So far this month, three dozen immigrants have been held in Nashville’s jail at the request of federal authorities.
That fact is adding some urgency to a debate that’s scheduled to begin tonight. At issue: how much Davidson County should work with immigration officials.
The proposed ordinances would prohibit the county jail from holding people on immigration violations alone. Local law enforcement would also be barred from sharing information about custody status and court dates with immigration officials.
Metro Councilman Bob Mendes says those proposals would not prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from capturing people in Nashville, but ICE wouldn’t be able to take them to the local jail afterward. And the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office would keep an immigrant Nashville police take into custody for ICE only if federal authorities have a criminal warrant from a judge.
“What the bills hopefully would do would be to cut down on some of the confusion our immigrant neighbors have as a result of ICE’s activity here in Nashville,” he says.
That activity from ICE includes recently detaining six Kurds — the first Iraqis living in Nashville to be taken for deportation in several years. ICE also took the rare step recently of arresting an immigrant inside a Davidson County courtroom.
City officials fear such cases will cause immigrants to think local police are helping ICE. And that’ll make them less likely to report crimes in their neighborhoods.
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