Tennessee anti-immigration bills show no conception of complex issues

I was a decent Math student until around the ninth grade. I could add, subtract, multiply, and divide quickly and efficiently in my head. Most of that talent was due to scouring baseball box scores in my local paper every afternoon. 

Basic mental math was fairly simple for me, but algebra was  different. There’s some nuance to Algebra – a necessary depth of thought required to arrive at a final answer. 

I hadn’t thought much about math until a recent bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Todd and Sen. Brent Taylor passed a House Subcommittee despite legitimate concerns from faith-based organizations and nonprofits.

The bill would create a Class A misdemeanor to “harbor or hide” someone unlawfully present in the U.S., with a $1,000 penalty and up to a year in jail for each individual who was concealed, harbored or shielded — one would even be liable for knowing a person was in the country without legal status.  A “human smuggling” offense was also tacked onto an already established law of human trafficking. At first glance, it was another example of Todd’s basic political math formula: add one more piece of legislation to an existing law to solve a “problem.” 

Three years ago, Todd, a Jackson Republican, sponsored legislation to “create an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.” 

Tennessee bill to criminalize ‘harboring or hiding” immigrants without legal status advances

Tennessee already had laws pertaining to public decency, including indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, public lewdness and even urinating in public. Todd’s bill targeted the LGBTQ+ community, adding another measure  to constrict an already marginalized group. 

Basic political math: add more laws directly affecting groups of people you disagree with and hope it forces them back into the shadows.

After a mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School two years ago, Gov. Bill Lee called a special legislative session  to ostensibly create a few safeguards for responsible gun ownership. Todd, however, sponsored a measure  allowing certain school employees to openly carry firearms in schools or at school events.

 Basic political math: more good guys with guns will solve the problem of bad guys with guns. 

For a long time, I’ve chalked these bills up to Todd simply not being nuanced or creative enough to understand the impact his legislation would have, but I was terribly wrong. He knows exactly what he’s doing and does it well. 

On the surface, there are many parts of current laws and pending GOP legislation that everyone — Republican, Democrat, or Independent—should support. 

No one should want children unprotected in a school, posing as easy targets for a person with a firearm. No one should want children exposed to salacious acts of inappropriate sexuality in public spaces. No one should believe it’s okay for a person to commit violent crimes — U.S. citizen or non-citizen. No one should want immigrants “smuggled” or taken advantage of by an industry or company seeking cheap labor. No one should want adults or children trafficked or prostituted. 

But that’s why the “basic math” approach of legislation is so insidious: it takes problematic issues that every Tennessean hopes to avoid and presents faux solutions by advancing a fundamentally conservative agenda while hurting a vulnerable population of people in our state by capitalizing on exaggerated or even blatantly false narratives. 

The most recent piece of legislation by Todd and Taylor, a Memphis Republican, is easy to support at first glance.but the addendum that is most concerning is the one threatening a misdemeanor charge for aiding immigrants without permanent legal status. 

This is where the approach of basic math runs its course, and some much-needed algebraic nuance is required. 

Immigration is a complex subject with more gray areas than black and white. When there are more questions than answers, addendums like the one above to a mostly reasonable, if not redundant, bill create valid worry and concern based on the rhetoric of President Donald Trump  and any lawmaker who openly supports him. 

I teach at a school with many new students who don’t speak much English. I attend a church that supports a non-profit that helps undocumented immigrants find pathways to full citizenship. If I were to find out one of my students or their families were not citizens, would I be subjected to a one thousand dollar fine? More importantly, what would happen to migrants who are not full citizens but on a pathway to citizenship? Is the intent of this bill to truly protect the vulnerable population of immigrants in Tennessee or another way to further a malevolent movement to remove children and families from our state and country?

Based on recent voting patterns by our supermajority, I already know the answer to that question. It’s as easy as one plus one.