Updated April 15, 2021
Published April 13, 2021
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
As Tennessee schools continue to struggle to overcome learning loss worsened by the government’s response to the virus, Hamilton County Schools have been alerted to expect an influx of immigrant children to be admitted into the school system, as reported by Chattanoogan.com.
The email states: “The Chattanooga area may experience an increase of unattended migrant youth…. If any of the students show up to register at your school, please register them immediately. They do not need 2 proofs of residency (or be “in zone”), a birth certificate, immunization record, or proof of guardianship as they will be covered under the McKenney-Vento Homeless Act.”
However, according to a Fact Sheet published by the Department of Education, the children do not fall under the McKenney-Vento Act until they are released to their sponsor.
In an interview with The Tennessee Conservative, Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger said, “I didn’t know anything about it. I actually read about it in a local publication. No one has contacted me about it officially even yet.”
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn states, “Biden’s border crisis is hitting home fast. Do these schools have the space and staff to handle this surge? This is unfair to TN school children. When our border isn’t secure, every town is a border town.”
Tennessee taxpayers are weighing in on this issue because of its potential impact on the community. From 2013 through 2017, 46 percent of these unaccompanied minors disappeared before court.
In raw numbers, 22,149 children out of 48,543 never made their court dates, meaning the person or agency with custody of the child ignored their summons (better known as a Notice to Appear or NTA).
Helen, a Tennessee resident, said, “We must stop this invasion into our state of Tennessee. This should be presented to the legislators immediately for them to enact laws to stop it before it gets completely out of hand. We can see what is happening to the rest of the country by all of this. Please let’s protect our beautiful state of Tennessee.”
“Each state should have full disclosure about who enters for residency. If the Tennessee does not agree to accept people entering illegally, then they should be sent to a state that voted for this mess,” Lauria Rutan stated.
In response to this story reaching the public, Hamilton County Schools issued this statement on Social Media:
“Regardless of where migrant children may come from, The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Plyler v. Doe (1982) that the State cannot deny access to public education to a child on the basis of their citizenship status. The McKinney-Vento Act of 1987 is federal law that also speaks to the role of a public school system in educating unaccompanied youth, which includes migrant children.”
In response to our inquiries, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued this statement to the Tennessee Conservative:
“The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families provides residential care and services for unaccompanied children (UC) through contracts or the competitive or non-competitive grant process to organizations incorporated under state law which have demonstrated child welfare, social service, or related experience and are appropriately licensed to provide care and associated services to dependent children.
The Baptiste Group operates a state-licensed facility for UC in ORR care. ORR has specific requirements for the provision of services. Award recipients must have the infrastructure, licensing, experience, and appropriate level of trained staff to meet those requirements. Also, for security reasons, we do not release the locations of the permanent, state-licensed shelters.”
According to News Channel 9, last year Pastor Kevin Wallace on Redemption to the Nations Church leased a “vacant and unused building to a non-profit, federally funded organization for the purpose of providing compassionate care and family unification services for children displaced from their families.”
The building in question is an old Tennessee Temple Dormitory in Chattanooga on Vance Avenue. Black tarps have been erected around the perimeter of the building, preventing the public from seeing what is taking place on the grounds.
In response to our breaking story on Friday, more readers posted their feelings on the issue.
Grant Howze stated, “To quote Sir Thomas Browne, ‘charity begins at home.’ You need to care for your own people before caring for others. As long as there are veterans living on the street or having to wait for months for healthcare, not a penny of tax dollars should go to care for those here illegally.”
Julia said, “I wholeheartedly believe that this country needs to take a stand on these illegal immigrants coming in to the United States. I don’t care if they are children or great grand-parents. They are still a human being that requires more care than we need to be providing. Let’s recover from the pandemic and then take another look at immigration. This country needs to focus on one problem at a time.”
“Fault NOT the children, but rather those who intentionally communicated and abandoned them at our southern-most border, for criminals they have been, and remain, “said Lewis Deane.
The Tennessee Conservative has reached out to the following but have yet to receive a reply:
District 4 County Commissioner Warren Mackey, District 9 City Councilmember Demetrus Coonrod, Chattanooga City Mayor Andy Berke, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire, and U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann.
U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty recently released this statement.
The Tennessee Conservative will continue to follow this story as it progresses. If you have information regarding this story, please contact news@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
18 Responses
PUT THEM ON A BUS Send them on to Washington DC to the white house let joe take them in. DON’T SPEND MY TAX MONEY ON YHEM
I agree. Send them to castlerock
Wait — I just received an email from our public school system, that our 7th grader will not be allowed to attend UNTIL we provide a vaccination certificate on a TN form. But anyone who is illegal can go to school without any documentation? Where is the common sense in this?
