AMERIKAN GESTAPO
Pastor films as masked federal agents arrest Iranian Christian asylum-seekers in LA
(RNS) — The arrests sparked angst in the community and have concerned advocates of Iranian Christians who’ve fled persecution from the Islamic regime.
U.S. Border Patrol agents detain two Iranian Christian individuals, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Video screen grabs via Ara Torosian)
Fiona André
June 27, 2025
(RNS) — Two Iranian Christian asylum-seekers were arrested by masked federal agents in Los Angeles on Tuesday (June 24), days after a wider sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting Iranian nationals in the U.S. in the wake of the recent conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
In a three-minute video clip captured by their pastor and posted on Instagram, a couple can be seen flanked by agents wearing vests emblazoned with “border patrol federal agents.” As the husband is arrested, the wife can be seen convulsing on the ground in what the pastor, Ara Torosian, described as a panic attack.
The woman had called Torosian, hoping he might be able to intervene in the arrest, he said. The pastor told the agents the husband was an asylum-seeker as they carried out the arrest, to which one responded, “It doesn’t matter, sir, we’re just following orders, he’s got a warrant,” according to the video footage.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, said the couple had been flagged “as subjects of national security interest.”
“During a targeted enforcement operation in Los Angeles, Border Patrol agents apprehended two Iranian nationals unlawfully present in the U.S.,” the CBP spokesperson said in a statement to RNS.
After her panic attack, immigration agents escorted the woman to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. They remained at the hospital to “guard the subject receiving medical care,” the CBP spokesperson wrote. The wife has since been discharged and both individuals are now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, according to the CBP statement.
The pastor’s video clip, widely shared on social media, sparked outrage within Los Angeles’ Iranian community, home to nearly 600,000 Iranian Americans.
Torosian, an Iran-born pastor at Cornerstone Church West LA, said the scene shocked him and reminded him of his home country, which he fled in 2010.
“Seeing this masked man on the floor, with this woman, I got triggered. I said, ‘Where am I?’ in one moment. I said, ‘Where I am, in the street of Tehran or the street of Los Angeles?’” Torosian told RNS.
Over the weekend, 11 Iranians were arrested by ICE across the country for confirmed or alleged ties with terrorist organizations, according to a DHS statement. The arrests came after a brief conflict between Iran and the U.S. and on the heels of the Israel-Iran war.
On June 13, Israel launched an air campaign on Iran targeting the country’s military and nuclear infrastructures. Iran launched hundreds of missiles into Israel in retaliation. On Sunday, the U.S. intervened in support of Israel by targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. On Tuesday, Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire.
The arrests sparked angst in the Iranian-American community and have concerned advocates of Iranian Christians who’ve fled persecution from the Islamic regime.
In a statement, Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, denounced the U.S. detentions as “racial profiling and indiscriminate mass arrests of Iranians across the country, all under the guise of ‘national security.’”
“Like many Iranian Americans, those arrested often came to the U.S. in search of opportunity and freedom from an authoritarian government. Now, their mere identity now appears to be grounds for arrest in the so-called ‘land of the free,’” wrote Abdi in the statement.
Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, an evangelical organization that resettles refugees, described the scene from the video as startling.
“Seeing individuals who fled persecution on account of their Christian faith be detained by masked officers over the desperate pleas of their pastor is something I never thought I’d see in the United States,” he wrote in a statement to RNS.
RELATED: For one Iranian family and their church, Trump’s refugee freeze leaves son in exile
According to Torosian, the couple, who have requested asylum, immigrated in 2024 through CBP One, a mobile app introduced during Joe Biden’s presidency. Until its termination by President Donald Trump in January, the feature enabled immigrants to schedule asylum appointments at a port of entry.
In the video, one arresting agent tells Torosian that CBP One is “no longer valid anymore.”
“That’s why he’s being arrested,” another agent adds.
The couple are members of Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational church that offers services in English, Spanish and Farsi. They fled Iran to escape persecution due to their Christian faith, according to the pastor.
On Monday, two other members of Cornerstone Church, who had also applied for asylum, were arrested at North LA’s Federal Building, where they were scheduled for an appointment. On Sunday, after the service, the couple had told Torosian they were afraid to go to the appointment after hearing of arrests at immigration court hearings. They are now being detained at a South Texas Family Facility, said Torosian.
