State Senator Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) reflected on his work in the Tennessee General Assembly during this year’s recent-adjourned legislative session, specifically when it comes to passing legislation protecting children and addressing the effects of illegal immigration at the state level.
On Friday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show guest hosted by Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition and former Tennessee Star reporter, Haile (pictured above) first discussed the southern border crisis, explaining how the state has had to step up to deal with the effects of illegal immigration as the Biden administration refuses to address the crisis.
“The problems that we have with immigration are real. They’re real. Many folks, they see the pictures [at the border], but they don’t understand all that represents. It represents sex trafficking of children. It represents illegal drugs that come across. It represents a lot of felons, folks that want to do individuals harm. Not good. That’s not everyone that comes across, but those are involved, including that. We need our immigration system to be robust, but it needs to be honest. It needs to be truthful. We need to look at these individuals that are coming across and process them in a very timely manner – not 15 years out. You’re not processing them doing that,” Haile said.
Noting how Tennessee has sent National Guard troops to assist with border security efforts, Haile said the General Assembly passed two pieces of legislation this year that focuses on the border crisis’ effects at the state level, specifically when it comes to collecting data on illegal aliens who have resettled in the Volunteer State and giving the attorney general standing to sue the Biden administration on immigration cases.
“There’s always the concern or has been the conversation about how much illegal immigration is costing the state of Tennessee and we really don’t have a handle on that. We know it’s taking place, but we don’t have a handle on it. So we passed two bills that I carried this year, took two bills to get this done. One was that we wanted to know of those illegals who are not here legally and are being arrested, being housed in our jails and in our prisons. We want to know who those individuals are. We want numbers and data off of that,” Haile said.
“Then, the second bill is we can take that data – law enforcement is supposed to send that information to the district attorney’s conference – and then with that data, the district attorney’s conference will take that data, work that data, put dollars to that so we know how much it costs to house someone in jail as an average, in prison or in our county jails, so we can get that figured,” Haile added. “The reason that this is important is we want to be able to give our attorney general the ability to file against the federal government so that he has standing.”
When it comes to his work protecting children in Tennessee, Haile championed the passage of his Family Rights and Responsibilities Act, which declares that the ability of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of that parent’s child is a “fundamental right.”
“First thing that I want to say is that we as a state, and neither can the federal government, give these rights to parents. In my opinion, they are God-given rights. They are natural rights that are given to parents. They’re God-given. All we’re doing is identifying those and recognizing those from a legal perspective,” Haile said.
Haile, who was recently awarded a Defender of Children award from the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, also discussed the General Assembly’s work to improve the adoption process in the Volunteer State.
“We have been heavily involved with [adoption] and over a few years we have basically rewritten the adoption laws in the state of Tennessee. It takes time. We put together an adoption and foster care coalition last year. We had about 20 or 22 bills spread out between different members of the General Assembly that were interested in particular areas of that. The goal of all that was to make adoption faster, easier, and cheaper,” Haile explained. “There were just numerous bills that we’ve done to try and cut down the paperwork, the time that you have to wait, getting folks to a permanent situation to the adoption much quicker.”
Haile said his continued work to craft legislation that works to improve the adoption process and provide resources to children in the Volunteer State goes hand in hand with having a pro-life stance.
“There’s a lot more to being pro-life than it is just being anti-abortion. I’m anti-abortion. No question. No question at all. I’m completely anti-abortion. But there’s more to it. These children that are being born have to be taken care of,” Haile added. “There are children unwanted by their parents, or they would have aborted them if they could have. So there’s a lot that we need to do as pro-life to help protect those children, getting those children to a good home, or if the parent that would have aborted that child comes to realize, ‘I love my child, but I need some help in how I rethink how I live my life.’ So all that comes into play when it comes to being pro-life.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Senator Ferrell Haile” by Home Builders Association of Tennessee.
