GOP Governor Bill Lee Approves More Refugee Resettlement in Tennessee

Republican Gov. Bill Lee has approved resettlement of more refugees in Tennessee for 2020, putting in jeopardy a high-profile lawsuit to stop refugee resettlement in the state.

For Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump will continue cutting refugee admissions by reducing former President Barack Obama’s refugee inflow by at least 80 percent. This reduction would mean a maximum of 18,000 refugees can be resettled in the U.S. between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2020. This is merely a numerical limit and not a goal federal officials are supposed to reach.

Coupled with the refugee reduction, Trump signed an executive order that gives localities, counties, and states veto power over whether they want to resettle refugees in their communities.

On Wednesday, Lee sent a letter to the State Department where he said Tennessee would continue admitting refugees in the new year, caving to a lobbying effort by refugee contractors and pro-mass immigration groups with ties to billionaire George Soros.

“It’s about money,” Ann Corcoran, who blogs on the issue for Refugee Resettlement Watch told Breitbart News. “It’s all about money — money for these contractors, money for these global corporations and then they hide under this humanitarian hat and claim it’s all about doing good.”

More