FYI, in case you already don’t know, TN allows religious exemptions to vaccines, and public schools must accept them. Pretty simple form to fill out, in case you’re interested (:
That’s what burns my biscuits!
This is sickening. YOUR kids better have proof of everything – birth certificate, immunizations, etc. But these illegals? Not needed. This invasion is being aided and abetted by the current Federal Administration. And where is the Governor? Where are our legislators?
This is absolutely unacceptable! Our children need to be priority number 1! After everyone of the children that live in Hamilton county, whose parents are and have been paying taxes for years, are attending in person schools, Only then can we even consider what role we would have in helping the migrant children. I think that they should be taken care of and taught by the Washington DC school system. That is where the people that support having undocumented children allowed into our country are living.
Governor Lee,
This must not stand,Tennessee must not aid and abett those in Washington DC in this criminal act regardless of who they are saying is coming here, these children are being used for illegal purposes and we must not allow this criminal act in our state! Tell them no! Under no circumstances will Tennessee be complicit in this crime! ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL !
Governor Lee,
This must not stand,Tennessee must not aid and abett those in Washington DC in this criminal act regardless of who they are saying is coming here, these children are being used for illegal purposes and we must not allow this criminal act in our state! Tell them no! Under no circumstances will Tennessee be complicit in this crime! ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL !
My heart breaks for these children who are here through no fault of their own, especially those 14 and under. The older teens do carry some responsibility for their plight because they could have refused to come. Congress needs to pass a law that, for every dollar on these “homeless” children, an equal dollar should be spent on our own homeless children and veterans living in cars and tents or the streets.
Are we to be so foolish as to believe this is not a planned invasion of Tennessee and its tax resources. What kind of person sends their child a thousand miles thru unknown danger to American? They claim economic hardship in their country but can find thousands of dollars to get across the border. They first settle in the large more Democratic Cities sponging off their compassion, then drift to the border Counties and start the political invasion. First school boards , town boards, and At-Large Officials. Why do legal citizens have to abide by one set of rules while non-citizens are a protected class with no rules?
Stop this madness NOW!!! Citizens of the United States are required to provide Id’s, proof of citizenship and proof of vaccination (flu, Covid-19, and/or anything else), but these people, who are in OUR country illegally, can attend schools, get medical care and anything else the democrats think they need, with nothing that our citizen kids have to have? Where’s the equality (that the democrats keep harping about) in that??? Stop spending our tax dollars on people who are in our country illegally! Stop letting them enter! Turn them around at the border! How simple is that? Just say “no”!
Let’s Thank Joe For This Big Mess. Guess Who Will Be Paying For His Mess In The End, You, Me….
Let’s Thank Joe For This Big Mess. Guess Who Will Be Paying For His Mess In The End, You, Me….
Your governor is missing in action as is 90% of the state legislature. They have been bought off by the construction lobby looking for cheap and plentiful labor. Good luck!
On March 31st, the Governor of Iowa notified the Biden administration in DC unaccompanied/undocumented migrant children are not permitted in the state of Iowa. Where is our Governor Lee ? Why isn’t he demanding the federal government inform him of their intentions, and demand they cannot move these children here? The new Biden administration caused this problem, they should solve it.
I feel for the bleeding hearts, but our children come first. We are in need of schools now to cover our needs. Our kids are being held behind in classes, We are not able to offer advanced classes because the money isn’t there and some of our schools do not even have books for all the students. Let’s clean our own schools up and advance them before we save the world.
The issue is actually not about the children and never was. They are being used as pawns to tug on the heartstrings of folks who can only feel emotion and not be able to look deeper at the sinister issue at hand: ILLEGAL activity at the border involves paid “coyotes” to smuggle kids in after being paid off lots of $$$ – if their debt cannot be paid, they are often put to labor or sex slavery. The parents are torn from the kids. Kids are kidnapped and USED in central America, as “bait” to let them get over the border. It takes some serious $$$ and coordination to get these busses loaded with kids and transported 1000’s of miles across Central America and through Mexico, to the border. The “loose” borders make it easy for militant factions, drug dealers, and sex traffickers to get across the border without scrutiny. Our country already has an overload of homeless and jobless folks, and now we are being weighed down even further with engineered immigrant issues. Remember the pre-flight instructions the flight attendants give on every airline? If there is an emergency, you better make sure you put on your own oxygen mask before trying to help others. America is NOT equipped to save the woes of all the other countries on this planet. >>>All the while, the people of our country don’t think critically, don’t think about when the “$$$ bill comes due,” and don’t care to investigate deeper. This is not good for ANYONE – the kids of our country OR other countries, family structure, and reasonable law and order. Drugs, trafficking, smuggling… and if you mention these facts and provide actual evidence to back it up — hold on to your seat — the only thing they can say to you is… that you’re a RACIST. Yup. We are dealing with insanity.