Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (Photo: John Partipilo)
Just in time for Halloween — well, really the presidential election — Tennessee’s attorney general is trying to scare the bejeebers out of us, claiming the feds conspired to dump immigrants with criminal convictions into our midst two years ago.
The Attorney General’s Office release sent out Wednesday accuses Immigrations and Customs Enforcement of working with the Metro Nashville Mayor’s Office and a Tennessee immigration nonprofit of trying to sneak hundreds of immigrants from a Louisiana facility into Tennessee without the knowledge of the governor and state leaders in late 2022.
Releases of vetted asylum seekers into Tennessee were to begin when the federal government’s COVID-19 pause on immigration lapsed. But they never took place after Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. senators balked at the plan.
Even though the idea never materialized, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in October 2023 for public records related to discussions about the pending transfer of immigrants.
Those records show the groups met with Lee and staff to discuss the matter in mid-December 2022. The nearly 360 pages of documents, most of which are duplicates and take hours to parse, definitely say ICE planned to release hundreds of single adults in Tennessee.
But at least one document also says none of them would be “criminal or public safety threats.”
Skrmetti, who hasn’t tried to cover up his opposition to Biden administration policies, proved his timing is impeccable by making his statement during early voting and less than two weeks before Election Day. The public records case against the feds wrapped up Sept. 26 with the release of documents.
“The federal government’s single most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country … ,” Skrmetti said in the statement. “While the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability.”
Certainly, transparency is important, but Skrmetti’s office declined to respond to questions about why it failed to mention that these immigrants had gone through the first part of the feds’ vetting process. And what about the timing? Why did Skrmetti wait a month to claim victory, just in time to give everyone a Halloween headache?
And why is he snapping on the mayor’s office and an immigration group?
The Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition cried foul two years ago when Lee and company called for the Biden administration to reverse the plan. TIRRC staff said local officials made “misleading” and “fear mongering” statements about the coordination of asylum seekers, and their stance hasn’t changed. Part of the group’s mission is to help immigrants and people seeking asylum receive support and find homes in an organized fashion.
TIRRC Executive Director Lisa Sherman Luna responded to this week’s Skrmetti screed by saying the organization wants a “safe and orderly immigration system that welcomes people with dignity.” The group was “eager” to back coordination between local, state and federal officials with nonprofits, churches and volunteers to “safely support” people cleared for release to families across the country, she said.
Sherman Luna contends the federal documents released through the public records request show “an attempt to bring order” to the nation’s immigration system, which has been under fire for decades.
Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office said Thursday it was disappointing to see the attorney general “grossly mischaracterize” communications from 2022 between state, federal and local officials. It pointed out Mayor John Cooper’s administration was asking questions to “get clarity on federal action, so Metro would be prepared in the event potential asylum seekers were brought to Nashville.”
Metro Law Director Wally Dietz was more pointed. He said the records show Metro was asking “due diligence” questions to prepare for an increase in the population that might not have a place to live and added that Skrmetti left out the fact that the Governor’s Office was “key” in the negotiations, raising the question about whether his statements are politically motivated.
“General Skrmetti is single-handedly besmirching a decades-long tradition of nonpartisan attorneys general in Tennessee,” Dietz said.
Critics of the Biden-Harris administration point mainly toward illegal immigration as a failure by the White House, claiming they “opened” the border and let migrants stream into the country. Most fail to mention that former President Donald Trump urged Republican senators to vote against an immigration reform bill that might have solved some of this complex situation.
Sherman Luna said she is worried the AG’s news release could prove to be dangerous. The coalition closed down its physical office temporarily after the attorney general’s announcement out of concern about repercussions, feeling as though the AG put a target on the state’s immigrant advocacy organizations.
“In this period of heightened rhetoric targeting immigrant communities and misinformation about government, the attorney general’s inflammatory release poses real threats to public safety by inciting outrage and fear over well-intentioned attempts at making progress to improve our immigration system,” she said in a statement.
