The TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is using a reckless and manipulative disinformation campaign filled with untruths about the anti-sanctuary city bill creating cruel and needless hysteria among legal immigrants and illegal alien communities  in Tennessee.
The Soros-funded TIRRC is employing a predictable tactic of the open-borders left – distort the facts until they are unrecognizable, the bury the truth under scripted political propaganda.
Exactly what TIRRC and their fellow travelers have been doing with the Green-Reedy anti-sanctuary city bill.
Almost immediately after the Tennessee General Assembly passed HB2315 by a 64-23 vote in the House and 25-5 in the Senate, TIRRC labeled it a “mass deportation bill.” To date, TIRRC has never admitted that the sanctuary policies and practices addressed in the Green-Reedy bill pose unnecessary risks to public safety and are dangerous because they return criminal illegal aliens to Tennessee communities.
Another important fact about sanctuary policies – they apply to individuals who are already in local custody because they  committed a crime. Only then does ICE get involved.
The April raid at the Southeastern Provision slaughterhouse in Bean Station is not related to the sanctuary city bill. That of course, has not stopped TIRRC from trying to link the two. The workplace raid was an ICE operation whose statutory authority allows them to take someone into custody because of their immigration status.
The Green-Reedy bill does not give Tennessee state and local law enforcement that authority.
Nor does the Green-Reedy bill authorize law enforcement in Tennessee to arbitrarily carry out a “show me your papers” stop as TIRRC has insisted. Regardless, that hasn’t stopped Stephanie Teatro, TIRRC’s co-director from insisting that it does:
‘It would mean no matter what, walking in the street, a police officer could ask them for their papers,’ said Stephanie Teatro, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. ‘When they show up to a parent-teacher meeting they would have to show their papers. That’s not the community we want to live in.’
What HB2315 actually says is that a state or local entity cannot adopt a policy or put a practice in place that prevents law enforcement from inquiring into a person’s immigration status which is precisely what the Metro Nashville Council attempted to do last spring.
HB2315 is telling local governments that they can’t obstruct communication and cooperation between and among the different levels of law enforcement – no different than how they cooperate around drug enforcement or with agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms.
The Metro Nashville Council was committed to trying to skirt Tennessee’s current sanctuary city law but was forced to withdraw the ordinance under pressure from state legislators and the public.
TIRRC helped draft the Metro ordinance and Teatro likely understands that had it passed, the Metro ordinance might have survived a challenge under Tennessee’s current sanctuary city law but would not under the new legislation which expands the law.
The National Council of La Raza, has filed ‘friend of the court’ briefs in cases opposing legislation directed at tamping down illegal immigration, including against the 2012 Arizona law SB1070. La Raza also opposed the Texas anti-sanctuary city bill signed into law by Governor Abbott last year.
TIRRC and Nashville-based Conexion Americas are formal affiliates of La Raza. Conexion’s founder and director who is also connected professionally to Randy Boyd, leads the board of La Raza.
The Arizona law, with a minor exception, was upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, including what opponents called the “show me your papers” provision.
The Texas law which includes a detainer provision like the Green-Reedy bill, was upheld as constitutional by the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. In ruling to uphold the Texas law on compliance with ICE detainer requests, the Court effectively dismissed the same Fourth Amendment arguments being put forth by TIRRC against the Tennessee bill.
Citing to an earlier U.S. Supreme Court decision, the appellate judges held that when local law enforcement comply with an ICE detainer issued for a criminal illegal alien, there is no Constitutional problem:
it is undisputed that federal immigration officers may seize aliens based on an administrative warrant attesting to probable cause of removability. Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217, 233-34, 80 S. Ct. 683, 694 (1960). It is also evident that current ICE policy requires the Form I-247A to be accompanied by one of two such administrative warrants. On the form, an ICE officer certifies that probable cause of removability exists. Thus, an ICE-detainer request evidences probable cause of removability in every instance.
Under the collective-knowledge doctrine, moreover, the ICE officer’s knowledge may be imputed to local officials even when those officials are unaware of the specific facts that establish probable cause of removability.
The ICE detainer form, specifically Form I-247A was discussed by the sponsors of the Tennessee bill during committee hearings.
Regardless, opponents of Tennessee’s legislation continue to insist that criminal illegal aliens would be released to ICE custody without probable cause.
Should Governor Haslam veto the bill, you can be sure that in no short order, the Metro Council will take up the unfinished business of establishing itself as a sanctuary jurisdiction. That alone should make a convincing case for Governor Haslam to sign HB2315 into law.
