by Daniel Marulanda and James D. Agresti The border between the United States and Mexico stretches for 1,960 miles, parting two major regions of the world with vastly different governments, standards of living, and levels of crime. Consequently, many millions of people have risked their lives to illegally cross the border into the United States. During…
Read More
The cost to teach English to non-English speaking students in Tennessee public schools has increased over 100 percent since FY 2016. In FY 2016, the total cost for English Language Learner (ELL) services was $94,110,440. Seventy percent was funded through the state’s Basic Education Program (BEP) in the amount of $65,877,308,…
Read More
by Will Racke The Trump administration has hit certain government officials from Burma and Laos with visa sanctions as punishment for both countries’ refusal to take back their citizens the U.S. is trying to deport, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Tuesday. Going forward, the U.S. embassy in…
Read More
Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd fired a salvo this week at opponent Diane Black by calling her “D.C. Diane” and questioning her past stances on immigration as a congresswoman and former state senator. Boyd’s campaign mailed a flyer which said, in part, “The Real D.C. Diane Black: A typical 20-year…
Read More
by Jeffery Rendall It’s no secret to regular observers of American politics that the Republican Party has its problems with leadership; fractures have developed within the caucus over time and by all appearances the leaders of both the House and Senate have frequently worked against conservatives in their drive…
Read More
Nashville Community Defense/Defensa Comunitaria Nashville uses the tagline “here to stay.” The group is led by Cathy Carrillo who organizes and leads protests against deporting criminal illegal aliens while Metro’s lawyers in the Public Defender’s office provide legal services for “non-citizen defendants.” According to Elizabeth Lopez, a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a…
Read More
U.S. Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen is on record calling the policy that required children to be separated from their families “child abuse” and also voiced his support for the ongoing national protests on behalf of illegal immigrants. Frankly, there seems to be little if any room between Bredesen and the…
Read More
by James D. Agresti President Trump recently held a conference with family members of U.S. citizens killed by illegal immigrants. The parents of nine people slain by such immigrants spoke about their family’s experiences, and Trump presented an array of government data on criminal immigrants and stated: I always hear that,…
Read More
This past May, seven states, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, sued the federal government to stop Obama’s unconstitutional DACA administrative amnesty program once and for all. To date, Tennessee’s Attorney General Herbert Slatery has not joined the lawsuit. In fact, it appears that Slatery has done an about…
Read More
by Emily Larsen Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview Wednesday that the U.S. did not add criminal penalties to immigration law until about 1999. Verdict: False The U.S. criminalized unlawful entry in 1929. Laws passed in the 1990s intensified criminal penalties relating to immigration. Fact Check: Ocasio-Cortez defeated incumbent…
Read More
Hundreds of protesters were arrested Thursday after staging a sit-in at a U.S. Senate office building in Washington to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policy. U.S. Capitol Police arrested 575 activists, mostly women, decrying President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy on admission of undocumented immigrants. They chanted “What do we want?…
Read More
Pennsylvania state police will soon be required to report more fully the circumstances under which they notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents when they stop undocumented immigrants for traffic violations. The move comes amid mounting criticism by immigration lawyers and activists that state troopers have been overzealous in assisting…
Read More
Tuesday on News Channel 5’s “MorningLine”, Conservative and Tennessee Star Political Editor, Steve Gill sat down with host Nick Beres to discuss immigration and the ongoing debate around it in America today. The full ten minutes is worth a listen as Gill debunks many media myths circling around within the…
Read More
by Jeffrey Rendall Have Democrats got something here, or have they really lost it? The question passed through my mind as a member of my church stood up a couple Sundays ago to request special prayers for the “families” with kids being separated from parents down along the southern…
Read More
With the continuing crush at the border of illegal aliens traveling with children to whom they may or may not be related and children being sent with smugglers to cross the border alone, liberals and open border groups have found a new reason to oppose President Trump’s “zero tolerance” for…
Read More
California, New York, Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut all provide the in-state tuition benefit for illegal aliens in their states and all permit illegal aliens who graduate from law school, to apply for and obtain a license to practice law. Last week Connecticut became the fifth state to change its…
Read More
