Photo by Capt. Chris Herbert, U.S. Air Force, via AP / Afghan citizens pack inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, as they are transported from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15.It was a foregone conclusion. Tennessee is set to receive at least 415 Afghan refugees in the coming weeks, yet Gov. Bill Lee is calling on the White House to provide detailed information – “full transparency” – on who will be arriving.
This from the same governor who, along with many other state Republicans, pitched a fit about unaccompanied minor children being temporarily sheltered in Chattanooga from countries below our Southern border.
Initial projections show Nashville will be receiving the vast majority of the Afghan individuals – 350 – while Memphis is set to receive 25 and Knoxville and Chattanooga can expect about 20 Afghan refugees each. Individuals arriving through the federal program will be served by private local resettlement agencies such as Bridge Refugee Services in Chattanooga.
To be fair, Lee last week finally said he supports the resettlement of American allies from Afghanistan. But he apparently still wants to make a show of distrusting the Biden administration as yet another way of dog-whistling to conservative voters.
The U.S. Department of State’s Afghan Placement and Assistance Program emailed the Lee administration Wednesday about the expected arrivals and noted that the numbers are expected to grow, according to The Tennessean, which obtained a copy of the email.