The Trump administration’s “border czar” said he plans to visit Nashville in the “near future” after Mayor Freddie O’Connell criticized a series of ICE sweeps earlier this month.
Tom Homan, the White House’s executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations, told Fox News Tuesday that the Homeland Security Committee is opening a congressional investigation into O’Connell’s response to the raids. O’Connell maintained that Nashville has not impeded federal immigration enforcement.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol, in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, made 468 traffic stops near the city’s immigrant corridor in early May, resulting in nearly 200 arrests.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said roughly half of those detained had some kind of criminal record, including one man who was accused of killing a Nashville restaurant owner during a hit and run last year.
O’Connell has asked ICE officials for the names and charges of those detained.
“By ICE’s own admission, a large percentage of people caught up in this sweep had no criminal record,” O’Connell said in an email to WPLN News. “Who and where are they? ICE should release the names and charges for everyone they detained in Nashville, not just a select few.”
MORE: ‘My mom isn’t a criminal’: Nashville families search for loved ones detained by ICE
O’Connell also helped publicize a community fundraising initiative to aid the families of those detained. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee created the Belonging Fund to provide assistance for childcare, housing instability, transportation and other needs.
The Department of Homeland Security has called that initiative a way to “provide taxpayer dollars for aliens,” although no city money was promised to the fund.
“I have my own Belonging Fund. We can give housing, food and free medical care in ICE detention, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do in Nashville. We’re going to flood the zone with agents … FBI, DEA, ICE, U.S. Marshalls,” Homan said. “If he wants to push back and support sanctuary cities, that means we flood the zones.”
For the past seven years, state law has banned local governments from instituting sanctuary policies. Earlier this year, lawmakers made it a felony for a local official to vote in favor of any policy that shields people without legal status from immigration enforcement.
Homan said that ICE will “pay a lot of attention” to cities that push back against the agency.
Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who represents parts of Nashville, has also called for a congressional investigation into O’Connell, pointing to a change the mayor made to an executive order following the ICE sweeps.
Executive Order 030, which began under the previous mayor, requires Metro departments to communicate with the mayor’s office if federal immigration officials have made contact with the city. Previously, the order mandated that the mayor’s office be notified within three days. O’Connell has shortened that timeline to one business day.
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