The Soros funded Southern Poverty Law Center has issued a legal throw-down to Governor Haslam challenging his campaign promises to “do everything within my authority to be sure that Tennessee does not attract illegal activity.”
Working with the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), another Soros funded amnesty-for-lawbreaker advocacy organization, the SPLC has promised to provide legal representation to  illegal aliens arrested in the Bean Station workplace raid who are in detention and facing possible deportation.
TIRRC and its allies want to stop federal immigration authorities from detaining and/or deporting criminal illegal aliens and instead, have them released from ICE detention and returned to Tennessee communities. Shortly after the election of President Trump, TIRRC issued a public call to all Tennessee communities to refuse cooperation with ICE.
In other words, TIRRC wants Tennessee to operate as a sanctuary state.
Approximately half of the 100 workers taken into custody in the Bean Station raid are in detention and 10 of them face federal charges for evading prior orders of removal.
The FY2016 DOJ Executive Office for Immigration Review data for illegal aliens who were never detained, immigration court hearings held in absentia, meaning when the illegal alien fails to show up to court, increased by 110% over a four year period. In FY2016, there were over 24,000 in absentia orders for illegal aliens who had never been in detention but instead were released pending a hearing.
The SPLC is taking on the issue of illegal aliens in Southern states through its Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) project. Despite total net assets of almost $450 million dollars in 2016, SPLC relies on volunteer lawyers to “provide free legal representation to immigrants who have been detained in the Southeast and are facing deportation proceedings.”
The SIFI project has a variety of functions and will use lawfare to expand legal rights for criminal illegal aliens who are detained pending deportation proceedings.
The initial goal of the SIFI volunteer lawyers is to get their illegal alien client released from detention via a bond hearing. One SPLC report says illegal aliens with representation “are 10 times as likely to succeed in their cases as those who represent themselves” while another SPLC posting says they are “nearly 20 times more likely to prevail in their cases than detainees who represent themselves.”
Either way, according to the SPLC, an illegal alien’s chances of being released from a detention facility go up pretty dramatically when they have a lawyer.
In 2016, Edwin Velasquez Curuchiche, an illegal alien from Guatemala living in Lebanon, Tennessee, was arrested on two counts of child pornography that involved filming himself sexually molesting a young child. Court documents showed that three years earlier Curuchiche was caught unlawfully entering the United States and then didn’t show up  for an immigration hearing that would have likely led to him being deported.
Last year, Alfonzo Domingo Sebastian, also an illegal alien from Guatemala, was arrested in Shelbyville, Tennessee, on charges of aggravated statutory rape. Even though it was reported that “at some point” ICE had issued a detainer for him, he was released from police custody after posting a bond and subsequently failed to show up at his immigration hearing.
TIRRC has labeled the anti-sanctuary city legislation “a mass deportation bill” and has released an extensive disinformation campaign trying to pressure Governor Haslam for a veto. They will soon have the SPLC working by their side.
SPLC repeats the same scripted talking points opposing anti-sanctuary city measures that are used by all open border organizations along with what the Wall Street Journal says is “insidious influence” to disparage, defame and shut down legitimate debate on the negative ramifications of illegal immigration.
The anti-sanctuary city bill and the companion local ID bill have taken on new significance for the state as well as the legacy of the Haslam administration. Does Soros big money and organizations working to shield criminal illegal aliens prevail, or does the Governor make good on the promises he made to Tennesseans that voted him into office?
The answer will become known once the bill reaches Governor Haslam’s desk.
