Nashville, Tenn.–On Thursday, Tennessee House member Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) filed House Bill 1578 in an effort to bar refugee resettlement in Tennessee.
Griffey said the bill seizes upon President Trump’s Executive Order 13888, which created new rules requiring states and local governments to give their written consent before refugees can be resettled.
Griffey’s Bill 1574 would require a local government to consent to receiving refugees in its community through a resolution receiving a 2/3 vote, and, then, the legislature would have to approve the local government’s resolution by a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate before refugees could be resettled in the specific local community requesting it, according to Griffey.
“There are numerous reasons that dictate against continued refugee resettlement in Tennessee,” Griffey said. “First and foremost, almost all economists, and simple logic, indicate that adding refugees to Tennessee’s labor pool would have an adverse effect on wages for Tennesseans at the bottom of the economic scale. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), both rural Tennessee and rural America has suffered historic losses in good paying manufacturing jobs. I saw firsthand the devastating effects of NAFTA on small town workers, their livelihoods, and how that devastated the local economy. The good news is American manufacturing is on the rebound. We need to protect and help American manufacturing grow while at the same time protect and try to increase wages for those Tennesseans at the bottom of the economic scale. It is the right thing to do, not just for Tennesseans but for ALL AMERICANS. It is too soon in my estimation to ease wage pressure by importing refugee labor and/or allowing illegal immigration labor to continue to operate in Tennessee unabated. My motto is ‘Tennesseans First’”, stated Griffey.”
In his press release, Griffey lists other reasons for his bill:
” * Second, the refugee resettlement program costs millions of dollars, which the federal government transfers to the state for absorption and Tennessee ends up funding the program. Instead of supporting refugees, Tennessee tax dollars should be supporting Tennesseans first and foremost. In Tennessee, we have homeless veterans, who we need to be helping before refugees. We have children living on dirt floors and/or in meth homes, who we need to be helping before refugees.
* Third, refugee resettlement poses not only high costs, but also high risks in relation to security. There are inherent problems with screening and vetting refugees. Electronic footprints are rare or non-existent, and reliance exclusively on hard documents is rife with fraud by individuals seeking to create false identities using counterfeit paperwork.
* Fourth, the toll that refugee resettlement takes not only on Tennessee, but also on local jurisdictions within the state, can expand exponentially due to chain migration policies allowing each refugee to ultimately add to the population multiple new immigrants, who often do not speak English, are uneducated, lack marketable skills and further drain state and local resources. Inevitably, they increase the burden on public schools, social service agencies and emergency rooms and further strain local infrastructure such as roads and public housing.
* Fifth, the lines are often blurred between “humanitarian aid” and financial gain with respect to refugee resettlement programs. The federal refugee resettlement program has spawned a private refugee cottage industry consisting of purported “charitable groups” that lobby for more and more refugee admissions inasmuch as it equates to greater financial gain and more money in their pockets.
* Sixth , although economic integration and self-sufficiency are allegedly the goals of organizations that have developed a profitable refugee industry, refugees are often abandoned shortly after their arrival, leaving the taxpayer subsidized welfare system to take over their support. Refugees are eligible for numerous welfare benefits immediately upon their arrival just as if they are native-born citizens. Relative to native-born citizens, however, refugees are 3-5 times more likely to receive food stamps, SSI, Medicaid, cash welfare and public housing. For example, a 2013 study reflected that 74% of refugees received food stamps.”
“For these reasons, I firmly believe that the refugee resettlement program is not in the best interest of Tennessee or Tennesseans.” he said. “We need to take care of our own first – Tennessee and Tennesseans first! Only when the vast majority of Tennesseans are employed with good jobs and good wages and in a position to take care of their families without relying upon income assistance from the government, should Tennessee even consider allowing refugees to resettle here.”
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