I had read about the Arizona copycat bill (HB1380/SB0790) and thought it was both unconstitutional and an irresponsible move economically for our state, especially in light of all the money Arizona has spent defending SB1070 in court (3 months after the AZ bill was made law, they had already spent $1 million in litigation costs). However, talking about it with people--legislators, no less--who most likely would disagree with my position and who might ask me question I couldn't answer was daunting, even if I was going with groups of people who could do most of the talking.
But that day I enjoyed getting to see everyone running around, and I got to talk to a few legislators and aides who stopped by our table about the work of Conexiòn Amèricas, which is something that I feel pretty comfortable doing at this point in the year. The sub-committee was supposed to vote on HB1380 that afternoon, but it got pushed back, perhaps in part because a demonstration had been organized for that afternoon in response to the bill.
The next week, on March 29, I got another opportunity to go to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) New American Day on the Hill that is their annual lobbying day. Over 100 immigrants, refugees, and friends showed up for the event. We were placed in groups to go and speak to legislators about several bills, including the Arizona copycat bill (see the end of this blog entry for a list of other TN bills that would affect immigrants and refugees).
This time I did go to meetings, but I was with a group of about 12 people, so I didn't have to speak, but once we got going, it was hard not to. It turns out, one of the senators we spoke with had never even heard of most of the bills we were talking about. I think it was a powerful witness, though, to have a group made up of 3 US citizens born in the US, 1 Vanderbilt student with dual citizenship with the US and Mexico, 2 Guatemalan high school graduates who came to the US at a young age with their families, one Mexican high school senior planning to go to Lipscomb University in the fall (one of the few universities that accepts undocumented students), four Somali refugees, and one Iraqi refugee.
This is a picture of some of our group speaking to Senator Douglas Henry about an anti-refugee bill (SB1670 sponsored by Tracy and HB1632 sponsored by Dunn) that would give local government councils the authority to determine if a community is beyond "asborptive capacity" for new immigrants and refugees, and the discretion to prohibit new refugees from resettling there.
The next afternoon, on March 30, the State and Local Government House Sub-committee "recommended for passage" the Arizona copycat legislation and passed it up to the State and Local Government committee, where it is now scheduled to be voted on April 12 (this week). (You may remember that Curry Todd, the chair of this committee, is the legislator who referred to Latina women as "rats" in November). If you are a TN resident, I encourage you to contact the members of the State and Local Government committee and encourage them to vote "no" on HB1380. For more information about some of the bills and talking points, check out this page on the TIRRC webiste (and sign up for their e-mails!)
If you are interested in the status of some of the other bills that would affect immigrants and refugees in Tennessee, go to the TN General Assembly web page and type in the number of the bill.
Here are a few that might be of interest:
Arizona copycat bills and local enforcement of federal immigration law: HB1380/SB780, HB1578/SB770, HB1582/SB1567
English-only driving test bill: SB0010/HB0454
Anti-refugee bill (the one I mentioned above): SB1670, HB1632
Bills that affect immigrant students' access to education: SB170/SB1469, SB09, SB0681, HB335
