Nashville Mayor Tells ICE To Cool It

NASHVILLE, TN — In a letter to the federal immigration enforcement agency, Metro Nashville Mayor Megan Barry accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of posing as police when making stops in Nashville's large Kurdish community, undermining MNPD's efforts and those of the Metro government at building relationships.

Nerves are on edge in the Kurdish community — Nashville has the largest Kurdish population not just in the United States, but of anywhere in the world outside of Kurdistan itself — as ICE agents have been reportedly stopping and questioning Kurdish people in Davidson County, often for reasons that are unclear. (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

"First and foremost, our Metro Nashville Police Department has gone to great lengths in building relationships with our New American community in order to promote public safety. This effort can be undermined when ICE agents act aggressively toward our citizens without properly identifying themselves as agents of the federal government rather than local law enforcement," the mayor wrote to ICE Community Relations Officer Joshua Jack.

Barry said she watched a video in which a Kurdish-American citizen was stopped and questioned by ICE agents wearing vests bearing the word "POLICE." Federal agents — not just with ICE — often wear vests blazoned with the word. New York Democratic U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez filed a bill in April to ban immigration officials from wearing such gear.

Twelve Iraqi nationals and 11 Iraqi Kurds are being detained in Nashville, according to ICE. An attorney for some of the Kurds told The Tennessean many of them are being held for violating an order of supervision, which requires them to check in with federal immigration officials but has no other prohibition on work or residency.

They mayor asked ICE to release the names of those being held because of concerns that people who have not been accused or convicted of a crime are among those detained.

The sweep is part of a deal the United States struck with the Iraqi government, which removed Iraq from President Donald Trump's travel ban. In exchange, Iraq agreed to accept deported Iraqis.

Image via Nashville Community Defense