“As a pastor and a spiritual leader, one of my goals is to teach the Bible, a priority, and the same time, I’m asking them to be a good citizen,” said Torosian, who advised them to go.
The White House did not specifically comment on the couple’s arrest or the status of their asylum request when asked for comment.
“Any foreign citizen who fears persecution — including Iranians — are able to request asylum and have their claims adjudicated,” Abigail Jackson, spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement to RNS on Thursday.
Open Doors International, an evangelical organization monitoring Christians’ persecution worldwide, in a January report ranked Iran in the top 10 countries to watch worldwide due to government oppression and persecution of Christians. The Iranian Islamic regime recognizes only two historic Christian communities, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, but those groups aren’t allowed to have contact with Muslim converts to Christianity and are treated as second-class citizens, according to the Open Doors report.
Muslim converts to Christianity are subjected to worse treatment, according to the report, including arrest, persecution and “long prison sentences for ‘crimes against national security.'”
“The government sees these Iranian Christians as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and the Islamic regime of Iran,” states the report.
An estimated 4 million Iranian Christians are in exile, the majority of whom live in Turkey.
“Americans, and especially American evangelicals like me, need to wake up to the startling reality that a significant share of those being detained and threatened with deportation have no criminal conviction whatsoever and have been lawfully present right up until the administration abruptly illegalized them as they pursue deportation quotas,” wrote World Relief’s Soerens in his statement.
If passed, the Trump administration’s new tax and spending bill would allocate more funding to immigration enforcement, argues Soerens, and potentially increase similar arrests, including that of “fellow Christians who fear persecution or even martyrdom if deported.” On Thursday, the White House announced it hoped Congress would pass the bill by next week.
Following this week’s arrests, the church’s leadership advised attendees not to come on Sunday as they fear the church will be raided. The congregation created a fund to cover the rent for the two couples for this month.
“America gave us freedom here, but unfortunately, I had to tell my people not to come to church, which is shocking. In Iran, we hide ourselves, and they close our buildings. Now in America, because I’m afraid and I have to protect my people, I’m saying, ‘Guys, don’t come to the church,'” said Torosian.
Jack Jenkins contributed to reporting.
Pastor films as masked federal agents arrest Iranian Christian asylum-seekers in LA
(RNS) — The arrests sparked angst in the community and have concerned advocates of Iranian Christians who’ve fled persecution from the Islamic regime.
U.S. Border Patrol agents detain two Iranian Christian individuals, Tuesday, June 24, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Video screen grabs via Ara Torosian)
Fiona André
June 27, 2025
(RNS) — Two Iranian Christian asylum-seekers were arrested by masked federal agents in Los Angeles on Tuesday (June 24), days after a wider sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting Iranian nationals in the U.S. in the wake of the recent conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
In a three-minute video clip captured by their pastor and posted on Instagram, a couple can be seen flanked by agents wearing vests emblazoned with “border patrol federal agents.” As the husband is arrested, the wife can be seen convulsing on the ground in what the pastor, Ara Torosian, described as a panic attack.
The woman had called Torosian, hoping he might be able to intervene in the arrest, he said. The pastor told the agents the husband was an asylum-seeker as they carried out the arrest, to which one responded, “It doesn’t matter, sir, we’re just following orders, he’s got a warrant,” according to the video footage.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, said the couple had been flagged “as subjects of national security interest.”
“During a targeted enforcement operation in Los Angeles, Border Patrol agents apprehended two Iranian nationals unlawfully present in the U.S.,” the CBP spokesperson said in a statement to RNS.
After her panic attack, immigration agents escorted the woman to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. They remained at the hospital to “guard the subject receiving medical care,” the CBP spokesperson wrote. The wife has since been discharged and both individuals are now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, according to the CBP statement.
The pastor’s video clip, widely shared on social media, sparked outrage within Los Angeles’ Iranian community, home to nearly 600,000 Iranian Americans.
Torosian, an Iran-born pastor at Cornerstone Church West LA, said the scene shocked him and reminded him of his home country, which he fled in 2010.
