Nashville, Tennessee — A joint effort between federal immigration officials and the Tennessee Highway Patrol has led to the arrest of more than 100 people. This has left many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried.
Lisa Sherman Luna, head of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Friday, “None of us have ever seen anything like this.”
The effort with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows how important it is for President Trump’s plans to deport a lot of people to work with local and state police. Last week, Florida officials talked about an operation they did with ICE that led to the arrest of 1,120 immigrants.
The Highway Patrol said on Friday that it and ICE made 588 stops as part of the joint operation. 103 people who were being investigated for immigration crimes were taken into custody.
The stops “led to the recovery of illegal drugs and firearms,” the Highway Patrol said. “This took dangerous people off the streets and made Tennessee safer.” Someone was wanted in El Salvador for a murder.
Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee recently signed a law that splits immigration enforcement between the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the state’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security. He is one of many Republican politicians who have promised to use state funds to carry out Trump’s plans.
At the same time, city officials in Nashville, which is a stronghold for Democrats, have denied any participation and criticised the arrests. Police chief Wally Dietz in Nashville said that the joint state-federal operation that started on May 3 caught everyone in city government off guard.
Concerns were raised about the number of police officers outside of an ICE office in Nashville. On Wednesday, Dietz said that the city “routinely receives requests for extra patrols for a variety of reasons and responds to the extent resources are available.” He said he didn’t know who was being held and that the Highway Patrol told him to file a public records request when he asked for more information.
The Highway Patrol said that stops are only made based on how the car acts. It said, “We don’t go into neighbourhoods or pull over cars based on who they are; we stop based on what they do behind the wheel.”
But people who support immigrant rights say that the patrols have mostly been in areas of the city where people of colour live in large numbers.
Sherman Luna said, “All signs point to this being racial profiling meant to scare the heart of the immigrant and refugee community.” “We’ve heard that THP is pulling people over for things like scratched windows or broken taillights.”
Sherman Luna thinks that some of the people who are being held would be able to stay in the country if they could get good legal help at an immigration hearing. She’s heard that people are willing to be sent back because they’re afraid they’ll have to stay in immigration prison for months or years.
The Migration Policy Institute looked at census data and found that about 9% of the 2 million people who live in the Nashville urban area are immigrants. Many of them are from Mexico and Honduras. A lot of Kurds live in the city, along with people who have fled from Sudan, Myanmar, and other places.
Sherman Luna said, “It’s a plan to make our beautiful, diverse, and lively neighbourhoods scared.”