Republican leaders are opposing the efforts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and local nonprofits to resettle asylum-seeking immigrants who have already been screened by border officials.
A few weeks ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contacted local partners for help coordinating travel logistics for immigrants awaiting court dates for credible asylum claims, according to attorney Lisa Graybill of the National Immigrant Law Center. Graybill told media that the individuals have already been interviewed by an asylum officer and found to have a credible fear of persecution if they were to return to their home country. The federal government had identified Nashville as a waypoint between ICE’s New Orleans office and individuals’ final destinations within the U.S. and reached out to local partners.
Aid groups in Nashville worked to secure airline vouchers, clothing, donations, hotel rooms and temporary shelter in churches for immigrants attempting to connect with family members ahead of the holiday season, Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Wednesday morning. When TIRRC looped in local and state government officials, Republican leaders spoke out against the effort.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Gov. Bill Lee all incorrectly characterized the immigrants as “illegal” in media appearances and press releases. On Fox News Wednesday morning, Lee attempted to connect asylum-seekers to the state’s fentanyl deaths. As of Wednesday, no immigrants had been sent to Nashville, nor were there any concrete ICE plans to do so.
“Late last night, we learned of the President's plan to bus ICE detainees to Tennessee,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a press release on Tuesday. “Tennesseans should not be forced to bear the burden of the federal government's ongoing failure to secure the border. The Attorney General’s Office joins Governor Lee and our federal delegation in demanding the administration abandon their plan to release detainees into our state.”
According to Luna, TIRRC will continue to organize voluntary aid from Tennesseans to immigrants who are awaiting court dates, which would formalize the United States' offer of legal asylum, a right extended by the federal government.
The Rev. Robin Lovett-Owen of Christ Lutheran Church on Haywood Lane drew direct parallels to the Christmas story in her remarks to media.
“We prepared to do what churches are called to do: to help those in need,” says Lovett-Owen. Her congregation has been involved in TIRRC’s immigrant aid efforts. “What is most important to us as people of faith is that no one goes hungry, cold or homeless this Christmas.”
At-Large Metro Councilmember Bob Mendes also spoke on Wednesday's media call in favor of aid efforts. Mayor John Cooper has a long history of favoring TIRRC as a political lifeline for appointments, press conferences, task forces and policy consults related to immigration. Cooper’s office has remained silent, even as Lee criticized local aid efforts on Fox News.
In keeping with a recent trend among GOP leaders, Lee, Hagerty and Blackburn reserve particular ire for Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, technically the top ICE executive. A contingent of pro-Trump House Republicans has spent the year pushing articles of impeachment on Mayorkas, whom they cast as a rogue ideologue strategically manipulating the country’s immigration machinery for Democrats rather than a career executive struggling with a vast and unwieldy bureaucracy. In this instance, Republicans have demonstrated their party’s eagerness to extend its position on closed borders to include refugees who have been deemed eligible for asylum by ICE officers.