“Seeing this masked man on the floor, with this woman, I got triggered. I said, ‘Where am I?’ in one moment. I said, ‘Where I am, in the street of Tehran or the street of Los Angeles?’” Torosian told RNS.
Over the weekend, 11 Iranians were arrested by ICE across the country for confirmed or alleged ties with terrorist organizations, according to a DHS statement. The arrests came after a brief conflict between Iran and the U.S. and on the heels of the Israel-Iran war.
On June 13, Israel launched an air campaign on Iran targeting the country’s military and nuclear infrastructures. Iran launched hundreds of missiles into Israel in retaliation. On Sunday, the U.S. intervened in support of Israel by targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities. On Tuesday, Iran and Israel agreed to a ceasefire.
The arrests sparked angst in the Iranian-American community and have concerned advocates of Iranian Christians who’ve fled persecution from the Islamic regime.
In a statement, Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, denounced the U.S. detentions as “racial profiling and indiscriminate mass arrests of Iranians across the country, all under the guise of ‘national security.’”
“Like many Iranian Americans, those arrested often came to the U.S. in search of opportunity and freedom from an authoritarian government. Now, their mere identity now appears to be grounds for arrest in the so-called ‘land of the free,’” wrote Abdi in the statement.
Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, an evangelical organization that resettles refugees, described the scene from the video as startling.
“Seeing individuals who fled persecution on account of their Christian faith be detained by masked officers over the desperate pleas of their pastor is something I never thought I’d see in the United States,” he wrote in a statement to RNS.
RELATED: For one Iranian family and their church, Trump’s refugee freeze leaves son in exile
According to Torosian, the couple, who have requested asylum, immigrated in 2024 through CBP One, a mobile app introduced during Joe Biden’s presidency. Until its termination by President Donald Trump in January, the feature enabled immigrants to schedule asylum appointments at a port of entry.
In the video, one arresting agent tells Torosian that CBP One is “no longer valid anymore.”
“That’s why he’s being arrested,” another agent adds.
The couple are members of Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational church that offers services in English, Spanish and Farsi. They fled Iran to escape persecution due to their Christian faith, according to the pastor.
On Monday, two other members of Cornerstone Church, who had also applied for asylum, were arrested at North LA’s Federal Building, where they were scheduled for an appointment. On Sunday, after the service, the couple had told Torosian they were afraid to go to the appointment after hearing of arrests at immigration court hearings. They are now being detained at a South Texas Family Facility, said Torosian.
“As a pastor and a spiritual leader, one of my goals is to teach the Bible, a priority, and the same time, I’m asking them to be a good citizen,” said Torosian, who advised them to go.
The White House did not specifically comment on the couple’s arrest or the status of their asylum request when asked for comment.
“Any foreign citizen who fears persecution — including Iranians — are able to request asylum and have their claims adjudicated,” Abigail Jackson, spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement to RNS on Thursday.
Open Doors International, an evangelical organization monitoring Christians’ persecution worldwide, in a January report ranked Iran in the top 10 countries to watch worldwide due to government oppression and persecution of Christians. The Iranian Islamic regime recognizes only two historic Christian communities, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, but those groups aren’t allowed to have contact with Muslim converts to Christianity and are treated as second-class citizens, according to the Open Doors report.
Muslim converts to Christianity are subjected to worse treatment, according to the report, including arrest, persecution and “long prison sentences for ‘crimes against national security.'”
“The government sees these Iranian Christians as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and the Islamic regime of Iran,” states the report.
An estimated 4 million Iranian Christians are in exile, the majority of whom live in Turkey.
“Americans, and especially American evangelicals like me, need to wake up to the startling reality that a significant share of those being detained and threatened with deportation have no criminal conviction whatsoever and have been lawfully present right up until the administration abruptly illegalized them as they pursue deportation quotas,” wrote World Relief’s Soerens in his statement.
RELATED:
If passed, the Trump administration’s new tax and spending bill would allocate more funding to immigration enforcement, argues Soerens, and potentially increase similar arrests, including that of “fellow Christians who fear persecution or even martyrdom if deported.” On Thursday, the White House announced it hoped Congress would pass the bill by next week.
