Remember the good old days when Governor Bredesen had Lydia Peelle writing for him? Is there not one conservative novelist who could go to work for Governor Haslam? The letter he wrote to President Obama about the child-refugees who are staying here in Tennessee until they have their day in court is just... so not good.
According to the Tennessean, Haslam has not yet heard back from Obama. I wonder if it's because Obama is still attempting to make sense of the letter.
Here are a few of the potential stumbling blocks (Here's the letter):
1. Haslam slips back and forth between singular and plural in a confusing manner:
On July 13, the nation’s governors met with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell during the annual National Governors Association meeting, which I hosted in Nashville this year. We spent a significant amount of time in that meeting discussing the issue of unaccompanied immigrant children. Although this is a complex issue and one that ultimately must be solved at the federal government level, governors are rightly concerned about the impact on states. We emphasized to Secretary Burwell the need to be informed of any children being relocated to our states. It is unacceptable that we became aware via a posting on the HHS website that 760 unaccompanied children have been released by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to sponsors in Tennessee without my administration’s knowledge. Not only was our state not informed prior to any of the children being brought here, I still have not been contacted and have no information about these individuals or their sponsors other than what was posted on the HHS website and subsequently reported by media.
The "we" in the first paragraph is obviously "the nation's governors," but who is the "we" in the second paragraph? Is it still the nation's governors? It would seem weird that they're concerned only about 760 children being placed in Tennessee and the "our state" makes it clear that "we" must live here. Okay, so not the nation's governors. Is Haslam now referring to himself in the royal "we?" Again, probably not, since he later refers to himself as "I." Who is the second "we" that Obama has pissed off? To whom is he supposed to apologize for his "unacceptable" behavior? It's not clear.
2. Haslam sounds like one of those nutters who's convinced that these kids are going to make us all sick. He asks, "What medical screenings were the children given prior to their release in Tennessee?" and then turns around and asks, "What additional information is available on these children, such as age and health status?" Literally every single time we have an influx of immigration to this country, white people take to their fainting couches about how these new people are going to spread diseases. For Haslam to be engaging in this same kind of racist fearmongering, even under the guise of concern-trolling the President, is embarrassing.
And can't we come up with a new racist-fearmongering shtick? Maybe insinuate that they're going to teach all our kids that it's better to walk sideways than forward or backward and think of how much of our tax dollars are going to go to having to revamp stairs to accommodate sideways walking? I mean, seriously, how does Haslam expect the President to respond to these questions? "Dear Governor Haslam, Thanks for continuing that great American tradition of believing that immigrants are more disease-ridden than the rest of us. But, really, it's cool. Love, Obama."
Plus, Haslam, whose idea of providing healthcare to Tennesseans is to use our tax dollars to pay for a website that doesn't exist while coming up with a Tennessee plan that doesn't exist, being concerned about the potential healthcare needs of these kids is rich indeed.
3. This paragraph:
Tennessee is a diverse and welcoming state, and we also understand that this is a complicated issue. However, an influx of unaccompanied immigrant children to the state, with little information being made available to the public or to state leaders, creates confusion and could be very problematic. The start of school is approaching for many districts across the state, and the federal government’s actions have caused great uncertainty around this issue.
How does an influx of children create confusion? Who will be confused? What are the problems Governor Haslam is anticipating? Yes, school is starting. But what is "this issue" as the end of that sentence? The issue of whether the kids should go to school when it starts? The issue of immigrant children?
But this stuff is just the surface bad stuff. The stuff that's confusing just based on the letter alone. There's an underlying confusing issue, which is that there's nothing new about this situation. We, as a state, have been dealing for a long time with unaccompanied immigrant children residing, even briefly, in our state. From the aforementioned Tennessean article:
The unaccompanied minors have been placed into Tennessee households with approved “sponsors” — typically their own families and relatives — as has been happening for years, said immigrant and refugee advocates. “They’ve got somewhere to go,” said Eben Cathey, spokesman for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. “They’re not getting dropped off. They’re getting placed with their mom, dad, aunt or uncle.”[...]
“Unaccompanied minors have been coming into the U.S. for years and years and years,” said Holly Johnson, state refugee coordinator for the Tennessee Office of Refugees.
Johnson said she and others with ties to immigrant groups were surprised by the latest attention. She expressed skepticism that Tennessee was seeing a significant surge, though no one could cite specific numbers for previous years. She said her agency sometimes helps link children to families but has been asked to make very few connections this year.
So, the problem isn't just this weird letter, it's that Haslam wrote this weird letter without bothering to find out if this was new. And, no, in fact, these children are being treated just like children in their situation have been treated. There's nothing new or scary or that requires anything extra from the state. And he could have asked the very same people that Tony Gonzalez at the Tennessean asked.
I'd like to believe that this is just Haslam pandering to his base in the run-up to the election, but he's going to win. He has no competition. He could move to Kentucky, start an "I Hate Tennessee" Tumblr account, and make his decisions about how to run Tennessee by shrugging his shoulders and telling his dog, "Eh, you decide" and he would still win re-election.
So, no, I'm afraid that this is another case of the Governor finding out that being the Governor requires something more than being nice and charming when people visit and maybe handing out some tax dollars to companies. Yes, sometimes you have to pay attention to what the legislature does. And, by golly, sometimes people move here!
