Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, explained different ways the Metro Nashville City Council’s new Immigrant Caucus may aid illegal aliens in Music City.
The caucus, formed earlier this month, will address a “wide array of issues affecting immigrant communities, including access to essential services, economic empowerment, language access, language assistance programs, and cultural integration initiatives,” according to the Metro Council’s website.
However, Vaughan says the typical purpose for such a caucus, based on other examples across the nation, will be to obtain money from the federal or state government to aid illegal aliens.
“Usually, the purpose of these offices is to try to obtain funding from the federal government or the state government for programs they have to support mostly, what ends up being mostly, illegal aliens,” Vaughan explained on Thursday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.
“I mean, there can be some positive things that these organizations do,” she added. “If, for example, they help people, help legal immigrants become citizens by offering English language classes or civics classes that they need to pass the naturalization test. But that’s kind of a small activity – it wouldn’t take up a lot of time or effort even though it’s certainly worthwhile.”
Vaughan went on to note how many groups across the country similar to the metro council’s Immigrant Caucus have ended up becoming “de facto lobbyists for the interests of illegal immigrants.”
“Usually what they end up doing is becoming de facto kind of lobbyists for the interests of illegal immigrants,” Vaughan said. “You know, trying to push the city government to look the other way at immigration status when giving out benefits and other kinds of issues like that. Look the other way at people not having the proper identification…they often will push these illegal alien ID cards and try to pressure banks and landlords and merchants to accept them even though they’re not worth the plastic they’re printed on. So they are pretty much lobbyists.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Illegal Immigrant Processing Center” by Chief Border Patrol Agent John Modlin.
