Violent Venezuelan gang infiltrates every major city in Tennessee



The vicious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has infiltrated every major city in Tennessee, according to state officials.

TDA has been tied to criminal activity across the United States, including apartment takeovers in Aurora, Colorado, and violent crimes in New York City and Dallas, Texas. Thus far, the gang has primarily, but not exclusively, focused on expanding its presence in sanctuary jurisdictions, where local law enforcement agencies are forbidden to cooperate with federal immigration officials.

'They will not hesitate to attack their opponents in public and in broad daylight.'

During a budget meeting this week, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director David Rausch warned Governor Bill Lee (R) that TDA has recently become a growing threat in the state.

According to Rausch, the gang started to appear in Tennessee two years ago, but its influence has substantially expanded over the past few months. He noted that TDA is active in Memphis and Nashville.

"We first saw them a couple years ago where we uncovered a group here in a human trafficking operation," Rausch explained. "We recognized a number of the members here trafficking females that they had abducted from Venezuela and brought them here."

The bureau successfully captured several individuals involved in the illicit operation, but "many of them fled" out of Tennessee, Rausch said.

"Now what we are seeing is they are back. They are back in all of our major cities," he declared.

When TDA arrives in a new area, it starts by running trafficking operations, then expands into other criminal activities, including organized retail theft and drug trafficking, Rausch told Lee.

He expressed concerns about TDA's brazenness and its targeting of cartel members.

"They will, and they have taken on the cartel head-on, and they're very violent in their efforts," Rausch continued. "They will not hesitate to attack their opponents in public and in broad daylight."

"Recently, there was a video that they shot where they shot an individual, a cartel member, 31 times. Broad daylight, on video, and posted it to social media," he stated.

Rausch did not share how many TDA gang members he believes are in the state but noted that "they're in numbers here."

According to Straight Arrow News, the Knoxville Police Department is unaware of any TDA activity in the area.

The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly identified more than 600 individuals in the U.S. with ties to TDA, Blaze News previously reported. The federal government has confirmed the gang's activity in at least 15 states, and it may have expanded to another eight.

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Tennessee set to pass law targeting groomers who recruit and transport kids for sex changes without parental consent



Democrats and other radicals across the country appear keen to enable ideologues to both socially and medically transition children behind parents' backs despite warnings from scientists, indications that such barbaric practices are based on pseudoscience, and other Western nations beginning to pump the brakes.

In New York, for instance, voters will be given the option on Nov. 5 to sign off on an amendment to the state constitution, which critics suggest would require medical providers to "facilitate a child's request to make permanent, life-altering 'gender affirming' decisions" without first consulting with parents.

On Tuesday, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) ratified LD 227, dubbed the "Transgender Trafficker Protection Act" by critics. Blaze News previously reported that the controversial law codifies the right to sex-change mutilations and abortion in Maine, shields sex-change surgeons from consequence, and bars authorities from notifying parents of the locations of their kidnapped children if those kids are said to be seeking "gender-affirming care" in the state. Republican Attorneys General from various states have indicated they will take legal action against Maine over the law.

Amid this controversial campaign to expose confused children to regrettable genital mutilations, Republicans in Tennessee have mounted a counter-offensive — a sword in response to Democrats' so-called transgender shield laws.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 2782 this week, which is effectively an anti-trafficking bill that creates a civil cause of action against any adult who recruits, harbors, or transports someone else's unemancipated child out of state without the consent of the kid's parents or guardian for the purpose of getting them sex-change medical procedures.

State Sen. Mark Pody (R), one of the bill's sponsors, reportedly indicated the legislation originally would have included criminal penalties for surgery-seeking traffickers, but those were dropped in committee.

The amended bill passed the Tennessee Senate in a 26-4 vote along party lines earlier this month. The state House, which had a mirror version, gave its final approval to the legislation Thursday in a 63-16 vote.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R), who previously ratified a law barring health care providers from mutilating children's genitals and administering them puberty blockers, is expected to ratify the legislation.

Human Rights Campaign, a powerful LGBT activist outfit, condemned SB 2782 ahead of Thursday's vote, suggesting it was part of a "tsunami of discriminatory legislation follow[ing] a brutal cadence of discriminatory laws enacted in recent years."

The HRC cited a number of other recent Republican legislative successes in the Volunteer State such as "the business bathroom sign law and the drag ban," noting also that "Tennessee has repeatedly banned transgender students from playing school sports, forbidden students from using the correct bathroom at school, allowed government contractors providing child welfare services to discriminate with taxpayer dollars, restricted transgender youth from accessing age-appropriate, medically necessary health care, attempted to undo marriage equality, and more."

SB 2782 may ultimately deter prospective traffickers from exposing children to treatments that Britain's National Health Services are now reevaluating. The NHS is taking a step back in the wake of a damning investigation it commissioned, which revealed:

  • there is "no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes";
  • puberty blockers compromise bone density and have no apparent impact on "gender dysphoria or body satisfaction";
  • there is "a lack of high-quality research assessing the outcomes of hormone interventions in adolescents with gender dysphoria/incongruence, and few studies that undertake long-term follow-up";
  • clinicians are incapable of determining which prospective child victims might alternatively grow out of their confusion; and
  • an absence of "good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress."

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Tennessee requires law enforcement to report illegal migrants to federal authorities under new law



Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a bill on Thursday that requires local law enforcement agencies to report illegal migrants to federal authorities, the Associated Press reported.

While other Democratic-run cities and states around the country are choosing to continue implementing so-called "sanctuary" policies that prohibit local and state police from coordinating with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tennessee has adopted a new measure that would mandate communication with federal agencies.

