In America, the so-called land of the free, we proclaim to be a self-governed people. Any power enshrined into our institutions, so the theory goes, must be wielded with transparency and respect for due process and the rule of law. And perhaps above all, that power should be used in service of our stated ideal: equality for all.
But in Tennessee, that founding ethos has been warped into its very opposite. The GOP supermajority in the statehouse, at the behest of an anti-immigrant movement mired in contradictions, is willing to compromise our foundational civic identity to carry out a misguided effort to expel our neighbors from this state we all call home.
Part of a legislative package pushed by White House aide Stephen Miller, the state GOP is attempting to create a de facto secret police hell-bent on identifying and deporting every undocumented immigrant in Tennessee.
One bill would require local agencies to keep confidential any identifying information of an officer enforcing federal immigration law in Tennessee, under threat of a Class E felony punishable by up to six years in prison. The bill, now in House committees and already passed in the Senate, is on a path to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.