Blackburn takes aim at Bredesen over immigration

Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn speaks at a business forum in Nashville on Aug. 15, 2018 (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)

Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn is taking aim at Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen in an an opinion piece published on the website of The Hill newspaper in Washington.

“As governor, Phil Bredesen adopted policies that encouraged illegal immigration,” Blackburn writes in the piece, citing his support for a driver certificate program for people in the country illegally in 2004. What she doesn’t mention is that Bredesen introduced the measure to dial back a full driver’s license program that had been championed by his Republican predecessor, Don Sundquist, who is now a Blackburn supporter. Blackburn herself had voted against the driver’s licenses bill, but had left for Congress by the time certificate measure was introduced.

The bill creating the certificates (which carried prominent markings that they were meant only for driving and “not valid for identification”) passed the Senate on a 32-0 vote and the House 96-2, meaning it had nearly full GOP support (including from Senate Speaker Randy McNally, former Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, Knox County mayor and GOP congressional nominee Tim Burchett, former state Sen. Mae Beavers, state House Majority Leader Glen Casada, House Speaker Beth Harwell, Secretary of State Tre Hargett, and Family Action Council of Tennessee President David Fowler.)

The driver certificate program was abandoned two years later after federal investigators uncovered a burgeoning black market for them.

Blackburn wrote in the opinion piece that she opposed the measures because they “openly rewarded illegal immigration and undermined the hard work of those who entered our country lawfully. Moreover, it made Tennessee a magnet for illegal immigrants.”

It’s not surprising that Phil Bredesen also opposes securing the southern border. He’s spoken out against the wall, saying that it’s just political theater. He says he’s tired of ‘nibbling around the edges’ and wants to get back to big projects. What better way to start than by building the wall. Securing our border isn’t political theater; it’s enforcing the laws of a sovereign nation, and it’s a vital step to keep Americans safe. — Blackburn in The Hill