Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials question a Kurdish American resident off Nolensville Pike on June 8.
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry on Tuesday sent a letter to federal immigration officials questioning recent contacts between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and members of the city’s Kurdish community.
“Over the past few days, we have heard disturbing reports of members of our community being stopped, questioned, and even harassed as part of an increased effort to enforce deportation orders for individuals who had previously been convicted of criminal activity,” Barry wrote in the letter to Joshua Jack, a New Orleans-based community relations officer for ICE.
Barry cites a video recorded by the Nashville Community Defense group, reportedly of a Kurdish-American citizen being questioned by ICE agents last week “for no apparent reason.” Of particular concern to the mayor: the ICE officials’ choice of dress.
As seen in the video, the agents’ vests are labeled “POLICE,” which, Barry says, causes community members to assume the officers are with the Metro Nashville Police Department.
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“Our Metro Nashville Police Department has gone to great lengths in building relationships with our New American community in order to promote public safety,” she writes. “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. We would ask that any ICE agents operating within Davidson County do so in a way that does not impede the job of local law enforcement to keep all Nashvillians safe.”
After Donald Trump’s November victory, Barry issued a statement reiterating her stance that MNPD officers “are not immigration police, they do not ask about immigration status during stops or conversations with the public, nor do they intend to start now.”
The Metro Council is currently considering legislation that would restrict local officials’ cooperation with federal immigration efforts.
An ICE spokesperson could not be reached for further comment Wednesday.
The ICE enforcement contacts began last Monday and have continued into this week according to Drost Kokoye, a board member of the American Muslim Advisory Council.
The enforcement sweep has affected attendance at prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, she says, “because people are worried to leave their house. They’re worried every time they see the police.”
Sean Braisted, a spokesman for the mayor, says the office has been in contact with Rep. Jim Cooper, the Office of New Americans and members of the Iraqi and Kurdish community.
“Mayor Barry remains committed to doing what she can to ensure that Nashville remains a warm and welcoming city for all,” Braisted adds.
Cooper was in Washington for scheduled votes this week, but will be meeting with members of Nashville’s Kurdish community early next week, according to a spokesperson.
The Tennessean reported one of the Kurdish residents detained by ICE was charged more than a decade ago with selling alcohol to a minor. An ICE spokesperson told the newspaper each of the community members detained for deportation had criminal convictions.
The ICE official also confirmed negotiations between the United States and the Iraqi government resulted in the latter agreeing “to accept a number of Iraqi nationals subject to orders of removal.” For more than a decade, Iraq has refused
Iraq was among the seven Muslim-majority nations included on President Donald Trump’s initial travel ban, though it was dropped in the later, revised travel ban, which remains tied up in court and is likely to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The bottom line here is that many of these people who have been picked up and have been hunted by [ICE] are looking at a death sentence if they’re returned,” says Andrew Free, a Nashville immigration attorney representing some of the detainees. “This is having a ripple effect throughout the Kurdish community.”
Free adds a number of the Nashville detainees are being held at ICE’s LaSalle Detention Facility in Louisiana, which is run by private prison company GEO Group.
The mayor concludes her letter with an appeal to the federal agency.
“I would implore you to work more closely with our immigrant and refugee community and local stakeholders to ensure that the broader community is not negatively impacted by what is purported to be targeted enforcement against those who have committed serious crimes in the United States,” Barry writes.
