ICE Is Opening a Detention Center in Lebanon

On Friday, Anita Wadhwani at the Tennessee Lookout reported that ICE is opening a detention center in Lebanon. 

From the story:

No details about the size, scope, purchase price or street address of the facility in Lebanon, about 30 miles east of Nashville, were immediately made available Friday, and news of the purchase took state and local officials by surprise. 

Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto said he had heard no information about the plans to build a detention center in the county and asked for contact information to reach ICE in order to learn more. The Wilson County Assessor of Property has no record of a final purchase.

State Sen. Mark Pody and state Rep. Clark Boyd, who represent the area, said they were unaware of the plans.

Hell is here.

Our State Leaders Are Apparently Plotting With the White House

Speaker Cameron Sexton has reportedly been at the White House 'numerous times' to plan anti-immigration policy with Stephen Miller. Yikes.

I mean, what else can you even say? As the Scene reported last year, CoreCivic has already reopened a West Tennessee prison to use as an ICE detention facility. Now the government is building a concentration camp in Lebanon so they have a place to store our neighbors after they kidnap them. Will it matter if our neighbors are here legally? It hasn’t mattered in other places. Will it matter if our neighbors are citizens? It hasn’t mattered in other places. Will it matter if our neighbors are small boys in bunny hats with Spider-Man backpacks? It hasn’t in other places. Will it matter if the people opposed to this garbage nightmare are mothers or VA nurses or registered gun owners carrying legally? It hasn’t in other places.

What kind of monster would you have to be to invite these detention facilities — this human-destroying machine — into our state? What sanctimonious Judas do you suppose facilitated this?

I mean, I’m no detective, but who took multiple trips to D.C. to hang out with Stephen Miller so they could discuss how to make Tennessee a pilot state for state-level immigration enforcement? Nashville resident, Crossville representative and state House Speaker Cameron Sexton.

Here’s the question that should weigh heavily on the minds of state Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) and state Rep. Clark Boyd (R-Lebanon) — and perhaps on the minds of other Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly: Do you really think Sexton didn’t know anything about this?

And if he did know about this, why didn’t he tell you? 

Maybe he didn’t give Pody a heads-up because Pody’s a senator and Sexton’s over the House. OK. But what’s wrong with Boyd? Why can’t he be trusted with information about what’s going on in his district?

Boyd has co-sponsored immigration bills, among other right-wing things. At a glance, he looks like a loyal Republican. 

+3

Tennessee Republicans Announce Massive Immigration Package

Verification, reporting requirements part of proposed bills filed

But if you look at the bills he’s sponsored, you start to get a sense of why he might be considered a weak link. Last year, he sponsored House Bill 1144 (which became a law) laying out how death rates at state prisons trigger a reduction in inmates at that facility. This year, he’s put forth HB 1914 — aiming to get state veterans’ homes to provide more services to veterans — and HB 2111, which would create an advisory board in Tennessee Department of Correction to help families of prisoners.

From where I’m sitting — which is not on a throne in hell — Boyd is very right-wing. But if you’re sitting in a seat next to Satan ... er, I mean Stephen Miller, maybe you don’t entirely trust a guy who seems a little interested in what’s going on in prisons and sympathetic to the pain it causes families to have loved ones imprisoned. Maybe, when your allies are gunning down VA nurses in the streets, you look askance at the guy who understands how central the VA is in providing care to veterans.

This would be amusing if there weren't a concentration camp at the heart of it, watching Sexton betraying his allies and them finding out how the rest of us did, when ICE announced it.

As for the pending concentration camp, whether or not your elected officials knew about it beforehand, they know about it now. So now you can demand they do something about it.