Tennessee committee on refugee issues releases final recommendations

(The Center Square) – The Tennessee General Assembly’s Joint Study Committee on Refugee Issues made four recommendations Thursday in its final report.

The plan was approved by an 8-1 vote of the committee, which consisted of 10 Republican legislators. Rep. Bruce Griffey, R-Paris, was the only committee member to vote against finalizing the report. Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, was absent.

The group recommended a resolution be created, calling for the federal government to tell the state of Tennessee the location of Unaccompanied Alien Children being transported in Tennessee, along with supporting the Migrant Resettlement Transparency Act introduced by Tennessee’s U.S. senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.

The group also recommended reporting requirements for residential child care agencies (RCCAs), the organizations in charge of placing the unaccompanied minors. Those requirements include contract disclosure, a census disclosure of children upon request and an annual report.

Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, asked what the measures would cost the state, something that was not included in the report. Jim Layman, executive director of legislation for the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) said those numbers had not yet been compiled.

Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, a member of the state’s Fiscal Review Committee, said the process would be inefficient if Fiscal Review looked at all legislators’ ideas before they became bills.

“You don’t have to know the cost in order to put forward a recommendation,” Watson said. “If considered, then a fiscal note would be prepared. … It’s premature to make that decision now.”

The committee also recommended that RCCAs be required to immediately report to DCS any juveniles missing from a licensed facility and to report where children are headed upon leaving custody.

The committee also recommended revoking the license of any facility where multiple employees are charged with a criminal offense related to their job responsibilities or related to children served by the agency.

Sen. Dawn White, R-Murfreesboro, said she would be working on a resolution to incorporate the committee’s ideas, especially the first recommendation related directly to a resolution.

White also said any committee member could file a bill related to what the committee discussed and learned. The group released its 55-page final report on Thursday.

Griffey recently has filed several bills related to immigrant issues. House Bill 1994 is tailored after an idea forwarded by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that would relocate anyone found in Tennessee who is not legally in the country to Delaware, California, Connecticut, Martha’s Vinyard or Vermont, the home states of the Democrats who Griffey said are responsible for the country’s border crisis.

Griffey also proposed House Bill 1648, which would allow a school district to deny enrollment to any student found to be in the country illegally and eliminates state funding for those students.

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