RELEASE: TIRRC WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE’S HEARING ON MASS DEPORTATIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2024
CONTACT
Luis Mata, 865-297-8057, Luism@tnimmigrant.org
TENNESSEE IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE RIGHTS COALITION
WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE’S HEARING ON MASS DEPORTATIONS
Proposed Trump Administration’s Mass Deportation Plan Would Separate Families, Targeting Immigrants, Including U.S. Citizens, Who Have Long Called Tennessee Home
Nashville, TN— December 10, 2024, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened for a hearing titled, “How Mass Deportations Will Separate American Families, Harm Our Armed Forces, and Devastate Our Economy”. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is timely given statements by the President-elect and other spokespersons, including elected leaders from Tennessee, that his administration will conduct wide-spread campaigns to deport millions of undocumented people and will mobilize not only federal immigration authorities but also the national guard and local law enforcement.
Ahead of the hearing, a member of the Morristown community submitted written testimony on the effects of the 2018 mass worksite raid in Bean Station and how it affected Tennessee families, communities and economy. The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition played a significant role in responding to the raid.
“We know the devastating impacts caused by family separation. We’ve seen it before. Immigrant families deserve to feel safe in our communities and no one wants to see their neighbors, students, educators, parents, or co-workers disappear,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC). “As the incoming Trump administration makes clear and direct threats toward immigrant communities, we need investment in welcoming infrastructures from state and local government to make sure that all of us—no matter who we are, the color of our skin, or what's in our wallet—have what we need to feel safe and thrive.”
“The effects the raid had on the community have been profound and long lasting. Children were separated from parents, spouses were separated from each other - without even a chance to say goodbye. Families lost their primary breadwinner. Neighbors lost neighbors. Our town was permanently altered,” said Colleen Jacobs, General Parish Manager at a church in Morristown Tennessee. “There are no simple “one step” answers to immigration in the US. But when we can see the world with compassion, the result is what we saw in Morristown. The politics became about the PEOPLE and their needs, not who was Republican or Democrat, Baptist or Catholic, Hispanic or Anglo. We were a community helping its neighbors. It does not get more American than that.”
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The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is a statewide, immigrant and refugee-led collaboration whose mission is to build power, amplify our voices, and organize communities to advocate for our rights in order to build a stronger, more inclusive Tennessee where people of all nationalities, immigration statuses, and racial identities can belong and thrive. Since its founding in 2001, TIRRC has grown from a grassroots network of community leaders into one of the most diverse and effective coalitions of its kind, a model for emerging immigrant rights organizations in the Southeast and throughout the United States.