by Julia Cohen A group who calls itself “L.A. Against I.C.E.” has set up a camp in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Los Angeles detention center, according to the group’s twitter account. https://twitter.com/LAagainstICE/status/1010910647717003270 The group have been outside of the center since Friday, according to a tweet retweeted by L.A.…
Read More
by Robert Romano Between 2009 and 2016, more than 242,000 unaccompanied children arrived at the southwest border, according to data compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, averaging about 30,000 a year. In 2016, that number was about 20,000. In addition, in 2016, about 23,000 family units were apprehended at the…
Read More
by Julia Cohen New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “terrorist organization” in a Thursday night tweet. “ICE is a terrorist organization, and its egomaniacal leader is Donald Trump,” the tweet says. ICE is a terrorist organization, and its egomaniacal leader is Donald…
Read More
Reuters Mexican airline Volaris said Friday it was offering free flights to reunite families separated by the “zero tolerance” immigration policy of U.S. President Donald Trump. “It hurts us to see these children without their parents and it is our vocation to reunite them,” Volaris said in a statement.…
Read More
by Fred Lucas With President Donald Trump still facing criticism over separating migrant families who illegally crossed the border, other families met with the president Friday to share their stories of “permanent separation” from children killed by illegal immigrants—and to complain of being ignored by the news media. Among…
Read More
While the controversy of separating families crossing the U.S. border illegally has been mostly settled, it’s worth noting that Democrat Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen took his criticism of President Trump on the issue as far as any far Left-Wing agitator did, in effect, labeling it child abuse. That despite it…
Read More
by CHQ Staff Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have suddenly found the time and energy to pass a quick legislative fix to end the practice of separating parents from children when they cross illegally into the country – but they apparently do not plan to act on…
Read More
Tennessee’s two U.S. Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker each released a statement opposing the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy including separating children traveling with adult illegal border crossers. The law requiring the separation of children from the adults illegally crossing the border and who are being detained, was signed by…
Read More
“Switch-hitters” are the baseball players who bat both right-handed and left-handed. Political switch-hitters who want liberal representation in the U.S. Senate and a moderate in the governor’s office are rooting for the Boyd-Bredesen team – and they are willing to put their big bucks behind these guys and bring along their…
Read More
Philadelphia-based Education Law Center told the city’s School Reform Commission that immigrant students and English Language Learner students (EL), need expanded programming, “improved cultural competency” for teachers, more support for the parents of these students and greater access to vocational training programs. According to the Law Center, test results show that…
Read More
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) released a statement this week geared to focusing attention on his work in support of both law enforcement and addiction treatment. “During a week in which the House of Representatives focused solely on solutions to the country’s opioid crisis, Congressman Scott DesJarlais, M.D., voted to improve…
Read More
Tennessee Jobs Now, a SuperPAC that supports Randy Boyd in the Tennessee Governor’s race, has been running a television commercial that hits Diane Black for a 2001 vote as a member of the Tennessee General Assembly that resulted in illegal aliens being able to get driver licenses. Black does not deny that she…
Read More
U.S. immigration agents raided two Ohio garden stores Tuesday and arrested 114 workers believed to be undocumented immigrants for alleged identity theft. It was the largest such sting by Homeland Security and immigration agents in recent years. The agents carried out raids at two separate locations of Corso’s Flower and…
Read More
Tennessee Jobs Now, a SuperPAC that supports Randy Boyd in the Tennessee Governor’s race, began airing a television commercial two weeks ago that continues on the theme of their recent statewide radio buy. The television ad hits Black for a 2001 vote during her time in the State Legislature that provided…
Read More
First it was “The Ballad of La Raza Randy,” a lyrical stroll through Boyd’s “conexion” to the leadership of the National Council of La Raza which earned him his nickname not long after he decided he wanted to “spend whatever it takes” to get elected. Hint – it had something…
Read More
The in-state tuition for illegal aliens issue is expected to be put on the legislative calendar in 2019. Its importance cannot be understated in light of the opening it creates to award additional state and local public benefits to illegal aliens in Tennessee. The four candidates for the GOP gubernatorial…
Read More
By Natalia Castro Since the 2016 election, President Donald Trump has waged war on gangs within the U.S., most notably, the violent MS-13. For nearly 40 years, MS-13 has grown across the United States and Central American to become one of the deadliest gangs in the world. To understand the…
Read More
