Tennessee Pro-Immigrant Groups Are Cautiously Optimistic About Biden Actions

It’s been a long four years for immigrants, refugees and their advocates in Tennessee.

From early in his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump made clear that a crackdown would be a priority: a so-called Muslim ban, an end to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protections and a drastic reduction in the number of refugees allowed into the country each year. That meant years of protests, caravans to Washington, D.C., and an enhanced focus on local, state and national elections.

So Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration last month came with at least a brief semblance of relief for some who supported the new president’s campaign calls to renew DACA, do away with non-COVID-related travel bans and ramp up refugee resettlement. On his first day in office — and in the days and weeks following — Biden signed several executive orders fulfilling or beginning to fulfill those promises. (In the short term at least, the advocates’ caution is aimed at news out of Washington that the Biden administration has continued with some deportations during the early weeks of the new president’s tenure.)

“We’re hopeful things are changing, but we know this is the kind of work we have to do every day,” says Sabina Mohyuddin, the Nashville-based executive director of the American Muslim Advisory Council. “We can’t slow down. We have to keep still pushing hard. We don’t want to fall into complacency and overlook policies that may still be harming our communities.”

Among the things Mohyuddin wants to keep pushing for despite early optimism about the Biden administration is the No Ban Act, which has already passed the House and would keep future presidents from establishing similar travel bans in the future. Tennessee families, Mohyuddin says, have been unable to bring relatives living in unstable or dangerous conditions to join them in the United States due to the ban, while some university students have had to change their educational plans.

“The scars from the Muslim ban will take a while to heal,” she says.

In the new tradition of ping-pong executive orders marking the transfer of power, Tennessee Republicans were dismayed by Biden’s unilateral actions and promise for more legislation to come.

“These proposals inspire lawlessness, enable the flow of illegal drugs and human trafficking, and threaten Tennessee communities already hurting due to the ongoing pandemic,” said new Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty in a statement released the day after Biden’s inauguration. Hagerty lamented the president’s decision to abandon Trump’s partial wall on the southern border. “Our priorities must be to continue to secure our border, strengthen our legal immigration system and protect jobs for hardworking Americans.”

At the state level, feelings are similar. After four years with a like-minded administration in the White House, dominant Republicans at the state Capitol returned to Nashville this week for a new session with one fewer ally. Even Trump’s dramatic reduction in refugee resettlement numbers wasn’t enough for Tennessee Republicans, who in 2019 bristled when fellow Republican Gov. Bill Lee said he would still let the state participate in the program.

And though most immigration policy work is conducted above the state legislature’s paygrade, pro-immigrant and pro-refugee groups are keeping a wary eye on the Capitol.

“We are very much ready and preparing for the legislature to continue to behave as they have in the past,” says Judith Clerjeune, policy and legislative affairs manager at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “We will continue to fight for immigrant communities in Tennessee, making sure we’re pushing back against white nationalism and xenophobia.”

One key early focus for Clerjeune and TIRRC, though, is in Washington, where the group and its allies will be pushing for passage of new Biden administration legislation that, among other priorities, would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. With a slim Democratic majority in the House and a tie in the Senate (with a Democratic tiebreaker in Vice President Kamala Harris), Clerjeune says it will take a “lot of work” to push the agenda through Congress.

What’s more, even a success like that wouldn’t be the end of the road for those pushing for pro-immigrant and pro-refugee policies, Clerjeune says, pointing to economic and health disparities highlighted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The administrations have changed, but in many ways our work remains the same,” Clerjeune says. “Trump was a big problem, but him and the policies coming from his administration were a symptom of a much deeper issue and a problem that is not solved by just changing administrations. Regardless of who’s in the White House and Congress, we have a lot of work to do to change our immigration system.”