Tennessee to test Stephen Miller's plan of enlisting states for immigration enforcement

[mysteryowl]

Source: The Guardian/US

The power to enforce immigration law rests with the federal government. But Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, has a vision for states working in coordination with federal immigration officials, and he’s attempting to test it out in Tennessee.

Earlier this month, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Miller had been meeting in Washington DC with Tennessee speaker of the house, Cameron Sexton, to craft model legislation for states around the country.

A few weeks later, the speaker announced a suite of eight bills that would turn state and local police officers, judges, teachers, social workers and others into an auxiliary extension of the federal immigration system. It makes the presence of an undocumented person with a final deportation order a state crime in Tennessee. And it mandates that officials report the presence of undocumented persons to ICE, while criminalizing disclosure of information about immigration enforcement activities to the public.

“The president’s behind us,” said Knoxville-area representative and deputy speaker, Jason Zachary, on a video taken from a talk with a conservative group, describing Sexton’s contact with Miller. “The president has promised his support on social media for us, and we are being told Tennessee will go first.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/04/stephen-miller-trump-immigration-plan

---

I think this is proof Stephen Miller is the architect of the ICE mess and horrors.

[Lovie777]

1. What could go wrong?..............

[SheltieLover]

2. TN is always an intl disgrace.

[mysteryowl]

3. The thing is, state workers DON'T know what any particular person's situation is, and shouldn't.

For example, refugees are here legally.
Many immigrants are here legally and in the process.

This would cause people of various cultures to carry around proof of their situation, which is no body's business.

This is a horrible plan!

[underpants]

4. So is the target going to be Memphis or Nashville?

It ain’t gonna be Knoxville or anywhere in Eastern Tennessee

[mysteryowl]

5. According to the article, it is state wide, if these bills are passed.

[AverageOldGuy]

13. I left Tennessee in 2005, have relatives there

My guess as to cities and areas that are on Trump's shit list
-- Memphis is a majority Black city.
-- Nashville votes Blue.
-- Not certain about Chattanooga.
-- NE Tennessee votes Republican but there is a big Hispanic population who work tobacco, tomato, and pimento fields, so, Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport may be on the list.
-- Knoxville is a Republican city but the University of Tennessee is there, which means a lot of commie socialist liberal woke students and faculty.

[NJCher]

6. Lackeys in line

For more oppression.

[mysteryowl]

7. Yes, this is very bad.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Trump and Miller are trying to create the same type of control mechanisms used by authoritarians throughout history.

ICE and CBP are reminding me more and more of East Germany's Stasi. ICE and CBP have more sophisticated technologies for acquiring personal information on both citizens and migrants, but Miller's plan to create a huge network of snitches and informants is straight out of the Stasi playbook. It is all about control of the whole population, not just immigrants.

"As time went on, this remit gradually developed into a wider desire to have information, and therefore control, over the population. Ostensibly this was to keep them safe from disruptive or bad influences, but in reality a climate of fear was an extremely effective tool at creating an obedient population.

Widespread reach

Officially, the Stasi employed around 90,000 people. But in order to achieve such levels of effectiveness, the Stasi relied on mass participation. It’s estimated that 1 in every 6 Germans were involved informed for the Stasi, and every factory, office and apartment block had at least one person living or working there who was on the Stasi payroll.

After the collapse of the DDR, the true extent of Stasi surveillance was revealed: they had been keeping files on 1 in 3 Germans, and had over 500,000 unofficial informants. The materials kept on citizens were wide-ranging: audio files, photographs, film reels and millions of paper records. Tiny cameras, hidden in cigarette cases or bookshelves were used to spy in peoples’ homes; letters would be steamed open and read; conversations recorded; overnight visitors noted down."

https://www.historyhit.com/the-stasi-the-most-terrifying-secret-police-in-history/

[littlemissmartypants]

9. The TN government is led by governor...

Bill Lee, Christian Nationalist neonazi who in college belonged to a frat that promoted the "Old South"...

Lee was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, a fraternity known at the time for its use of Confederate imagery, and a photo printed in the university's 1980 yearbook shows Lee in a Confederate military uniform at the fraternity's "Old South" party
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lee_(Tennessee_politician)

A perfect fit.

[SergeStorms]

10. President Miller.....

is a busy little Nazi, isn't he?

For someone whose family escaped the Soviet pogroms and immigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century, he completely disregards his own history and climbed aboard the white nationalist/anti-immigration train in a hurry.

There's always someone who's ready to slam the door in the face of the person behind them. That person, here, is Stephen Miller and his lovely wife, Katie.

[Americanme]

11. They want to force teachers and social workers to turn in immigrants.

What's next, prison for anyone caught sheltering an immigrant?

[Martin Eden]

12. Sounds like "good Nazis" ratting out Jews in their midst.

And I have no doubt Stephen Miller fantasizes about a Final Solution for non-white immigrants in the USA.

[highplainsdem]

14. Grotesque and evil. Exactly what you'd expect from Miller.