Following this week’s arrests, the church’s leadership advised attendees not to come on Sunday as they fear the church will be raided. The congregation created a fund to cover the rent for the two couples for this month.
“America gave us freedom here, but unfortunately, I had to tell my people not to come to church, which is shocking. In Iran, we hide ourselves, and they close our buildings. Now in America, because I’m afraid and I have to protect my people, I’m saying, ‘Guys, don’t come to the church,'” said Torosian.
Jack Jenkins contributed to reporting.
This fight was supposed to have been put to bed 160 years ago
Tennessee Lookout
June 27, 2025
June 27, 2025
See Full Bio
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, photographed during a May dragnet in South Nashville. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents riled up folks when they conducted a dragnet in a South Nashville neighborhood a month ago and detained nearly 200 people.
But city streets aren’t the only place where federal agents are picking up immigrants for deportation. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday it has released 283 inmates to ICE custody in 2025, notably higher than last year’s number.
Oddly enough, the sheriff’s office doesn’t have information on whether those inmates have legal documentation to be in the country. It sends fingerprints collected in the booking process to national databases, including those ICE is able to access, according to spokesman Jon Adams.
ICE contacts the sheriff’s office to request a detainer, then picks up the inmate, leaving the local agency with nothing but a number of people released to federal custody.
Based on the 283 inmates released by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Metro Nashville appears to be cooperating with the federal agency on deportation, despite claims to the contrary by Republican lawmakers.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t participated in the 287(g) screening program for immigrant inmates since 2012 when Sheriff Daron Hall said it was so successful it was no longer needed. For the five years the department used the program, it processed more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants for removal from the country, according to a WPLN report.
But based on the jail pickups, Metro Nashville appears to be cooperating with the feds, even though Republican lawmakers are hammering at Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell after he raised concerns about the Nashville sweep. Metro inadvertently posted the names of three ICE agents, then removed them, and O’Connell updated a years-old executive order requiring personnel to notify the mayor’s office if they encounter any federal agents, including those from ICE. Those moves spurred Republican legislation to punish governments that ID ICE agents, and GOP leaders have called on O’Connell to rescind the notification order.
Since opting out of the program, the sheriff’s office no longer serves as an extension of the federal ICE program. But based on the number of jail deportations, they have quite a few encounters with the federal agents.
Republican leaders have said repeatedly over the last few months that new laws are needed to remove undocumented criminals who pose a public safety threat.
Those have been under way, though, for nearly two decades.
Former President Barack Obama removed more than 4 million people, earning him the moniker “deporter in chief.” Former President Joe Biden deported 271,000 immigrants in 2024, according to a BBC report. Over the first four months of this year, the Trump administration removed about 200,000 people from the country.
Based on those numbers, undocumented immigration is nothing new, and neither are deportations. Some just cause more chaos than others.
Trying to get off the radar
Tennessee State University broke ground Thursday on two academic buildings for the College of Agriculture, but the historically Black college will remain under a state microscope for a good minute.
As part of an agreement signed last week with state leaders, the university must meet several financial requirements in order to shift more than $90 million from a 2022 capital grant to campus operations over the next three years.
In addition to making a quarterly report to the Tennessee Board of Regents, comptroller and commissioner of Finance and Administration, TSU must meet deficit reduction goals and cut yearly expenses, fix state audit findings, come up with a space use and real property plan, and set find an enrollment figure it can handle without going broke.
State officials reached the agreement with TSU and interim President Dwayne Tucker after forcing out former President Glenda Glover and replacing the board of trustees in 2024.
TSU and Glover caught the ire of Republican senators when the university sought last-second approval to lease apartments for student housing when it started an aggressive scholarship program after the COVID pandemic. The university used a federal grant to fund the scholarships, then ran out of money.
In the last year, state leaders have been micromanaging the university’s money with Tucker, who is working without pay, to put TSU on stronger financial footing.
The estimated $90 million buildings for the Food and Animal Sciences and Environmental Sciences programs will support the university’s academic, research and agriculture extension missions.
“This project underscores the state’s continued confidence in our university and the strength of our land-grant mission,” Tucker said in a statement.