Anybody who doubts whether Tennessee voters, especially Republican Primary voters, are concerned about illegal immigration needs to watch a few of the early political ads that are starting to pound the airwaves. Candidates at every level, from state legislative races to Congressional races to the Governors race, are embracing a…
Read More
by Steve Herman President Donald Trump called Wednesday for a “radical change” to the structure of U.S. aid to countries deemed not sufficiently assisting the United States in keeping violent illegal immigrants from heading here. “We’re going to work out something where every time someone comes from a certain…
Read More
Embracing the online ‘crowdsourcing’ trend pioneered by inventors and entrepreneurs to raise vast sums of money, support and sometimes, fame, Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) introduced a novel bill late last week that would create a trust fund in the U.S. Treasury that could accept money donated by individuals and earmark…
Read More
Mega millionaire Randy Boyd says that how he spends his millions, including the $250,000 donation to Conexion Americas or his interlocking education initiative that demands “education equity” for illegal alien students, “has nothing to do with immigration or in-state tuition,” issues that have fueled frustration with the growing illegal alien…
Read More
Governor Haslam announced today that instead of signing or vetoing the anti-sanctuary city bill he will allow it to become law without his signature: I could sign it but that would mean that I agree that we have an issue around sanctuary cities. In that regard, intentionally or not, the…
Read More
by Kevin Daley After six months, the U.S. Supreme Court has not acted on a Justice Department request to vacate a lower court order requiring President Donald Trump’s administration to facilitate an abortion for an illegal alien and punish ACLU lawyers for allegedly unethical behavior. The Court’s protracted silence…
Read More
Predictably, Nashville’s Metro Council, school board and mayoral candidate Erica Gilmore want Governor Haslam to veto HB2315, the anti-sanctuary city legislation sitting on his desk. Nashville’s leadership wants the Governor to protect criminal illegal aliens. But Nashville’s advocacy for illegal aliens goes further, wanting all Tennessee taxpayers to continue sharing the…
Read More
In a straightforward statement today, GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) said “we need to uncouple illegal immigration and Tennessee”: The recent arrest of illegal aliens working at the Bean Station slaughterhouse is a red flag that Tennessee has been allowed to become a magnet for illegal aliens despite an…
Read More
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…
Read More
The Fayette County Republican Party is the first county political organization to adopt a Resolution supporting the Green-Reedy Anti-Sanctuary City bill. They have transmitted their resolution to Governor Haslam’s office with the following message: “As fellow Republicans, we respectfully ask that you please sign the bill that overwhelmingly passed in…
Read More
by Fred Lucas California law enforcement and local officials gathered at the White House on Wednesday to make it clear that Sacramento doesn’t speak for them on illegal immigration. The Democrat-controlled state legislature passed and Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a “sanctuary state” law that prohibits state and…
Read More
A spokesman from the Diane Black campaign for governor told The Tennessee Star over the weekend that their petition urging outgoing Governor Bill Haslam to sign recently-passed, anti-sanctuary city legislation into law has received an “overwhelming” amount of support by Tennesseans concerned about state and government officials turning a blind…
Read More
After Renata Soto, founder and director of Nashville-based Conexion Americas became a leader in the National Council of La Raza, both GOP gubernatorial candidates Beth Harwell and Randy Boyd, helped elevate her influence in political circles. The Tennessee Judicial Council first appointed Soto to the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (JPEC)…
Read More
Nashville-based National Council of La Raza affiliate partner, Conexion Americas, the beneficiary of a $250,000 donation from Randy Boyd and his wife Jenny, wants Governor Haslam to veto the anti-sanctuary city bill so that criminal illegal aliens can return to Tennessee communities instead of being handed off to federal immigration…
Read More
The anti-sanctuary city legislation sponsored by State Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) and State Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin) and passed overwhelmingly by the Tennessee General Assembly has been signed by Speaker of the House Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and on Thursday was formally transmitted to…
Read More
A new report issued by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), documents that Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville have been able to effectively operate as sanctuary cities by putting in place practices that skirt Tennessee’s 2009 law because it only prohibits written policies or ordinances. Comments made by Shelby County Commissioner Mark Billingsley during…
Read More
Opponents of sanctuary city policies understand that these measures which shield criminal illegal aliens increase the risks to public safety. All GOP gubernatorial candidates eventually issued statements opposing sanctuary city policies. What is not addressed, however, in the debate over sanctuary city policies, is the negative impact from illegal immigration…
Read More