Nashville Council members call for city actions after ICE operation: 'Frustration is palpable'

When a federal agent contacted Nashville's Department of Emergency Communications to request extra police patrols at Nashville's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility on Brick Church Park Drive ahead of last weekend, there wasn't a sufficient process in place to inform department leadership and other city offices of the impending ICE action.

This was despite an executive order issued by Mayor Freddie O'Connell in January 2024 that requires city departments to report communications with federal immigration authorities to the mayor's office.

Nashville's Director of Emergency Communications, Stephen Martini, acknowledged as much May 7 during a special meeting of the Metro Nashville Council's public health and safety committee.

"We don't have that (protocol), and that's one of the improvements that we need to make," Martini said.

The meeting was a response to an ongoing ICE operation in Nashville that, as of May 7, has resulted in more than 350 traffic stops in collaboration with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Community members first became aware of the ICE operation on May 4, after ICE and THP conducted approximately 150 of those stops during the early hours of the morning in the Antioch area.

At the May 7 meeting, some council members said that awareness should have come sooner.

"Something as serious as ICE and federal agencies and homeland security, especially under this (federal) administration, there's no reason that can slip through the cracks," At-Large Council Member Delishia Porterfield said.

Here's what to know about the special meeting, including the actions council members are calling for in the wake of the ICE arrests.

Who was at the meeting?

The meeting's key participants included members of the public health and safety committee, chaired by District 12 Council Member Erin Evans. The committee includes 13 members, though not all were present.

For the bulk of the meeting, that group directed questions to city staff in search of answers as to the extent of Nashville's involvement in the ICE operation. Most of those questions were fielded by Metro Director of Law Wally Dietz, MNPD Deputy Chief Chris Gilder — who's also the MNPD's liaison to the council — and Martini.

Mayor Freddie O'Connell and MNPD Chief John Drake weren't present at the meeting, though O'Connell addressed the ICE activity in a news conference on May 5. Some council members were especially frustrated that Drake didn't attend.

"I'm very disappointed that the chief of police isn't here," District 7 Council Member Emily Benedict said. "It's terrible leadership ... and it's a real-time illustration of the frustration for the lack of accountability that we need from one of the most important departments in the city."

Dozens of Nashvillians were there, too, and at many points during the meeting were vocal in their outrage over the situation.

Those frustrations boiled over on more than one occasion. At one point, At-Large Council Member Zulfat Suara had to plead with community members to let city employees answer questions, as shouts interrupted them as they spoke.

Earlier in the meeting, a member of the gallery was asked to leave for shouting over Gilder. And Dietz was met with jeers and laughs when asserting that the Metro Nashville Police Department had no involvement in the arrests.

Council committee meetings usually include a very limited period for comments from the public, but this time the window was extended to make time for more than a half hour of comments. Representatives with groups like ReMIX TN, an immigrant advocacy group, and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition voiced alarm at what advocates have witnessed as the arrests have continued.

ICE has provided sparse details about who exactly has been detained, including that some individuals had purported gang ties or prior convictions. But the agency has yet to release names of the people arrested in Nashville.

"If the Department of Homeland Security is trying to fight terrorism by (doing) this, they should stop terrorizing our communities," one commenter, Hannah Fletcher-Page, said. "This is unconstitutional, this is unconscionable, this is a violation of justice and human decency, and it's un-American."

What are city officials saying?

Dietz said the overnight operation caught the city "by surprise." Since it began, Dietz has been working to uncover the names and charges of the people arrested as part of the operation. He told council members he hasn't had any luck so far, which he called "extremely alarming," but said that he "would not rest" until he found out.

"These concerns are there — I will continue to raise them with ICE until I get some answers from them," Dietz said.

Martini, for his part, said Emergency Communications was already working to address the reporting issue that led to the mayor's office going unnotified about the call to dispatch.

And Gilder, with the MNPD, answered a number of technical questions from council members, including about the department's El Protector outreach program and the extent to which Nashville police might coordinate with federal operations like this one.

Council members voiced plenty of frustration about the situation, too. Suara said she felt "shocked" and "betrayed," and District 25 Council Member Jeff Preptit said "the frustration is palpable and shared by all of us."

"We have exposed a major gap in our institutional integrity," Preptit said.

What happens next?

Council members called for a number of actions at the meeting, including redirecting funding in O'Connell's recent budget proposal from the MNPD toward a legal aid fund and ensuring that all city departments were in compliance with the mayor's executive order.

The loudest call, though, was from District 17 Council Member Terry Vo, who asked city officials to commit to creating a community safety plan within the next 30 days.

"Why does it have to take 150 families being torn apart for us to make immigrants and people of color a priority in this city?" Vo said. "I think that is what has been so frustrating — seeing that it needs to happen for it to matter."

Evans, the committee chair, said the group would hear a progress report on their requests at its June 30 meeting.

Advocates, neighbors and elected officials rally for immigrants in southeast Nashville

As the special meeting drew to a close at the Nashville Courthouse, more than a hundred people were turning out for a candlelight rally in the parking lot of Glencliff High School in southeast Nashville to support the immigrant community.

Neighborhood residents, community activists and state and local representatives blasted authorities for what they said was a shameful operation that has terrorized the community.

"What occurred Saturday night into Sunday morning was racial and ethnic profiling and targeting on Black and Brown people," said Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville. "And we can't stand for that."

Speakers offered tips for the community on knowing their rights during police stops and places for mental health support.

Ashley Warbington, a volunteer with the community group ReMIX Tennessee, said she was one of the people out in the early hours Sunday morning watching THP pulling over people while being tailed by unmarked ICE vehicles.

"It is no coincidence that these actions happen late at night under the cover of darkness," she said. "It's no coincidence that they happened in the neighborhoods they happened in."

Investigative reporter Kelly Puente contributed to this report.

Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@tennessean.com .

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Council members call for city actions after ICE operation