Crime, citizenship, artificial intelligence and a run for governor in Tennessee.
On this episode of “The Sitdown with Alex Swoyer,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn discusses it all, from the federal surge that transformed Memphis to her bipartisan push on AI and privacy protections, closing immigration loopholes and her next act in Tennessee politics.
Senator Marsha Blackburn has been representing the people of Tennessee in the upper chamber since 2018 and is hopeful that after November’s election, she’ll be the Volunteer State’s first-ever female governor. While serving in the Senate, she’s been a Trump ally, pushing for immigration and crime crackdowns. And as a mother and grandmother, she’s advocated for child safety legislation, ranging from tougher sentences for abusers to security guardrails from online dangers and predators on social media and broader tech security related to AI.
[SWOYER] One of the big topics I know that you’re passionate about came up recently in front of FBI Director Kash Patel, and that was your Memphis Safe task force, the federal law enforcement surge that I know you’re passionate about. Director Patel said some fascinating things about that, specifically the success in uprooting entire gangs. What did you see happening and where else do you think this could work?
[BLACKBURN] This is a template for how to make our cities safer. I am so grateful to Director Patel, the Attorney General and President Trump, because we had a crime issue in Memphis. Memphis was the most dangerous per capita city in the country in 2024. And they worked with me. We were able to get the task force established. This week we celebrated one year of the task force in existence, and it is a great example of partnership between your local elected officials, your local police chief who’s done a remarkable job, your state law enforcement agencies and 30 federal agencies. They’ve made over 13,000 arrests.
[SWOYER] Wow.
[BLACKBURN] They have more than 1,400 gang members and leaders that are off the streets and in custody and are being prosecuted. And they’ve recovered nearly 200 missing children.
[SWOYER] That’s impressive. What surprised you the most about some of the changes from “Memphis Safe”? For example, you mentioned some of the gang members. Does that also relate to immigration issues with deportation? Any of that come up there?
[BLACKBURN] Yes, there is some overlap there and ICE is one of the federal agencies on the ground. And there had been 900 arrests of individuals that are illegally in the country, and 536 of those as of Monday had been deported. Many of these had pretty long rap sheets for crimes that they had committed: child endangerment, burglary, driving with intoxication.
[SWOYER] We’ve seen a lot of those on the roads with fatal accidents.
[BLACKBURN] That’s exactly right. So people are thrilled to see this. It has changed what is happening in Memphis, in Shelby County, and indeed in all of West Tennessee, because the task force has cut the crime rate in Memphis by, get this, 50%.
[SWOYER] That’s amazing.
[BLACKBURN] It is amazing.
[SWOYER] We need to see that more in other big cities, continue with Washington progress.
[BLACKBURN] Well, and, you know, they’ve established the model city program to work on safety. And Director Patel has Operation Viper going in 24 different cities around the country. But Memphis is kind of the model for how you bring people together and say we’re going to get our arms around this crime issue and we’re going to make our community safe. Indeed, our goal is for Memphis to be the safest city in the United States.
[SWOYER] I think it’s safer for residents and it’s also safer for law enforcement when you see the state and the Fed or the cities all working together too. I know immigration is an important topic, on birth tourism specifically. I know you have legislation that would… it’s a new penalty that would be imposed for people who were intentionally trying to gain citizenship for newborns by traveling here. I would have thought a lot of Republicans would be jumping on board with this after the Supreme Court ruling. Has there been a holdup or what’s next in this process?
[BLACKBURN] We are trying to move it forward at Judiciary Committee. What we know is they have been able to verify it’s about 33,000 births per year that take place through birth tourism. These are organizations that actively and publicly advertise to people.
[SWOYER] Yes.
[BLACKBURN] You know, contact us, come to the U.S., have your baby. The baby will get citizenship when the baby is 18 years old. They can come and go on a U.S. passport. You can begin to come into the country and exercise chain migration. So our citizenship is not for sale. And it’s something that this is an abusive practice that is a loophole and banning these birth tourism operations and then making it an inadmissible and deportable offense for anyone who comes in the country for the purpose of giving birth and securing citizenship for that child.
[SWOYER] I was in law school down in Florida in 2010 to 2013 and it was blatant in the Miami area in terms of even advertising in Russian for women. Which was an interesting take, that we saw. So it’s been an ongoing problem and it was brought up during oral arguments. I remember the chief justice — I was in the courtroom during the birthright citizenship case — and he even said, you recognize that birth tourism isn’t at issue here. But when most people hear about this, it’s a bipartisan issue that they all say, yeah, our immigration laws shouldn’t be taken advantage of.
[BLACKBURN] That’s exactly right. And Russia and China are the two nations that most often take advantage of this program.
[SWOYER] Not allies, I would say.
[BLACKBURN] That’s right, you’ve got two of what I call the axis of evil that are the frequent flyers in this program.
Watch the video for the full conversation.
Read more: Marsha Blackburn wants a national database on child trafficking rings before she exits Senate
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