As new details were provided Tuesday about immigration-related arrests, Nashville’s mayor expressed concerns about the legality of the traffic stops that have been raising fears in parts of the city.
Freddie O’Connell fielded questions from residents on This Is Nashville and said that Metro litigation against the federal government is possible.
“There’s a strong probability that people have been detained that are here legally that simply did not have documentation with them as they were driving on the streets of Nashville,” he said.
The mayor’s comments came on the same day the Department of Homeland Security shared new statistics about hundreds of recent traffic stops in Nashville. The agency says the campaign led to 196 arrests by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of those, federal officials identified 95 people who had prior convictions or pending criminal charges.
More: ‘My mom isn’t a criminal’: Nashville families search for loved ones detained by ICE
The mayor says he wants to know whether due process rights were violated. His office has been requesting the full list of names of those stopped and arrested.
“Federal authorities have asserted that these were safety operations and what we have seen on the ground is that they are resulting in family separation for people who are not criminals, and so what is being said federally and what we know to be the case locally are not easy to reconcile,” O’Connell said. “But we know we’re operating only on partial information.”
In its statement, DHS went on the offensive against the mayor, juxtaposing enforcement efforts as “protecting Americans” while saying O’Connell “stands by pro-illegal policies.”
The mayor, in a statement to WPLN News, said the city has reduced crime.
“And we do it in a way that doesn’t separate families, hurt our economy, and distress an entire community of people just going about their day-to-day lives. We do thorough investigations — often with state and federal partners — that result in prosecutions, and we intend to continue that work,” O’Connell said.
Federal officials said their Nashville arrests found 31 people who were previously deported.
ICE officials have not immediately responded to WPLN News questions about the timeframe of the arrests, the list of crimes of all those who had prior criminal histories, or details about the other 105 people who were arrested.
“By ICE’s own admission, a large percentage of people caught up in this sweep had no criminal record,” O’Connell said. “Who and where are they? ICE should release the names and charges for everyone they detained in Nashville, not just a select few.”
Multiple Metro officials have criticized the arrests, calling them a “surprise,” and hosting a specially called meeting to hear from residents and discuss the roles of different agencies.
In the wake of the new arrest statistics, the four-member Metro Council Immigrant Caucus condemned the “tactics, scope, and narrative” of federal officials.
“While we share a commitment to public safety, true safety is never achieved through fear-based enforcement that harms entire communities under false pretenses,” the caucus said (PDF).
The members said traffic stops and arrests erode trust and public safety, and they called for an investigation and accountability.
This story was updated at 8:40 p.m. Tuesday with statements from the mayor and the Metro Council Immigrant Caucus.
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