Biden-Harris Admin Colluded with Nonprofits to Send Thousands of Illegal Immigrants to Tennessee Before Lawsuit by A.G. Skrmetti Lawsuit Halted Process

The Biden-Harris administration worked with former Nashville Mayor John Cooper and non-profit organizations to move thousands of illegal immigrants from federal facilities in Louisiana to Nashville, according to internal emails and documents published Wednesday by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, whose office successfully sued to stop the practice.

A press release from the attorney general’s office reveals that the plan was enacted by officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with cooperation from Cooper’s office. However, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), as well as Governor Bill Lee, opposed it.

While Skrmetti’s lawsuit was successful in forcing ICE to abandon its plans, the press release revealed that more than 7,000 illegal immigrant detainees were released from the federal facility to unknown destinations before the plan was stopped.

Additionally, 30 of these illegal immigrants “were assigned ICE’s highest security-level threat,” while others had “criminal records, including homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, armed robbery, kidnapping, smuggling aliens, drug trafficking, burglary, and fraud.”

In a statement, Skrmetti said the lawsuit was proof the Biden-Harris administration is failing to uphold the key functions of government.

“The federal government’s single most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country and instead it has let killers and rapists illegally cross our border and walk free on our streets,” said Skrmetti. “While the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my Office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability.”

Emails exchanged between ICE officials and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) reveal the organization had extensive access to federal officials.

“I’m following up on whether your organization or partner(s) could be interested in supporting released noncitizens,” an ICE official wrote in an email to the executive director of TIRCC on December 6, 2022.

The executive director replied, “Would it be possible to meet at your offices tomorrow? I’m available to meet in the morning before 11 am?”

Subsequent emails confirm the meeting was promptly arranged by ICE staff and occurred on December 7, 2022.

Weeks later, emails suggest federal officials were not surprised to learn Lee did not approve of its plans.

While sending a Fox News article containing comments by Lee about the plans to release illegal immigrants in Tennessee, which was published following a meeting between ICE officials and the governor, one official wrote, “that didn’t take long.”

Another replied to the email, “In my opinion, the meeting we had went well and they appreciated us reaching out but they were opposed to any ICE releases.”

Lee later wrote about the plans in a thread posted to X, calling the now-abandoned plans “a threat to the safety of Tennesseans.”

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].