“The hard work starts now,” state Comptroller Jason Mumpower recently told Dwayne Tucker, interim president of Tennessee State University. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout 2024)
Republican senators have said consistently they want TSU to succeed, yet they didn’t show any confidence in the administration until recent months. State officials allowed TSU to take an advance last fall on the $250 million in capital funding, just to make payroll and stay afloat.
A state study found TSU had been shorted by as much as $500 million over many decades, while a federal report said the university was shorted by more than $2 billion, a figure Republicans are rejecting. Either way, TSU has battled with finances for years, struggling to balance the books and resolve audit findings, even if state investigations found no wrongdoing.
State Comptroller Jason Mumpower, one of Glover’s biggest critics, said he has confidence in Tucker. After the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding, Mumpower said he told the interim president that “the hard work starts now.”
The question is whether they can repair decades of underfunding, bad management and, some might say, neglect on the part of a lot of people in high positions.
Cepicky’s pick
Republican state Rep. Scott Cepicky said on a podcast this week he’s picking House Speaker Cameron Sexton to win the 7th Congressional District seat expected to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Mark Green.
“The wild card here is Sexton,” Cepicky said on “3 Dudes with a View,” a Columbia production. He added that his “gut feeling” is Sexton will win if he gets in.
Sexton’s office has consistently declined comment, but he is set to make a big announcement in August.
For the second time, Green announced his decision to leave the post, once Congress votes on the president’s budget plan.
Cepicky declined to comment Thursday to the Lookout on whether Sexton told him he will run for the post.
The prediction is tempered somewhat because Cepicky also said Sen. Bill Powers could be a strong candidate, even though Powers announced last week he won’t run.
While Sexton’s potential candidacy is bandied about, former Tennessee General Services Commission Matt Van Epps announced this week that Nashville car dealership magnate Lee Beaman and his wife, Julie, will be finance co-chairs for his 7th District campaign.
Beaman also served as treasurer of U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ first campaign when he was late filing his Federal Election Commission report and reported raising much less money than he initially claimed. The FBI was investigating him, but Trump squashed that probe when Ogles came to his defense.
Beaman also was the sole donor of $50,000 to Volunteers for Freedom PAC, which put $24,000 into an ad buy backing Ogles, raising questions about illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC.
AI argument
State Sen. Bo Watson joined Republican lawmakers from across the country Thursday in urging Congress not to approve a 10-year moratorium on artificial intelligence laws as part of the president’s budget bill.
Watson, chair of the Senate finance committee, adamantly opposes a ban on states and local governments regulating artificial intelligence systems, models and decision systems for children’s online safety, consumer protections, transparency and accountability measures and “generative AI harms,” which could build up societal biases in data and potentially allow sensitive personal data to be stolen. (This is making my brain hurt.)
For an administration who has really been focused on returning authority back to the states, this is one aspect of this piece of legislation that I’m quite disappointed in.
– Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson
Watson invoked Tennessee’s new law preventing “deep fakes” and the ELVIS Act, which protects artists from infringement on their voices and images, during a Thursday webinar on the subject with lawmakers nationwide who oppose the federal ban. The moratorium would withhold broadband funding in exchange for doing nothing.
“For an administration who has really been focused on returning authority back to the states, this is one aspect of this piece of legislation that I’m quite disappointed in,” said Watson, a member of the state’s council overseeing AI policy.
Watson, a Hixson Republican, added that Congress is so slow to act that by the time it deals with problems stemming from AI, the states will be left to “wrestle” with the consequences.
“That’s why it’s critically important that this part of the bill be removed,” Watson said, and states be allowed to work with the feds on AI laws.
It might not be the only rough part of the federal legislation.
Congress also is considering cutting Medicaid spending that could cause Tennessee’s TennCare program to lose $16 billion in federal funding, according to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, brother of former Tennessee state Rep. Rick Tillis.
The pending and potential budget buster for Tennessee is accompanied by a massive uptick in national spending for ICE and border patrol and an overall increase that even former DOGE director Elon Musk opposes.
