Did Lee forget Tennessee is known for its hospitality?
When I was 17, my family made the difficult decision to uproot our lives and move from our home in Guatemala to Nashville.
My sister had just survived a violent kidnapping, and while I was devastated to leave my extended family and the country I grew up in, I knew we were privileged to be dual citizens with the ability for my parents to do what was safest for us.
We were quickly welcomed into a community that helped make sure we had everything we needed to thrive, from helping my parents find jobs to securing housing and a car to enrolling my sisters and I in school. They helped us feel safe and supported.
Whether we’ve lived here for years or are just arriving at the border, all of us deserve to be treated with the dignity my family experienced when we moved to Nashville all those years ago. As a mom myself, I now know that a parent will do anything to seek safety and opportunity for their children, but it shouldn’t take the privilege of dual citizenship to protect one’s family.
The reality is that many of us will move to a new place in the course of our lifetime – a new city, a new state, or even a new country, and no matter how, why or where, all of us deserve the opportunity to raise our families and be safe from harm.
And maybe most importantly, we deserve elected officials who will do everything in their power to build a state and nation where this is a reality.
But instead of recognizing the humanity and worth of those seeking safety and opportunity in our nation, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has chosen to back violence and devastation.
Recently, Governor Lee shamelessly backed Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to continue preventing federal border patrol agents from removing dangerous, ineffective razor wire buoys installed along a stretch of the U.s.-mexico border in Texas, an action in direct defiance of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
In August 2023, the buoys led to the drowning of three people, including two children, who were crossing the Rio Grande seeking safety. Twenty six Republican governors, including Governor Lee, have now expressed support for this deadly, dehumanizing action.
Plain and simple, the chainsaw buoys Governor Abbott has installed in the Rio Grande are designed to inflict harm on innocent people — they are cruel, inhumane, and do nothing to meaningfully address the challenges our immigration system faces.
We can all agree that we need improvements to our immigration system. The status quo isn’t working, and our leaders have a moral obligation to build an immigration system that ensures everyone is treated with dignity and respect, from improving the asylum process and hiring immigration judges to creating an opportunity for citizenship to those already here.
But instead we’re getting Governor Lee’s stamp of approval on bad-faith negotiations, dangerous enforcement, and the politicization of our humanity.
Every day, Tennesseans have shown time and again that we are ready to welcome newcomers to our state. We’ve been welcoming refugees to Tennessee for over 30 years with churches, volunteers, and employers providing shelter, donations, and jobs.
In Nashville, neighbors formed a human chain to protect a family from separation and deportation. In Chattanooga, when a bus dropped off people seeking asylum without warning, volunteers stepped up to provide transportation and assistance to help them reunite with loved ones.
And when my family moved to Nashville due to ongoing violence in Guatemala, you welcomed us too.
We are living out our Tennessee values, Governor Lee. It’s time you do the same.
Lisa Sherman Luna is the executive director of TIRRC Votes, the electoral arm of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.