In March 2019, I reported on an ad by Tennessee Senator and Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn, who was running for office against the Democrat Phil Bredesen. In her advertisement, she famously said that Phil Bredesen was threatening the people of Tennessee by allowing in “gang members,” “known criminals,” and most interestingly, “people from the Middle East” and “possibly even terrorists” with the “caravan”, referring to the “migrant caravan” that was “invading” America composed of mostly poor people from Central America fleeing social violence caused by geopolitical fighting from US and Russian interests.
Blackburn won her seat, and has attempted to present herself as an “anti-immigration” candidate who is trying to ‘protect America’ from ‘foreigners.’ She alluded to this in a public statement in Congress in 2016 and has marketed herself as such since then.
But according to one anti-immigration website, Daily Roll Call, Blackburn is not all that she says she is. While she has put forth bills to limit immigration, she has come out in support of S.2641, which permits for the fast-tracking and nearly unlimited migration for refugees from Turkey and Syria.
Blackburn’s bill mandates a fast track for Syrians, Iraqis and Kurds who claim they were in some way connected, however loosely or remotely, to America’s fight against ISIS. The bill’s language in this regard is very broadly written.
No cap is put on the numbers to be admitted as refugees, nor does this priority group of refugees count towards President Trump’s FY2020 cap of 18,000 refugees. Vetting for this particular pool of potential U.S. entrants, is vague at best.
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Still more troubling is the part of Marsha’s bill which specifically permits someone to come to the U.S, even if they were in any way connected to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The problem with this is that two years ago, the U.S. led coalition spokesman Col. John Dorrian let slip that the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) terrorist group is part of the SDF.
It just so happens that the PKK is also a U.S. designated terrorist group. (source)
So one one hand, Senator Blackburn will say that ‘refugees’ are a danger and must be stopped, and will put forth legislation authored in her name to “stop” this from happening. Meanwhile, at the exact same time, she will support bills that absolutely permit for potentially unlimited numbers of people to be brought into the US from the same group that she says she opposes.
What is even more telling is that Blackburn has recently refused to answer about her position on Tennessee governor Bill Lee to continue admitting and expand services for refugees. In response, she said that she would not offer her opinion because it was ‘not a federal decision’.
“Despite a steady stream of criticism from Republicans in the state — and silence, not praise, from others — Gov. Bill Lee appears unshaken in his decision Wednesday to inform the federal government that Tennessee will continue to accept refugees.”
Willco “Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn declined in a statement to offer her opinion on Lee’s choice, saying it was ‘not a federal decision.'” (source)
This is a poor excuse- it is her state that she claims to represent at the Federal level, so why would she not give her opinion about something that is, by her position, a concern about the people that she represents to the nation?
The reason for this is because like most politicians, she does not care about refugees, migration, or how many people come or do not come. It is what I have said for a long time, that while laws are important to follow, and the US immigration system is a complete joke and a horrendous mess that traps many people in a confusing legal position, this is done willfully because immigration in the US is a political football that has nothing to do with the people, and is all about exerting social control as well as keeping the US imperial machine moving in all parts. In addition to providing cheap labor, immigrants provide fresh ideas, different perspectives, are easily blamed for crimes or social problems by one’s leaders, will put up with more abuse because they do not understand the nuances of the legal system, and can be used for military or social purposes.
This is why it is permitted, and it does not matter how many or how such people come, but that they come so that politicians can point to them and say “these people made these problems”, that banks can give them loans (since unlike “native Americans”, they do not come to the US with debts), businesses can get slave-wage labor outside of hiring prisoners for slave wages, and that people can get cheap food to keep them fat and happy as well as export said food around the world to make other nations dependent on the US lest they descend into chaos.
Marsha Blackburn is a politician, but she is also a musician, and those people who believe in what she says are the fiddle-strings that she plays to the tune that keeps her in office and sustained on the taxpayer’s dollar while doing whatever she believes will keep her in power, and the migration football is the tool that is tossed to the tune of the fiddle to distract the easily bamboozled and misguided public masses. It does not matter if the actions are good or not, or whether or not they are rooted in principles, or to that, if they are even good for the country, but rather whatever is most expedient is the rule of the day.
It is another politician, just like every politician who claims that he is “different” from the last ones, because the one’s that truly are different, if they even get elected, scarcely last a term or two before their own constituents vote them out, as politicians are just reflections of the people they represent, and while hypocrisy is found in all people, there is a strong disconnect between what the average American claims to support versus what he truly believes as evidenced by his actions.