This proposed expansion of federal control over AI coincides with U.S. deportation efforts nationwide despite opposition in many states, renewing the age-old states’ rights argument that was supposedly put to rest 160 years ago. Some folks want the states to prevail only when it’s politically expedient, presenting a bit of a contradiction.
“Got in a little hometown jam / So they put a rifle in my hand / Sent me off to a foreign land / To go and kill the yellow man.” *
*”Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, photographed during a May dragnet in South Nashville. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents riled up folks when they conducted a dragnet in a South Nashville neighborhood a month ago and detained nearly 200 people.
But city streets aren’t the only place where federal agents are picking up immigrants for deportation. The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday it has released 283 inmates to ICE custody in 2025, notably higher than last year’s number.
Oddly enough, the sheriff’s office doesn’t have information on whether those inmates have legal documentation to be in the country. It sends fingerprints collected in the booking process to national databases, including those ICE is able to access, according to spokesman Jon Adams.
ICE contacts the sheriff’s office to request a detainer, then picks up the inmate, leaving the local agency with nothing but a number of people released to federal custody.
Based on the 283 inmates released by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Metro Nashville appears to be cooperating with the federal agency on deportation, despite claims to the contrary by Republican lawmakers.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t participated in the 287(g) screening program for immigrant inmates since 2012 when Sheriff Daron Hall said it was so successful it was no longer needed. For the five years the department used the program, it processed more than 10,000 undocumented immigrants for removal from the country, according to a WPLN report.
But based on the jail pickups, Metro Nashville appears to be cooperating with the feds, even though Republican lawmakers are hammering at Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell after he raised concerns about the Nashville sweep. Metro inadvertently posted the names of three ICE agents, then removed them, and O’Connell updated a years-old executive order requiring personnel to notify the mayor’s office if they encounter any federal agents, including those from ICE. Those moves spurred Republican legislation to punish governments that ID ICE agents, and GOP leaders have called on O’Connell to rescind the notification order.
Since opting out of the program, the sheriff’s office no longer serves as an extension of the federal ICE program. But based on the number of jail deportations, they have quite a few encounters with the federal agents.
Republican leaders have said repeatedly over the last few months that new laws are needed to remove undocumented criminals who pose a public safety threat.
Those have been under way, though, for nearly two decades.
Former President Barack Obama removed more than 4 million people, earning him the moniker “deporter in chief.” Former President Joe Biden deported 271,000 immigrants in 2024, according to a BBC report. Over the first four months of this year, the Trump administration removed about 200,000 people from the country.
Based on those numbers, undocumented immigration is nothing new, and neither are deportations. Some just cause more chaos than others.
Trying to get off the radar
Tennessee State University broke ground Thursday on two academic buildings for the College of Agriculture, but the historically Black college will remain under a state microscope for a good minute.
As part of an agreement signed last week with state leaders, the university must meet several financial requirements in order to shift more than $90 million from a 2022 capital grant to campus operations over the next three years.
In addition to making a quarterly report to the Tennessee Board of Regents, comptroller and commissioner of Finance and Administration, TSU must meet deficit reduction goals and cut yearly expenses, fix state audit findings, come up with a space use and real property plan, and set find an enrollment figure it can handle without going broke.
State officials reached the agreement with TSU and interim President Dwayne Tucker after forcing out former President Glenda Glover and replacing the board of trustees in 2024.
TSU and Glover caught the ire of Republican senators when the university sought last-second approval to lease apartments for student housing when it started an aggressive scholarship program after the COVID pandemic. The university used a federal grant to fund the scholarships, then ran out of money.
In the last year, state leaders have been micromanaging the university’s money with Tucker, who is working without pay, to put TSU on stronger financial footing.
The estimated $90 million buildings for the Food and Animal Sciences and Environmental Sciences programs will support the university’s academic, research and agriculture extension missions.
“This project underscores the state’s continued confidence in our university and the strength of our land-grant mission,” Tucker said in a statement.
“The hard work starts now,” state Comptroller Jason Mumpower recently told Dwayne Tucker, interim president of Tennessee State University. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout 2024)
Republican senators have said consistently they want TSU to succeed, yet they didn’t show any confidence in the administration until recent months. State officials allowed TSU to take an advance last fall on the $250 million in capital funding, just to make payroll and stay afloat.