Lee signed into law House Bill 2124, which "requires law enforcement agencies and officials to communicate with the appropriate federal official regarding the immigration status of any individual, including reporting knowledge that a particular alien is not lawfully present in the United States or otherwise cooperate with the appropriate federal official in the identification, apprehension, detention, or removal of aliens not lawfully present in the United States."

The measure also ensures certain protections for victims and witnesses. It "prohibits a law enforcement agency from communicating with federal immigration officials regarding the immigration status of an individual who is a victim of or witness to possible criminal conduct."

Prior state law allowed law enforcement officers to communicate with federal authorities, but it did not require them to do so. However, the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police and the Tennessee Sheriffs Association stated that "all law enforcement agencies" are already coordinating with federal officials.

The new measure will take effect July 1.

"When there is an interaction with law enforcement, it's important that the appropriate authorities are notified of the status of that individual," Lee said Thursday. "I think that makes sense. So, I'm in support of that legislation."

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition argued that the bill is too broad.

Lisa Sherman Luna, the executive director for the TIRRC and TIRRC Votes, said that the governor "could have listened to the warnings from police chiefs, educators, domestic violence victims' advocates and legal experts and stopped this misguided bill from becoming law."

"Instead, he rubber-stamped the state legislature's continued descent into authoritarianism and green-lit a law that could open the door for racial profiling, unlawful detention, and separated families," she added.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Brent Taylor (R), disputed the claim that the measure would encourage racial profiling.

"This is not going down and hunting somebody who looks Hispanic, pulling them over and demanding papers," he remarked.

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Fetterman offers to officiate gay weddings in Tennessee



Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has offered to travel to Tennessee to officiate gay weddings.

"To any same-sex couples in Tennessee, it would be my pleasure to travel to your beautiful state and officiate your wedding. DM me," Fetterman said in a post on X.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, recently signed legislation that indicates that an individual "shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if" they object to doing so due to "conscience or religious beliefs."

— (@)

The liberal congressman, who took office in 2023, has been supportive of Israel. "For peace & a 2-state solution, Hamas must be destroyed & I fully support Israel's right to do that," he said in a November tweet. "Hamas is anathema for the peace, Palestinians deserve better."

Fetterman checked into to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to be treated for clinical depression last year.

"It's been one year since I checked in to Walter Reed to receive treatment for my depression," Fetterman noted last week, explaining that he had checked in on his son Karl's birthday.

"I'll never forget the decision. I had been in a dark place, and going to inpatient treatment on Karl’s birthday left me feeling like a failure. Clinical depression is no joke, and it convinces you that you're a loser, even if you've won," Fetterman added. "But slowly, over a few weeks, I began to get better. My family was the single biggest motivation to take on my depression," he noted. "With medical help, therapy, and my family's support, I found a way forward."

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Biden DOJ challenges Tennessee's ban on genital mutilation of children: 'Federal overreach at its worst'



Tennessee's democratically elected lawmakers and governor successfully executed the will of the people last month, passing a law prohibiting health care providers both from mutilating children's genitals and administering them irreversible puberty blockers. The law goes into effect on July 1 — unless, of course, the Biden Department of Justice gets its way.

The DOJ filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block Senate Bill 1, claiming the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause by discriminating against "transgender youth."

The suit brought this week against Tennessee alleges as a fact that "every person has a gender identity."

Echoing the American Medical Association, the suit further suggests that genital mutilation and puberty blockers are "medically appropriate and necessary."

"No person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division.

Clarke added, "The right to consider your health and medically approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right that everyone should have, including transgender children, who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety, and suicide."

U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee concurred, stating, "Left unchallenged, [SB 1] would prohibit transgender children from receiving health care that their medical providers and their parents have determined to be medically necessary. In doing so, the law seeks to substitute the judgment of trained medical professionals and parents with that of elected officials and codifies discrimination against children who already face far too many obstacles."

State Republicans answered back, indicating they wouldn't be cowed on the issue.

Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement Wednesday night, "This is federal overreach at its worst, and we will work with Attorney General Skrmetti to push back in court and stand up for children."

"Tennessee is committed to protecting children from permanent, life-altering decisions," added Lee.

State Attorney General Jonathan Skremtti (R) responded to the suit, stating, "The federal government has joined the ACLU and an elite New York law firm in attacking a bipartisan law that protects children from irreversible harm. I welcome the opportunity to litigate these issues and vigorously defend Tennessee law."

Republican state Rep. Jason Zachary noted an apparent inconsistency on the part of the DOJ, listing various things minors cannot do in the state of Tennessee, extra to having their genitals removed by surgeons, including getting a tattoo, voting, working full-time, donating blood, and buying a car.

\u201cFor the DOJ, the following is a list of many things you can\u2019t do in Tennessee until you are 18:\n\nLife altering gender mutilation surgery (which the DOJ is suing to overturn)\nJoin the military\nVote\nGet a tattoo\nServe alcohol/work in a bar\nWork full time\nBuy a lottery ticket\nSign a\u2026\u201d
— Rep. Jason Zachary (@Rep. Jason Zachary) 1682562880

The DOJ appears emboldened after its success last year in challenging Alabama's Senate Bill 184 — a law that imposed a felony ban on child genital mutilation.

Judge Liles C. Burke of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama granted the DOJ a preliminary injunction blocking parts of the law in May 2022, reported the Daily News.

Burke specifically targeted the parts of the law that barred medical practitioners from prescribing puberty blockers.

According to the Alabama Political Reporter, as of January 2023, the state has had to spend over $1 million on legal counsel to defend the law and the state's children by extension.

The law is not presently being enforced.

Assistant Attorney General Clarke made clear in a March 31, 2022, letter to state attorneys general that the DOJ and the Biden administration "have a strong interest in protecting the constitutional rights of individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, nonbinary, or otherwise gender-nonconforming, and in ensuring compliance with federal civil rights statutes."

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