As we reported earlier, tomorrow is the first meeting of a special committee of the Tennessee legislature to begin to address the state’s rights under the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution. In terms everyone understands, the first order of business is to address the problem of the federal government and its private contractor (Catholic Charities in this case) dumping the cost of taking care of refugees on the backs of the taxpayers of Tennessee.
Now the Open Borders activists in the city of Nashville are coming out of the woodwork to try to drum-up opposition and rally their troops to battle for tomorrow’s first meeting of the committee. Below is Avi Poster, a Chicago transplant and community organizer, with an action alert to his followers.
We first came across Poster in 2009 when RRW went to Nashville for a weekend conference on Islam and Poster’s sidekick, Tom Negri, who managed the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel broke the contract with the organizing group fearing violence, or so Negri said. A few days after the conference was successfully held in a “welcoming” hotel (with no violence, I might add!), Negri and Poster held a press conference in support of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” here in the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.
Avi Poster to his network about tomorrow:
I hope this message finds you all well. I’ll be brief…
This Wednesday, state representatives will hold a public hearing on refugee resettlement in Tennessee. The hearing was organized by the same handful of anti-immigrant/anti-Muslim/anti-refugee state legislators we so often hear from during the legislative session (Rep. Joe Carr and Re. Judd Matheny to name a few). Their goal is to spread misinformation about the costs of refugee resettlement with the end goal of ending all refugee resettlement in Tennessee. The event is titled “Federal Cost Shifting of Refugee Resettlement.”
Last legislative session, some anti-refugee leaders introduced HB1326/SB1325, which would have required the Tennessee Office of Refugees and any refugee resettlement organization that receives federal funding to reimburse the state for the “cost” of refugees. It was mean-spirited and clearly an attack on refugee communities, and it went nowhere. The bill was sent to “summer study” to die, but has found new life in this public hearing which is lop-sided with anti-refugee advocates.
Helping people get back on their feet after they’ve escaped war or famine is one thing that makes our country, and this state, great. The refugees that have moved to Tennessee, from Kurdistan, Somalia, and elsewhere, are fully contributing members of our community – owning businesses, showing leadership in our neighborhoods, and adding to the diversity of cultures that makes Tennessee beautiful.
We need to fill the room on Wednesday and make our voice heard. Attacking people who are fleeing hard times is pretty low – we need to show these legislators we won’t stand for it. [Community organizers, like Poster, are one-trick ponies! Demanding financial accountability is code for xenophobia, don’t you know!–ed]
Can you be there?
This Wednesday, August 21st at 9:00am. Room 16 Legislative Plaza. We are meeting outside security at 8:15am.
If you are able to go, email Eben Cathey at eben@tnimmigrant.org or call him at 615-775-1069.
Thanks,
Avi (and Eben)
Wish I could be there as Tennessee takes the lead in demanding accountability from the federal government. Please let your friends know what Tennessee is doing!
See our category on Nashville, here, with 55 previous posts about the “cultural diversity” Catholic Charities and the US State Department have brought to Tennessee (on your dime!).