayer off.
I’m ready for our Sheriff Hall to cooperate with ICE & arrange to turn over all the illegal criminals being held in Metro jails. He was elected independently from Mayor Freddie O.
Sheriff Hall was elected by the people of Nashville & took an Oath to enforce the Law.
The Immigration Act supercedes any State or Local laws or opinions of Council members or Mayor’s.
Sheriff:
Do your job or step down.