A state study found TSU had been shorted by as much as $500 million over many decades, while a federal report said the university was shorted by more than $2 billion, a figure Republicans are rejecting. Either way, TSU has battled with finances for years, struggling to balance the books and resolve audit findings, even if state investigations found no wrongdoing.
State Comptroller Jason Mumpower, one of Glover’s biggest critics, said he has confidence in Tucker. After the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding, Mumpower said he told the interim president that “the hard work starts now.”
The question is whether they can repair decades of underfunding, bad management and, some might say, neglect on the part of a lot of people in high positions.
Cepicky’s pick
Republican state Rep. Scott Cepicky said on a podcast this week he’s picking House Speaker Cameron Sexton to win the 7th Congressional District seat expected to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Mark Green.
“The wild card here is Sexton,” Cepicky said on “3 Dudes with a View,” a Columbia production. He added that his “gut feeling” is Sexton will win if he gets in.
Sexton’s office has consistently declined comment, but he is set to make a big announcement in August.
For the second time, Green announced his decision to leave the post, once Congress votes on the president’s budget plan.
Cepicky declined to comment Thursday to the Lookout on whether Sexton told him he will run for the post.
The prediction is tempered somewhat because Cepicky also said Sen. Bill Powers could be a strong candidate, even though Powers announced last week he won’t run.
While Sexton’s potential candidacy is bandied about, former Tennessee General Services Commission Matt Van Epps announced this week that Nashville car dealership magnate Lee Beaman and his wife, Julie, will be finance co-chairs for his 7th District campaign.
Beaman also served as treasurer of U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ first campaign when he was late filing his Federal Election Commission report and reported raising much less money than he initially claimed. The FBI was investigating him, but Trump squashed that probe when Ogles came to his defense.
Beaman also was the sole donor of $50,000 to Volunteers for Freedom PAC, which put $24,000 into an ad buy backing Ogles, raising questions about illegal coordination between the campaign and PAC.
AI argument
State Sen. Bo Watson joined Republican lawmakers from across the country Thursday in urging Congress not to approve a 10-year moratorium on artificial intelligence laws as part of the president’s budget bill.
Watson, chair of the Senate finance committee, adamantly opposes a ban on states and local governments regulating artificial intelligence systems, models and decision systems for children’s online safety, consumer protections, transparency and accountability measures and “generative AI harms,” which could build up societal biases in data and potentially allow sensitive personal data to be stolen. (This is making my brain hurt.)
For an administration who has really been focused on returning authority back to the states, this is one aspect of this piece of legislation that I’m quite disappointed in.
– Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson
Watson invoked Tennessee’s new law preventing “deep fakes” and the ELVIS Act, which protects artists from infringement on their voices and images, during a Thursday webinar on the subject with lawmakers nationwide who oppose the federal ban. The moratorium would withhold broadband funding in exchange for doing nothing.
“For an administration who has really been focused on returning authority back to the states, this is one aspect of this piece of legislation that I’m quite disappointed in,” said Watson, a member of the state’s council overseeing AI policy.
Watson, a Hixson Republican, added that Congress is so slow to act that by the time it deals with problems stemming from AI, the states will be left to “wrestle” with the consequences.
“That’s why it’s critically important that this part of the bill be removed,” Watson said, and states be allowed to work with the feds on AI laws.
It might not be the only rough part of the federal legislation.
Congress also is considering cutting Medicaid spending that could cause Tennessee’s TennCare program to lose $16 billion in federal funding, according to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, brother of former Tennessee state Rep. Rick Tillis.
The pending and potential budget buster for Tennessee is accompanied by a massive uptick in national spending for ICE and border patrol and an overall increase that even former DOGE director Elon Musk opposes.
This proposed expansion of federal control over AI coincides with U.S. deportation efforts nationwide despite opposition in many states, renewing the age-old states’ rights argument that was supposedly put to rest 160 years ago. Some folks want the states to prevail only when it’s politically expedient, presenting a bit of a contradiction.
“Got in a little hometown jam / So they put a rifle in my hand / Sent me off to a foreign land / To go and kill the yellow man.” *
*”Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen
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