The volatile ceasefire between the Democratic mayor of Nashville and the Republican leader in Tennessee just collapsed after the city’s ice dragnet.
Tensions began to build up in early May. The ice teamed with the state’s highway patrol in South Nashville’s immigrant neighborhood to launch a traffic stop, leading to the arrest of nearly 200 suspected undocumented immigrants.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell quickly accused the action of causing harm to the community. And then there was a GOP fire with Republicans accusing O’Connell of obstructing federal immigration enforcement.
Four weeks later, a simple public policy spat between some of Tennessee’s most powerful leaders became a major conflict, breaking the fragile peace between the city and the GOP’s supermajority, exposing Nashville to the rage of the Trump administration. Feuds showing no signs of immediate ending have real potential consequences of being targeted for immigration policies in Nashville and other blue cities in the Red State.
“It’s a shame he’s willing to support law violations rather than support us as a councillor,” Republican Rep. Rusty Grill said of the mayor.
O’Connell, who has worked with Republicans to ease long-term tensions since the 2023 election, is the latest target of GOP’s rage over the threat of President Donald Trump’s deportation, and the onslaught on the mayor represents an even further escalation in the administration’s attacks on local government officials. In New Jersey, Newark Mayor Las Baraka was arrested in May for trespassing outside an ice facility. The charges were later removed, but U.S. Rep. Ramonica McQuiver faces assault charges from the same conflict.
In Tennessee, a Republican in the state legislature told Politico that O’Connell is putting officers at risk by renewing a long-standing executive order that requires city officials to disclose their interaction with ICE with the mayor’s office within 24 hours. They latched it as evidence that the mayor was blocking law enforcement activities.
Speaking at a press conference following the attack, O’Connell said the city has no authority to enforce immigration laws and that crime rates in Nashville are falling. He claims the city did not interfere with the ice operation in early May.
But the anger of the GOP is spreading from Tennessee to Washington. O’Connell is facing a federal investigation by House Republicans released last week, and another investigation by Senator Marsha Blackburn from the Department of Justice.
US border emperor Tom Homan warned that Nashville could see a greater immigrant crackdown as a result of O’Connell’s opposition.
“We’re flooding our neighborhood zones to find the bad guys,” Homan told Fox News last week. “We’ll flood the zones at work and find the bad guys, but we’re going to do that.
Republicans also chased O’Connell as they highlighted a donation fund that supports individuals affected by the arrest, like children whose parents were detained. Republicans say the fund is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars, but it was created by a nonprofit organization that says it only uses private donations.
Tennessee Democrats and immigration advocates support Ice’s involvement due to the bad view of faith in the immigrant community, and say that criticism of O’Connell is purely GOP rhetoric. They also say the sweep shows how the Department of Homeland Security is taking in people who don’t pose any threat to the public. DHS said Half of people The arrests have criminal history, but only four of them have identified them, leading Democrats to request more information about those detained.
“For a politician who cares nothing but national news, this is a symbolic story,” said Democrat Sen. Jeff Yarbro. “But for us representing the community we saw Lawless Dragget Policing, our community and our neighbors have real consequences.”
Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigration & Refugee Rights Coalition, said the scale and scope of the attack was “unlike anything you’ve never seen before.”
Working with ICE on the Tennessee Highway Patrol highlights the role states play in implementing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, particularly as DHS struggles to achieve its deportation goals. GOP leaders have taken steps in recent months to help the president represent local law enforcement agencies, like Georgia, as immigration enforcers.
“They are building infrastructure we have never seen before to actually carry out the agenda of the president’s massive deportation, especially for nations outside the border,” Luna said of the ice manipulation in Nashville. “The devastation of families and communities will be deep and broad, because everyone is the target, so it’s really amazing to see the state government being used this way.”
Tennessee Republicans framed the conflict as a matter of law and order. They argue that ice attacks are the necessary force to crack down on crimes that culpable illegal immigration. Under the leadership of Gov. Bill Lee, Tennessee emerged as one of the most aggressive non-border states on immigration during the Second Trump era.
Lee was the first Republican governor to many Tennessee’s surprise, before Trump’s inauguration in January, when the National Guard was asked to help deport him. A few days after attending the governor’s meeting at Mar-A-Lago in January, Lee worked on immigration law as part of a special session on school vouchers. Lawmakers then passed a swept law that expanded the scope of local law enforcement immigration and made state officials a felony to make it a felony for establishing sanctuary cities.
Nashville is not a sanctuary city. But Democrats there see the law as a warning shot from Congress. Councils are clashing with city leaders on a variety of issues, from airport control to council representatives.
“We wanted to signal that Tennessee is ready to work together and that they welcomed ice into our community to drive out these violent people,” said Sen. Jack Johnson, a Republican. “So I’m very pleased with it and excited. I hope they do more.”
And many people want to see the ice come back. Sen. Brent Taylor asked Homan to send ice to Memphis, saying it was “immortalized by poor people in local leadership” to deal with the “vicious crime epidemic.”
Shelby County, where Memphis is located, was included in the list of sanctuary cities and counties published last week by DHS. Leaders of Shelby County, Memphis and Nashville (on the list) challenged the designation as a sanctuary city banned by the Tennessee Legislature.
State Sen. Jody Barrett described Nashville’s relationship with the GOP Congress as “forced marriage,” complicated by the fact that Nashville acts as the state’s economic engine. Nashville’s population has exploded in recent years, and the city’s tourism industry has met the state’s financial resources.
“And so, it’s a kind of love-hate relationship,” he said.
