Based on the recent actions of the GOP supermajority in Tennessee’s state legislature, one would think immigration is a scourge on society, that the mere presence of anyone not born in this country is somehow the source of all our problems.
During Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s special legislative session last month, lawmakers passed a bill, in an effort to localize President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, that creates a state-level immigration enforcement bureau.
That same bill, which after being signed by Gov. Lee is now law, sets aside $5.5 million in state funding toward deportation efforts at the local level in municipalities throughout Tennessee. The legislation also creates felony criminal penalties for any elected official who votes in favor of sanctuary city policies.
This immigration enforcement will be shrouded in secrecy as the law allows the new bureau to withhold certain records from the public.
Republican Sen. Bo Watson of North Chattanooga, in particular, seems to see immigration as something the state should eliminate at all costs, resorting to authoritarian measures to do so.