Otis Sanford reporting:
Once again, the supermajority in the Tennessee legislature has served up a tasteless dish of red meat to its conservative base — at the expense of undocumented immigrants.
The House and Senate passed legislation — mostly along party lines — requiring local law enforcement agencies to, in essence, become the immigration police.
The bill mandates that local police determine a suspect’s immigration status, then work with the feds to arrest, detain and possibly remove them from the country. The bill now goes to Gov. Bill Lee who will not doubt sign it into law.
Republican Brent Taylor sponsored the bill in the Senate. He insists it’s not designed to separate families or unfairly profile individuals.
It applies, he says, only to people who break the law, but you can bet that in some areas of Tennessee, racial profiling and family separations are exactly what will happen.
Plus, police in Memphis already have enough to do. It also should be noted that the Senate passed its bill just hours before a devastating bridge collapse in Baltimore that killed six people — all of them immigrants who were working overnight fixing potholes on the bridge to keep others safe.
The fact is, Tennessee is not being overrun with undocumented immigrants, so there is no need for this legislation — other than to score cheap political points in an election year.
Like I said, tasteless red meat.
I’m Otis Sanford, and that’s my point of view.