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Immigration

How Trump’s visa crackdown could still impact Tennessee, despite new exceptions

By Rose Gilbert

October 22, 2025

When news broke last month of a new, $100,000-dollar price tag for H-1B visa applications, Nashville immigration attorney Doug Russo was just about to head home for the weekend. Instead, he read the proclamation carefully and started reaching out to his clients to update them.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: Amazon, Donald Trump, Immigration, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oracle, Rose Immigration Law Firm, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Latinos in Memphis worry about possible immigration crackdown by Trump’s crime task force

By Adrian Sainz, AP

September 25, 2025

President Donald Trump has created a task force to fight crime in Memphis. His order includes the deployment of the National Guard and various federal agencies that will descend upon the Tennessee city to, among other goals, enforce federal immigration law.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: Brent Taylor, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, memphis, National Guard

Tennesseans could be charged for housing immigrants who have legal status under state ‘smuggling’ law

By Marianna Bacallao

September 10, 2025

A Tennessee law that criminalizes housing immigrants without legal status could apply even if the person being housed has citizenship.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: 114th Tennessee General Assembly, Christian, Christianity, Housing, ICE, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tnleg, tnpol

State will not defend law that criminalizes public officials casting votes for sanctuary city policies

By Cynthia Abrams

September 8, 2025

Following a legal challenge from the ACLU, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti agrees a law penalizing elected officials is a constitutional violation.

Filed Under: Metro, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: 114th Tennessee General Assembly, ACLU, Attorney General, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Immigration, Jonathan Skrmetti, sanctuary cities, Stella Yarbrough, Tennessee Attorney General, William Lamberth

Tennessee ranks near the top for ICE arrests

By Marianna Bacallao

September 2, 2025

Federal immigration officials are making arrests from within Tennessee jails at a much higher rate than other states. A new report ranks Tennessee second only to Texas in the number of people ICE picks up from jail.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: deportations, Donald Trump, ICE, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tennessee Highway Patrol

The ACLU’s sanctuary city lawsuit is exploring a settlement. Here’s why the group challenged the law.

By Cynthia Abrams

August 25, 2025

Nashville Metro Council October 2023
Listen

The ACLU of Tennessee and the state are taking time to “explore the possibility of settlement” in the ACLU’s lawsuit against the Tennessee law that can charge public officials with a felony for voting in favor of sanctuary city policies.

Filed Under: Metro, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: ACLU, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration, sanctuary cities, sanctuary city, Stella Yarbrough, William Lamberth

Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from federal custody pending criminal trial

By Ximena Bustillo|Sergio Martínez-Beltrán

August 23, 2025

Senator Chris Van Hollen, right, sits with Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the Salvadorian citizen deported by the Trump administration — in El Salvador on Thursday

The case of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man originally from El Salvador, raised basic questions of due process in Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants after he was arrested and sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, violating a U.S. immigration judge’s 2019 order prohibiting his deportation to his home country.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: deportations, Donald Trump, El Salvador, Immigration, Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Meet the congressional candidates for Tennessee’s special election

By Marianna Bacallao

August 14, 2025

With the filing deadline come and gone, the candidates are set for the Oct. 7 special primary election.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: Aftyn Behn, Bo Mitchell, clarksville, Donald Trump, election, Freddie O'Connell, Gino Bulso, Immigration, jan. 6, Jody Barrett, Lee Reeves, Mark Green, Nashville, tnleg, tnpol, Vincent Dixie

A regional ICE detention center is coming to rural Tennessee

By Marianna Bacallao

August 13, 2025

A small town in rural Tennessee will soon be the site of a privately-run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

Filed Under: Criminal Justice, Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: civil rights, CoreCivic, Department of Justice, ICE, immigrants, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mason, prison, private prisons, Tennessee Department of Correction, West Tennessee

Nashville will see a rise in ICE agents under Trump’s budget plan

By Marianna Bacallao

July 18, 2025

During a Friday visit to Nashville, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that ICE will be sending more officers to the city.

Filed Under: Politics, WPLN News Tagged With: deportations, Donald Trump, El Salvador, Freddie O'Connell, human smuggling, ICE, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, raid, Tennessee Highway Patrol

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