Hagerty stops in Jackson to talk border

By Brandon Shields

Managing Editor

The leadership of the Madison County Republican Party had a chance to sit down and listen to Bill Hagerty last week as the U.S. Senator passed through town and met with the group.

Brad Greer is the chairman of the county’s party chapter, and he hosted the Senator at his real estate office and event center, The Idea Factory, on Liberty Street in Downtown Jackson.

“He gave us an update on what’s going on in Washington with the Senate, but he also gave us an update on what’s going on at the southern border, because he was one of the officials that made a visit there a few days before,” Greer said.

Greer said during an appearance on The Shields Report on WBFG-FM 96.5 that Hagerty’s report from the border was as bad as reports make it sound.

Illegal aliens are moving across the southern border with Mexico and the Rio Grande River, and the monthly totals of people coming across the border continue in an upward trend.

Greer also relayed a story Hagerty told that showed it’s not just people from Mexico and Central and South America that are coming across the border.

“The Senator told us about a couple he met while he was there and they were in bed one night, and the wife wakes up when a lot of noise in their kitchen wakes her up,” Greer said. “So the husband goes to the kitchen to see what’s going on, and there are 14 men in the kitchen raiding it of all their food and beer.

“And because of where they are, you’d probably expect these men to be from Mexico or another country down there. But they were from Syria. So this border issue isn’t a Mexican issue for us. It’s an international issue.”

Along with Hagerty, Jody Pickens, the attorney general for the 26^th judicial district that includes Madison, Henderson and Chester counties, was on the trip too.

Pickens and other criminal justice officials have discussed in different meetings locally about how the border security problem is allowing drugs like fentanyl into Jackson and West Tennessee from other countries and making drug problems in the United States even worse.

“Senator Hagerty knows that a lot of people politicize the border problem, and that will continue during the upcoming elections this year,” Greer said. “But he’s been there and has seen the problem firsthand and has talked with those most affected by this.

“So I’m glad to know that our Senator doesn’t plan to use this as a tool to play the politics game. He knows this is an issue that needs fixing, and he’s trying to fix it. I appreciate him coming to Jackson to talk with some of us about it.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news