Democratic Sen. Charlane Oliver of Nashville was even more adamant, saying Skrmetti is trying to sway voters with a “blatant partisan attempt to stoke fear and division” by “recycling” Trump rhetoric.
“His 400 pages of cherry-picked data serve no purpose other than to spread misinformation and incite anger. Despite his claims of danger, the AG failed to provide any real evidence of specific threats to Tennesseans or an actual investigation — only fear-mongering designed to push his political agenda,” Oliver said in a statement.
Oliver contends Skrmetti’s continual use of the AG’s Office as a “political bully pulpit” to block women’s reproductive health care, attack racial equity initiatives and target immigrant communities is a form of “political warfare.” She said he “scapegoats” immigrants who live here legally and puts nonprofit workers and advocates in “serious danger.”
“The timing of this release — of an incident that occurred two years ago — is highly questionable,” Oliver said.
Missing the “Ray-gun”
The votes haven’t even been counted in the Nov. 5 election, and we’re already wondering what happened to Rep. John Ragan.
But wait, the Tennessee Journal unearthed a farewell to arms from the “punctilious” Oak Ridge Republican who spent the better part of his House tenure beating up on mainly the LGBTQ community and reminding people that we shouldn’t do anything to repay Black Tennesseans for centuries of servitude.
Upon his defeat at the hands of former Clinton Police Chief Rick Scarbrough, Ragan somehow got the idea that Republicans owed him nothing short of overturning a primary election he claims was stolen by Democrats.
Proving that he is full of goodwill, Ragan sent a letter to House and Senate members in mid-October designed to rewrite his legislative history, saying he always tried to do what the “Good Lord” wanted. (Be very afraid when people invoke God as their motive.)
“While we may have disagreed on occasions as to exactly which was the best path to choose, from seemingly equally bad or equally good options, I never doubted that, like me, you were aiming at the same goal,” he wrote. (It’s unclear what goals he shared with any Democrats and many Republicans.)
Ragan went on to write that “politics and its rhetoric can sometimes make for an ego bruising combination.” Regardless, he tried to follow Thomas Jefferson’s “suggestion to never let politics, religion or philosophy come between me and a friend.”
Gee, did Rep. Ragan have friends in the Legislature? Of course, he did? But in the waning moments of this year’s session, the Republican-controlled chamber voted to kill his final bill, which would have prohibited reparations and the study of payments to slaves’ descendants in Tennessee. (Shelby County started studying reparations after the beating death of motorist Tyre Nichols.) Even House Speaker Cameron Sexton voted to table Ragan’s bill.
It is fitting that Ragan quoted President Andrew Jackson in the final graph of his parting letter, “The price of liberty is constant vigilance.” He added that “zealous pursuit of constitutionally-based justice is no vice, and a fainthearted attempt to protect God-given liberty is no virtue.”
At least he admitted to zealotry. But if you want to equate constitutionality with the Tennessee Legislature, you’re barking up the wrong tree.
“I don’t care too much for money”
(Except when I need a cold beer)
A state financial report shows cash is rolling in from sales tax payers through September with collections exceeding targets by about $87 million for the general fund.
The state beat its budget by $64 million in sales tax collections for September, even though the sales tax holiday was brief this year. Franchise and excise taxes were “over-collected” by $15.5 million.
Yet businesses have paid $81.6 million less in franchise and excise taxes than they did at this point last year. This is not shocking, considering the Legislature cut businesses taxes in 2023 and adopted a $1.9 billion break this year, including rebates.
For September, franchise and excise taxes came in $69.8 million under 2023 collections, 9.2% less.
While they’re making budget projections on both levels, it appears to the uneducated that sales taxes are keeping the ship afloat while big corporations, many of them out of state, are skating by with a nice cut. It’s not clear whether they’re taking that extra money and giving pay raises to the unwashed masses of workers.
“Suckers walk, money talks / But it can’t touch my three-lock box.” Sammy Hagar
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